American woman Latoya Harris’ daughter became involved in a fight with another girl of the same age at an after school club after she was accused of ‘telling on’ her friend for drawing on a desk.
Latoya’s daughter punched and kicked the other girl, but later apologized and was suspended from the club for a week.
Later on that day, however, police arrived at the girl’s family home six weeks later where they detained her on charges of fourth degree assault.
Latoya said: When they put handcuffs on, I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this has got to be a joke.’ The look on my daughter’s face went from humiliation and fear, to a look of sheer panic.’
The girl was taken to a police station- without her mother- where her fingerprints were taken.
The child’s mother claims that her daughter has been left traumatised by the incident, telling a local newspaper: ‘I didn’t get the same girl back.’
‘In my opinion, they were trying to scare and humiliate her. All they had to do was give her a talking to. We’re talking about two grown men in uniform with guns.’
The incident has prompted calls to review the treatment of children taken in police custody.
Chief supervising attorney for the Metropolitan Public Defender’s juvenile unit, Joseph Hagedon spoke out against the treatment of the young girl, saying: ‘It was way over the top for them to do that.’