It seems like every time a new story breaks exposing the adultification of Black children at the hands of callous police officers, the age of the victim in these cases gets younger and younger.
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From an 11-year-old Black girl handcuffed while falsely suspected of stealing a car, to a 10-year-old Black boy jailed for public urination, to a visibly distraught nine-year-old Black girl pepper-sprayed in the face by a cop for not being calm, to a six-year-old Black girl made to get face-down on the ground with her teenaged family members who were falsely accused of driving a stolen vehicle — these cops just don’t seem to care what they put Black children through.
A Black mother is speaking out after viral police body-cam footage showed her and her 3-year-old daughter lying face-down on the ground with their hands behind their backs while a Winter Haven, Florida, police officer appeared to point his firearm at them.
Three. Years. Old.
“Everybody seen clear as day they had their guns pointed directly at me and her,” the mother, 27-year-old Mariah Banks, told Bay News 9 of the traumatic event the led to her daughter Symphony being traumatized. “That made her fearful for her life that she had no other choice but to get on that ground and lay down and put her hands on her back.”
According to News 9, the event, which happened last Tuesday, unfolded after police responded to a call about an incident at a store called Santiago’s that allegedly involved Banks’s boyfriend, 29-year-old Godfrey Hercules.
According to Winter Haven Police Chief Vance Monroe, who’s backing his officers’ actions, the child “mimicked” the mom and was not ordered to lay down with her hands behind her back.
“I truly wish that this child wasn’t exposed to this,” he said. “I’m a father, I’m a grandfather, just like the officers that responded. In hindsight, I wish there was something we could change how this young lady engaged with us or how we engaged with her.”
Monroe added that the four officers acted within the department’s policies.
He said they responded to a disturbance involving a firearm, which led to a be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) for Hercules’ red Nissan Altima. After officers located the vehicle, body cam video shows them apprehending Hercules on the side of the building and taking him into custody. Monroe said officers then ordered Banks to get on the ground once she approached the scene with a cellphone.
“You have to remember, we have a BOLO out for an armed disturbance, a person with a firearm. We don’t know who has the firearm,” he said. “We don’t know who has it and we don’t know where the firearm is. We just have to secure the people that’s there.”
Monroe stressed the officers’ orders were only for Banks, but her daughter mimicked her actions.
“At no point did an officer aim a weapon at the child,” Monroe said. “Body cam footage confirms that once officers realized a child was present, the firearm was immediately lowered.”
So, we’re to believe that with four police officers on the scene and a suspect already in custody, none of the officers had a free hand to grab the toddler and move her out of harm’s way while cops put the girl’s mother on the ground at gunpoint — which was arguably unnecessary in and of itself. It also seems we’re to disbelieve our own eyes, which can clearly see an officer’s gun pointed in the general direction of the mother and child.
“Y’all could have moved her from out of proximity and had y’all guns pointed at me,” Banks said. “Anything but my baby. She’s a child. Three years old. She doesn’t deserve something like this.”
“They’re supposed to serve and protect,” she went on to say. “My baby never felt that. She didn’t feel protected, she didn’t feel served. She felt hurt.”
As it turned out, the officers did find a Diamondback 9mm semiautomatic pistol in the couple’s vehicle, and the State Attorney’s Office filed complaint affidavits against Hercules for affray and improper display of a weapon. However, both Hercule and Banks were released at the scene after being detained.
Chief Monroe told reporters that, moving forward, officers will be better trained to respond to situations like these involving small children. Of course, that still leaves us with the question: Which one is it — did the cops do their jobs the way they’re supposed to, as Monroe suggested, or did they need better training?
The post Florida Mom Condemns Cops For Arresting Her As 3-Year-Old Laid Face Down With Hands Behind Back In ‘Fear For Her Life’ appeared first on Bossip.
