The Grand Rapids Police Department in Michigan is now investigating an incident involving police officers who held 11-year-old Honestie Hodges at gunpoint and handcuffed her before placing her in the back of a police car while they searched for an attempted murder suspect on Dec. 6.

Grand Rapids Police Chief David Rahinsky released bodycam footage of the incident on Tuesday, Dec. 12 where he declared that it was "inappropriate" for some of his officers to hold Honestie at gunpoint and put her in handcuffs.

“The screams of the 11-year-old, they go to your heart,” Rahinsky said at the press conference. “You hear the mother yelling from the steps, ‘That’s my child!’ That’s our community’s child. That’s someone who lives in Grand Rapids. That’s someone who should feel safe running to an officer.”

While the video is dark and difficult to see, WOOD-TV reports that the video shows police officers walking Honestie backward with her hands in the air and then handcuffing her. The video shows the officers patting her down and placing her in a police cruiser. While the video is hard to see, the fear in Honestie's screams come through loud and clear.

"It made me feel scared, and it made me feel like I did something wrong," Honestie told WOOD-TV.

At the time of the incident, police officers were actually in search of Honestie's 40-year-old aunt Carrie Manning – a white woman who allegedly stabbed her younger sister in her own home only a few blocks away from Honestie's house.

During the news conference, Rahinsky said while watching the video, he could see the disconnect in how the child was treated and declared that the department will have conversations about the situation that would also include people in the community.

“The juvenile is treated the same way you would have treated any adult,” he said. “And when you’re dealing with an 11-year-old, it’s inappropriate. So, as an agency, we’re going to have some tough conversations that include the community. It goes to the heart of what we’re trying to accomplish with (consulting firm) 21st Century Policing.”

Honestie's family, along with Cle Jackson, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, met with Rahinsky on Tuesday. After the meeting, Jackson told 24 Hour News 8 that the family would withhold judgement on the department's response to the video until after the internal investigation is complete.

At a city commission meeting Tuesday night, residents were outraged by the incident and the bodycam footage that had been released earlier that day. WOOD-TV reports that people expressed their distrust in GRPD and questioned whether trust could be restored between the police and the community.

Honestie's grandmother, Alisa Niemeyer, provided public comment during the meeting stating that it will be difficult to repair Honestie's faith in police after what happened to her.

“I’m speaking this evening because we must repair relationships between our community and the Grand Rapids Police Department, she said. “Unfortunately, my granddaughter has lost her innocence because of this incident and that is unacceptable.”

Resident LaDonna Norman asked a question during the meeting that we always ask when news breaks about police brutality and the relationship between law enforcement and the black community.

“Why are black children not black children? Why are they just others? ‘Cause they’re getting treated like animals."

At a round table discussion before the city commission meeting, several community pastors said they were disgusted by the incident and agreed that the relationship with police and the community starts with training.

Rahinsky said during the press conference that the department will be looking at everything including the hiring process.

“We need to look at everything, from our hiring to our training to our supervision. What we’re going to look at is when is it appropriate for discretion to override practice and protocol in dealing with an 11-year-old," Rahinsky said. "If an officer can point to policy, or can point to training, or point to hiring and say, ‘This is what I was told, this is how I was taught, this is consistent with practice,’ then we’ve got a problem. And what I just said is accurate. We do have a problem.”

Honestie Hodges

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