SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Police Department is responding after a video on social media showing officers putting a crying child into a police cruiser has drawn criticism.
Video posted to Facebook April 17 shows the screaming child being put into the back of a Syracuse Police Department SUV. The video had more than five million views by Wednesday afternoon. In the video, officers tell the man filming that the child had been stealing chips from a store. The man filming yells at the officers, questioning their behavior.
The man who recorded the video, Kenneth Jackson, told WSTM that he intervened because he saw how scared the child was. “There’s a way that the police need to interact with kids and what they did that day was completely unacceptable,” Jackson told the station.
The video immediately began attracting attention. Etan Thomas, a former NBA player who played at Syracuse University from 1996-2000, shared the video on Twitter with a comment saying, “This is what President Biden wanted when he said fund them fund them? … Syracuse police handcuff & manhandle a little kid who couldn’t be more than 10yrs old over a bag of chips?”
The Syracuse Police Department issued a statement on Twitter, saying that they were aware of the video being shared and that the department was reviewing the incident. The department also said that the child was never placed in handcuffs, but “he was placed in the rear of a patrol unit where he was directly brought home.”
Information Release pic.twitter.com/mmv81KFTuv
— Syracuse Police Department (@SyracusePolice) April 19, 2022
Anthony Weah, the father of the 8-year-old boy in the video, told The Post-Standard that while his son’s behavior was wrong, he felt the officers handled the incident poorly. “The policemen, they are not children,” Weah told the newspaper. They are not boys, they’re men.” Weah told The Post-Standard that he was grateful Jackson recorded the video and stood up for his son.
The boy was not charged with a crime, and police told WSTM that no other force was used on the child beyond placing him into the patrol car.
In a statement to WSYR, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said he reached out to the police department after seeing the video. “The officer knew the child from prior interactions and explained to him that he was being taken home. The officers returned the child to his family and discussed the incident with his father before leaving without filing any charges. What occurred demonstrates the continuing need for the City to provide support to our children and families and to invest in alternative response options to assist our officers.”
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