A nine-year-old black girl was handcuffed and partially sitting in the backseat of a police car. She was heartbroken and asked for her father’s presence, as several white police officers grew increasingly impatient and struggled to get her fully into the vehicle.
“This is your last chance,” warned one. “Otherwise we will spray tear gas on your eyeball.”
Less than 90 seconds later, the girl was sprayed and screamed, “Please clean my eyes! Clean my eyes, please!”
What started as a report on a ‘family problem’ in Rochester, New York, ended with the police treating a fourth-grade girl as a suspect. The case that sparked outrage was the most recent example of assault by law enforcement officers against blacks.
While the United States is experiencing a new retelling of police brutality and racial injustice after the death of African-American George Floyd last May, the way the minor was treated makes it clear that even children are not exempt.
Studies show that black children are often treated as older than they really are, and are more likely to be seen as threatening or dangerous.
Activists have long argued that because of this, the police are treating them in a way they wouldn’t dare use on white minors. In some cases, this treatment has been fatal, such as in the death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy who was shot by a white police officer in Cleveland in 2014.
“Black minors have never had the opportunity to be children,” said Kristin Henning, professor of law and director of the Juvenile Justice Initiative and Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center.
A study published in the journal Pediatrics in late 2020 revealed that black children and adolescents are six times more likely to be shot by the police than white minors. The study analyzed data on police use in incidents that occurred from 2003 to 2018 involving people between the ages of 12 and 17.
“Black children were really seen as older, more guilty, less willing to rehabilitate, and less deserving of Western views of innocence and Western views of childhood,” Henning emphasized.