Police relationships with the youth has not been as well researched and documented compared to adults. This is despite the fact that more youths than adults have an unfavorable attitude towards the police. Given adolescents with an unfavorable attitude are less likely to cooperate with the police, have worse academic performance and are more likely to commit crimes, it is important to improve the youths’ relationship with the police (Leroux, 2012).
Police Inhuman inhumane treatment of a 14-year old autistic boy
On November 2016, the following story appeared on the CBC News website titled “Mother of boy with autism says Cornwall police treated him inhumanely during arrest”. In the story, the mother says that her son, who suffers from Autism, was mishandled by the police when they responded to a call from the school (Fagan, 2016). The 14-year old boy had chocked a school official and went after another official with a stapler as well as threatened to blow up the school.
When the police arrived, the police would not let the mother intervene and help in calming her son down. His arrested ended with three officers dragging him to a police car while he cried out. This was recorded by the boy’s mother on her mobile phone as she stood by watching helplessly. The police of being charged with inhumane treatment said that they had to get the boy into custody so as protect the safety of others. He was charged with resisting arrest, assault of a police officer, assault, possession of a dangerous weapon, assault with a weapon and making threats to damage property.
There is the much that is wrong with the above story from any ethical and logical viewpoint. The most important is the fact that despite knowing the child suffered from autism, they would not let his mother, who is the one person most able to get through to him and calm him down, intervene. Charging someone with autism with charges such as resisting arrests implies that we concede the person is challenged in some ways but somehow when the police become involved, they are no longer challenged. They should implicitly know that one does not mess with the police. The school, on being contacted about the incident, conceded that they require teachers with specialized training to handle the autistic students. Part of their training involves strategies on non-violent crisis intervention to handle any students in a crisis.
This was clearly a case of an autistic boy in a crisis. What would be funny were it not tragic was a stapler being referred to as a weapon under the charge of assault with a weapon (it can be argued it for lack of a better word) and possession of a dangerous weapon. A stapler is by no means a dangerous weapon. There is much to be said about the exaggeration of the situation in this case to the point a 14-year old boy is being dragged into a police car by three officers. It is therefore not a stretch to say that the police exaggerate their response given the case at hand.
It is thus important for police to improve their handling of youth offenders. There are some factors to be considered such as the fact that most youth offenders tend to have suffered trauma when growing up. In this case, it would have been important for the police to take into consideration that they were dealing with someone who is autistic. There is definitely better ways the officers could have dealt with the case.
Police mistreatment of Indigenous 18-year old female student
The second story also appeared on the CBC News on 25th September 2015 with the headline “First Nations teen files complaint against Thunder Bay police after street check”. The story reported that Cheyanne Moonias filed a complaint with the Office of Independent Police Review Director, which is the civilian oversight agency in Ontario (Porter, 2015). The 18-year old female student at Matawa Learning Centre complained that she was stopped for no reason and threatened by the police. On September 10th, Cheyanne was heading back to school after lunch when two male police officers stopped her and asked for identification and later threatened by the police.
She replied that they had no right to ask her for an I.D. to which the police replied they could do as they wished since they were the law. After this, the officers asked whether they could search her for weapons or drugs. The police already had his handcuffs out and looked ready to grab her even as she cried and told them she was just a girl trying to get to back to school.
When she asked for the first time if she could go, she was told to stay put but they finally let her go after she asked the second time. However, it was not without a parting shot, with the police officers promising her that it was not over. Cheyanne was justifiably terrified after the incident. She wanted to be a police officer when she grew up. Now, she says she is not sure if she wasn’t to be any part of the police institution anymore.
On being contacted about the incident, the Thunder Bay police asserted that it was inappropriate to comment on Cheyanne’s complaint. Police Spokesman said that police officers have to get into contact with the public from time to time and that Thunder Bay police officers did not stop people to collect personal information arbitrarily.
This brashness and aggressiveness on the part of the police is one of the reasons there are on unfavorable terms with the youth. By telling the youth that they can do what they want as they are the law, the police are inadvertently eroding the youth’s confidence in the police institution as well as the justice system at large.
It has been shown that the youth who have an unfavorable attitude towards the police are less likely to cooperate with them or provide them with information. They are also more likely to engage in unlawful deeds, perhaps also in a bid to do whatever they want since they are not under the law.
Another issue that it brings up is the racial bias that exists in the police institution and how it affects the indigenous youth in Canada (Ireland, 2015). A research study has shown that there indeed exists a bias in the police force based on one’s aboriginal status. People whose aboriginal status is known are 12% more likely than non-aboriginal or unknown/unreported. Given that this case has drawn attention in the debate in the police racial bias debate, the issue of police and indigenous youths as well as other minority youth groups should also be explored for further research.
Dealing with racial bias in the police force will require acknowledging the problem exists. This is particularly significant given that visible minority have a less favorable attitude towards the police compared to Caucasian youth, especially black youth. This can partly be explained by the fact that among high-risk youth, contact with police was three times higher for minority youth.
There exist a problem in the relationship between the police and the youth. It is imperative that measures are put in place to ensure an improved attitude of the youth towards the police. One of the most important things to be picked from the first story is the need for police officers to have training in non-violent crisis intervention. These kinds of skills will help in averting large problems and improving the relationship between the police and civilians and the youth.
Ways should be explored to ensure that the first time a youth comes into contact with the police, in is not in an adversarial setting whenever possible. This would include tactics such as police getting to volunteer for youth targeted events. Another measure to deal with racial bias is to have more police officers from minority communities.
References
Fagan, L. (2016, November 23). Mother of boy with autism says Cornwall police treated him inhumanely during arrest. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cornwall-autism-school-arrest-1.3863075
Ireland, N. (2015, September 25). Canadian police must acknowledge racial bias to fix it, Indigenous advocates say. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/police-racial-bias-aboriginal-canada-1.3761884
Leroux, E. (2012). "I realized that cops are just regular people": changing youth attitudes toward police through community policing programming.
Porter, J. (2015, September 29). First Nations teen files complaint against Thunder Bay police after street check. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/first-nations-teen-files-complaint-against-thunder-bay-police-after-street-check-1.3247025
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