Video shows police detaining 8-year-old boy over a bag of chips
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Anyone who picks up a cell phone or other recording device and proceeds to capture just how police are using their authority against citizens deserves to be applauded in my book. The same is true for Kenneth Jackson, who KKTV identified as the man who captured Syracuse police officers apprehending an 8-year-old boy on Sunday over the alleged theft of a bag of chips, and then advocated for the child.
The boy sobbed as an officer grabbed him and escorted him to a police vehicle. “He look like a baby to me,” Jackson can be heard telling an officer while asking what he was doing. The officer claimed the child was stealing stuff and proceeded to ask Jackson a hypothetical question about if the child was stealing from his home.
“Nah man, what he steal? A bag of chips? So y’all treat him like a whole cold-blooded f–king killer,” Jackson asked.
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The officer told Jackson to keep walking, and that he didn’t know what he was talking about. “I know what I just came up and seen,” Jackson said.
When the officer asked him what he saw, he responded:
“I seen y’all snatching him off the bike like he a f–king grown-a– man, and he saying it wasn’t him.”
Warning: This video contains profanity and disturbing footage of a child being detained, which may be triggering for viewers.
Jackson was repeating the words another child on the scene screamed at officers. He went on to offer to pay for the chips the boy was accused of stealing. “Leave him alone. He a kid,” Jackson said.
His video exploded on social media and led the police department to conduct an internal review, KKTV reported. The footage had been viewed more than 5.3 million times on Twitter alone by Wednesday afternoon. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump tweeted about “how traumatizing” the detainment must have been.
“Syracuse (NY) police officers detained an 8-YEAR-OLD for allegedly stealing a bag of Doritos,” Crump said in the tweet. “Rather than talking to him or handling this incident in a different way, officers chose to escalate this incident and detain an obviously terrified young boy!”
The Syracuse Police Department said in a statement released on Twitter Tuesday that it is aware of the video and is reviewing footage from officers’ body cameras. “There is some misinformation involving this case,” the department said. “The juvenile suspected of larceny was not placed in handcuffs. He was placed in the rear of a patrol unit where he was directly brought home. Officers met with the child’s father and no charges were filed.”
Anthony Weah, the boy’s father, told The Post-Standard he was running errands when police called him to report officers were at his home with his three sons, who were accused of stealing chips. Weah said when he returned home, the officers were friendly, didn’t press charges, and returned his son—even the one featured in the viral video—without a mark on him. Weah still said after seeing a video of the encounter that he wants to file a complaint.
“The policeman, they are not children,” he told The Post-Standard. “They are not boys; they’re men.”