The Sacramento Police Department is under fire for placing a plastic bag over a 12-year-old boy’s head while they were arresting him.
Black Lives Matter Sacramento posted footage of the arrest on their Facebook page. The boy was allegedly arrested after he attended a festival and was chased down by security, according to Rolling Out.
The unidentified minor is heard yelling at the officers but he didn’t physically struggle. The bag on his head is called a spit sock and it is typically used when offenders spit on or towards the police. It is unclear whether the boy did the aforementioned. The boy, who reportedly suffers from respiratory issues, told the officers he couldn’t breathe. The kid is about 4’10” and 110 pounds.
Several witnesses are heard yelling and demanding to know why the preteen was receiving this treatment. The boy’s family have retained the services of Mark T. Harris, an attorney who works for civil rights lawyer Ben Crump’s firm.
Harris expressed his outrage in an opinion piece for the CBM Newswire.
“Shocking. Shameful. Unconscionable. Intolerable,” he wrote. “These are just a few of the terms used in reaction to word that a 12-year-old child was recently restrained by Sacramento police officers who then placed a white plastic bag over his head and shoulders.”
He also accused Sacremento Chief of Police Daniel Hahn, who is Black, of turning his back on his community.
“Our police chief is ‘blue’ and not Black,” Harris wrote. “In addition, it appears to many of us that when you have as many incidents of questionable police conduct directed towards one singular demographic group, within an entire community, the “cat needs to be let out of the bag.” The Sacramento police department appears to be representative of a “bad orchard” as opposed to a few ‘bad apples.’”
It is unknown if any charges were filed against the boy.