5-year-old cuffed, charged with battery on cop

Sunday, December 04, 2011 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: children, cops, police state

(NaturalNews) There is no question that police officers in the United States have one of the toughest, most dangerous jobs around. But it's hard to imagine an instance - any instance - where a cop feels so threatened by a child barely past the toddler age that he or she needs to forcibly restrain them.

Five-year-old Michael Davis, who attended the Rio Calaveras Elementary of Stockton, has a behavioral problem. According to his mother, Thelma Gray, he has been medically diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. His behavior is inappropriate at times, and he is a handful.

School officials, in an attempt to change Michael's behavior, wanted him to meet with the school's police officer, in an attempt, a local media report said, to scare him straight.

Only, when Michael and the cop, a Stockton, Calif., police lieutenant, met at a room in the school, the meeting didn't go well. Michael, the cop said in his report, "he pushed my hand away in a batting motion, pushed papers off the table, and kicked me in the right knee."

When the boy wouldn't calm down, the officer - a police lieutenant - zip-tied his hands and feet and hauled him off to a nearby psychiatric hospital in the back of a squad car, all without calling Michael's mom or dad. It gets worse. Michael was officially charged with battery of a police officer. The kid is five years old.

The juvenile court judge at least possessed some sanity in dismissing the case, but what lesson has this conveyed to a young, impressionable, mentally needy child - that it's easier for society to punish him for his problems than help him cope with them and become a productive member of society.

With this kind of mentality, it's no wonder the U.S. has the largest per capita population of prison inmates in the civilized, industrialized world.