Eleven Year Old: "...I don't want to be shot today"

[kpete]

Police in Henry County, Ga., reportedly harassed a group of pre-teen boys who were building a tree fort in the woods behind their house after a neighbor called 911 on them (!). According to Omari Grant, the 11-year-old who came forward, two officers, one with his gun drawn, rolled up on him and a few of his friends as they built a fort in the trees behind his home.

"I was thinking that I don't want to be shot today, so I just listened to what they said," Omari said.

Omari said the officer holding his gun also used foul language and made him and his friends lay down on the ground.

...................

The husband of the neighbor who called 911 said police pulling a gun on a child was "shocking," but that his wife called because of "falling hazards, tripping hazards, all types of hazards." His wife's primary concern, he said, "was concern for the children and concern for the environment." So instead of calling her neighbors, or going to warn the children about "hazards," she called police on a group of kids.

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MORE:
http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/04/georgia-cop-reportedly-pulls-gun-on-chil
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/05/1289809/-Eleven-Year-Old-I-don-t-want-to-be-shot-today

[loudsue]

1. Georgia. That about says it all.

[jwirr]

2. Times certainly have changed. Today children build a tree house and neighbors call the cops. in 1972

our neighborhood children built a tree house using "junk" they found laying around (an old hose to use to climb into the house) and the local college art professor came out to make drawings of their creativity.

[malthaussen]

3. We used to have the cops come to our street regularly...

... we were a really rowdy bunch. But if a cop had drawn his weapon on a child then (early '60s), I think the entire adult population of the street would have either lynched the cop, or stormed the police station. This is a travesty.

-- Mal

[etherealtruth]

8. Sadly police shooting (or threatening to shoot) children of color is not a new phenomenon

This story is not the same .... but, in a very sad sense it is

Forty years ago, thousands of Mexican-Americans in Dallas, Texas came together for a protest at city hall. Four days earlier, a white police officer had shot and killed 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez. The death of Rodriguez sparked a riot. Eventually, it later spurred change that led to political representation and more Mexican-Americans on the police force.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/07/24/205121429/How-The-Death-Of-A-12-Year-Old-Changed-The-City-Of-Dallas

[WinkyDink]

4. The drawn gun is now the SUPER-SOFT approach. a squad in riot gear is considered REAL policing.

[uponit7771]

5. Another thing that blacks can't do.... be children

[HDCowboy]

6. Where they tresspassing on others property or what?

Not that it makes up for the cop pulling a gun on the kid, but I think something is missing in this story. Were they trespassing on someone elses property or something, building it in someone elses backyard or something? Cant see why anyone would call the law on kid building a tree house, the story doesn't make any sense! I think there leaving out a lot of facts!

[etherealtruth]

7. The criminalization of kids being kids

.... actually, the criminalization of BLACK kids being kids .... that's not entirely correct either ... the criminalization of non-white kids being kids.

The husband of the neighbor who called 911 said police pulling a gun on a child was "shocking," but that his wife called because of "falling hazards, tripping hazards, all types of hazards." His wife's primary concern, he said, "was concern for the children and concern for the environment." So instead of calling her neighbors, or going to warn the children about "hazards," she called police on a group of kids.

I "kinda" depart from Kpete here ... I do find it entirely plausible that the neighbor was honestly fearful for the safety of the kids and never dreamed that the police would do anything but roust the children. it was (once again) the police that crossed all lines ... dear God ... these are children playing who the eff would pull a gun a children like this ...?