9-year-old arrested for waving toy gun

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.zwire.com/site/10419957.html

A 9-year-old boy was arrested at gunpoint and handcuffed Saturday because he was waving a toy gun over his head while seated on a bench outside a store, according to a Lorain police report.

His mother, Tamyka Saunders of Sheffield Lake, said her son, Thomas Clark Jr., told Lorain police when they approached him outside a Broadway business that the gun was a toy. An officer aimed his weapon at the boy's head, ordered him to the ground, handcuffed him and arrested him for juvenile delinquency by reason of inducing panic, according to the police report.

Saunders, 28, was also charged with obstruction of justice and resisting arrest when she pleaded with police not to arrest her son and to give him a warning, according to a police report.

''He doesn't deserve this. He is not a bad kid at all. That's what I was trying to explain to the officer. It's just not fair,'' Saunders said.

From what I heard on local talk radio the child was African-American.

[Superfly]

1. WTF???

God-damned brownshirts. Nothing better to do than terrorize children.

[joeybee12]

2. Unreal, not even in Bush' America could fortell such fascism!

[bluestateguy]

3. Arrest was excessive, but guns are not toys

I really disapprove of parents who buy their children toy guns, suggesting that guns are toys be be played with.

[slackmaster]

4. Have you ever served as a parent?

I have. My wife wouldn't buy her son (by a previous marriage) any toy guns, so he made his own.

I believe that, at least in the USA, they all do. If they aren't clever enough to fabricate a toy gun from a stick or Tinkertoys or Legos they simply point their finger and say "Bang!"

On edit: I generally agree that encouraging kids to play with toy guns unsupervised is a bad idea, at least in modern urban or suburban environments. I see them as useful for training them how to properly handle real guns - The basic safety rules, muzzle control, not pointing things that look like guns at strangers, etc. I didn't allow my stepson to shoot a real gun until he could reliably demonstrate the rules of safe gun handling with a plastic water pistol.

[dfong63]

5. these days, real guns can look like toys, and vice versa

... and just because it was a "9-year-old kid", doesn't mean he couldn't possibly be a threat.

[MrBenchley]

6. DUPE

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[FlashHarry]

8. Locking

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FlashHarry
DU Moderator