By Benjamin Whitmer
Thanks to West Denver Copwatch.]
Just when you think our local police couldn’t get any more stupid or brutal, they do something so insane you start to wonder if they’re padding the precincts’ walls these days. This time it’s the Lakewood police — Lakewood, for those not from around here, is a suburb immediately adjacent to West Denver — and they . . . get ready for it . . . pepper sprayed an eight-year-old.
From 9News:
When most kids throw a temper tantrum, they get time out. In 8-year-old Aidan’s case, he got pepper sprayed.
A Lakewood Police report details the second grader’s violent temper tantrum in a classroom at Glennon Heights Elementary on Feb. 22.
According to the report, Aidan “was climbing the cart and spitting at teachers. He also broke wood trim off the walls and was trying to stab teachers with it.”
“I wanted to make something sharp if they came out because I was so mad at them,” Aidan said. “I was going to try to whack them with it.”
The report goes on to say Aidan, “was holding what looked like a sharpened one foot stick and he screamed, ‘Get away from me you f—ers.’”
Lakewood Police officers ordered the 8-year-old to “drop the stick.” When he refused, they sprayed him with pepper spray twice until he dropped the piece of wood and was handcuffed.
Note that the article makes reference to “officers.” Meaning, plural. More than one. And they couldn’t find any other way to subdue a child having a tantrum than with pepper spray.
I can almost hear what must have been going through their heads. “Jesus Christ, that kid’s huge! He’s gotta weigh 80 pounds! He could pass for nine! I better take him down before he gives me a splinter with that stick.”
Of course, there’s this from the Lakewood Police Spokesperson:
“You’ve got teachers barricading themselves in a room. They are obviously frightened,” Davis said. “I think they not only made the right choice, they made a great choice that day to use the pepper spray.”
There’s nothing you can do with logic like that. Except call ‘em for what they are: dumb thugs and cowards.
And, perhaps, be thankful that they incident didn’t happen in Denver. Where the police might’ve just shot him.
(Cross-posted at www.benjaminwhitmer.com)
Benjamin Whitmer is the author of Pike.
