millions of people have now seen this video of a
Syracuse police officer leading a crying eight year old
to a squad car. The incident now under review, the
officer, white young boy, black police were called to
the store because of reports that young people were
stealing their, the child was not arrested today. New
york Governor Kathy hotel called the video, quote heart
wrenching Ochoa also said the video, which has now gone
viral, is difficult to watch. Newsy justice
correspondent Jamal Andress liv tonight in Dallas and
tomorrow. A lot of points of view about what exactly we
see on this tape. So walk us through the incident
itself and the, and the main concerns Absolutely. W
you know, I think the concerns are pretty clear here.
As you mentioned, many people believe this video is
difficult to watch. They have said that uh, the
officers were heavy handed here considering the age of
the kid involved eight years old and the alleged
offense, you know, stealing a $3 bag of chips. But what
I was most concerned with. And part of the reason why I
think that struck such a chord across the country are
the chronic issues sort of hovering around this
incident. First, studies show interactions with police
can cause psychological distress within youth in
particular, anger, anxiety, dep as well as less
engagement in school as soon as the next day. Not only
that, but you know, there are racial disparities wi
the punishment and who gets punished when we start
talking about youth engagement with law enforcement
studies show police and the general public tend to view
black kids as older than they are by as much as six
years in some cases. So seeing that eight year old and
seeing a teenager also studies show black and latino
kids are arrested at a higher rate than their white
peers. You know, I spoke to Kristin Henning who is from
Georgetown Law school and, and has has made a career
out of defending juveniles and actually wrote a book
about the quote unquote criminalization of black youth.
Listen to what she had to say. The research shows that
black and brown Children who live in heavily surveilled
neighborhoods and who have frequent stops and frisks by
the police report high rates of fear, anxiety,
depression, hopelessness, They become hypervigilant. Um,
and they began to distrust police officers. They
to question the legitimacy of policing as an
institution. So the reality is we're doing more harm
than good. Now, all of that said, some officers are
pushing back here, the Syracuse pd, Deputy chief calle
this incident, quote unquote community policing. 101 he
said that because the officers, uh, never handcuff th
kid knew the kid from prior interactions took this ki
home and spoke to the kid's parents saying that this
all that you want from an officer who patrols the
community and gets to know that community to that end,
You know, I spoke with a former officer whose job is
specifically the train law enforcement on how to
interact with youth and do it better. And he mostly
agreed, Listen, all in all of this appeared to be a
fairly, a fairly appropriate response. Would it have
been um nice if there had been a number, you could call
to contact a youth counselor who could come and stop
the young men and talk to them about what they were
doing. Sure, But that doesn't exist. Doesn't exist
anyway. So we find the police across the country are
being asked to deal with situations that are minor
offenses, even non criminal offenses. Now he's eluding
there to an issue that we have heard uh often even in
other situations with the mentally ill with those that
are dealing with addiction. This idea that officers are
flat out being asked to do too much with too little
training. Right, Newsy's Jamal Andress reporting
tonight from Dallas Jamal. Thank you.