By: Rafeeat Bishi
A young kid was at 145th Street in Harlem selling chips and candy to support his family before being harassed by officers. They tackled him, kicked his food, took his jacket, and dragged him up the stairs as his mother pleaded for him to be let go. People at the station filmed and one person was arrested for interfering.
Considering our conversation on Black and Brown people still having to expose themselves to the virus, an interesting question would be is this punishment warranted?
This kid is probably selling chips to support his family. He is not overstepping his bounds, and yes, during a pandemic, we should be careful of what we take from strangers. But instead of cops helping him or his family find resources and letting him off with a warning, they criminalized him, most likely causing him trauma for who knows how long.
I would think during a pandemic that the NYPD would not waste resources on an incident like this. But who am I to have hope?
Is it okay to be doing extra jobs during this time, even if there's a risk of spreading the virus? Or can we not blame communities for needing to support themselves because their society won't give them the help they need? This is just one example of the system (police) proving that when it comes to poor minority communities, they can not be a source of safety. If it was a white kid selling lemonade, they would've gotten a picture and a handshake.
Here are some videos of the incident. Trigger Warning: Police violence and language
This made me so sad, like wow how insensitive do you have to be to handle a child like that. I know for a fact one of those cops has a child and would not want their child to go through anything like this. Instead of stopping his hustle they should’ve bought all the chips he was selling and gave him some more money and told him to go home in a nice way. I feel like police are trained these days to just be hostile with everyone. And the interesting thing about this is I have never seen these videos or the story until now. Social media will spread all the memes about coronavirus but not share the people suffering from the system.
ReplyDeleteSmh police continue to not know how to act. This is also particularly disappointing since these are odd times and people are suppose to be working together and being considerate. I am perplexed. It's literally a boy and chips.
ReplyDeleteBROOO IM SO TIGHT I COULD CRY. My body is seriously shaking. It IS SO SAD BECAUSE PEOPLE CANNOT EVEN FIGHT FOR THIS KID BECAUSE ITS MOST LIKELY A BLACK PERSON AND THE ATTEMPT TO GO NEAR AN OFFICER WILL MOST LIKELY COST THEM THEIR LIFE. This sucks. This is seriously so sickening. A little kid. A young black boy had fear instilled in him for what????? To help his family? HE IS A CHILD. I am appalled.
ReplyDeleteThe police were very out of line when dealing with that kid. They should've known better on being more reasonable . I hope that the kid and his family will be able to have what they need to get by.
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