14-year-old carrying puppy choked by police for the audacity of looking at them wrong
by David Atkins
Racism is dead in America, and if you’re not doing anything wrong you have nothing to fear. Right?
Fourteen-year-old Tremaine McMillian didn’t threaten police. He didn’t attack them. He wasn’t armed. All the black teenager did was appear threatening by shooting Miami-Dade police officers a few “dehumanizing stares,” and that was apparently enough for the officers to decide to slam him against the ground and put him in a chokehold.
During Memorial Day weekend, McMillian was rough-housing with another teenager on the sand. Police approached the teen on an ATV and told him that wasn’t acceptable behavior. They asked him where his parents were, but MicMillian attempted to walk away. The officer jumped off the ATV, and tried to physically restrain the teen. According to CBS Miami, police say the 14-year-old kid gave them “‘dehumanizing stares,’ clenched his fists and appeared threatening.”
McMillian says he was carrying a six-week old puppy at the time and couldn’t have been clenching his fists because he was feeding the dog with a bottle. He claims that during the confrontation the dog’s front left paw was injured while officer forcibly separated him from the dog.
The officer then forced McMillian to the ground and put him in a choke hold.
There needs to be better psychological profiling of police officers in this country. While most officers are dedicated public servants who often put themselves in harm’s way, it’s all too obvious that many of these guys are joining up for entirely the wrong reasons and don’t belong within a thousand feet of a badge.
We can do better than this as Americans.
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