Commentary on
SEPTA Investigating Arrest and Handcuffing of Man Holding Baby
PHILLYMAG.COM
BY VICTOR FIORILLO
As a former Philadelphia Police Officer and a father I can't believe that so many SEPTA Police Officers would endanger the health and safety of a baby girl by trying to detain and/or arrest her apparent father over a $2.25 fare evasion dispute.
The police officer that placed a handcuff on the father's hand while he was holding this baby girl should be disciplined, if not fired & arrested for reckless endangerment.
It's just not right to endanger the life of such a small and vulnerable tender-aged child while trying to arrest her guardian -- even if he had committed a retail theft of a diamond ring that's worth $10K.
Here, we have a measly $2 (two!) dollar fare dispute based on a SEPTA cashier's report that the father didn't pay his own fare.
What's sad is that there were several other police officers involved and none of them considered backing down -- even if just to protect the small child's safety -- when the alleged suspect refused to leave the subway train car.
This episode and other episodes of excessive use of force over the last couple of years -- especially the ones resulting in the suspect's death -- indicate (at least to me) that we now seem to have developed a police culture of zero tolerance to resistance and very little hesitation to use force (hands, feet, batons, CS & pepper spray, TASERs and firearms) to ensure compliance and/or "neutralize" suspects.
If true, then such use of excessive force by police will not give us a safer democracy, but could become a self-fulfilling prophecy by creating a police state where the police and the population, including suspects, look at each other with fear & hate and act accordingly -- with hostility and force during their unfortunate encounters by hitting/shooting first as a seemingly justified preemptive measure against an adversary that's surely going to attack to hurt or kill you -- only to escalate the never-ending cycle of violence.
We need to de-escalate and exit this vicious cycle before more children, teenagers and adults (including police officers) get hurt and lose their lives needlessly just because they're wrongfully perceived as as threat and/or the enemy.
“I’m concerned about the entire episode,” SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel said Friday. “We can’t endanger the lives of little kids over a fare evasion. That’s unacceptable.
...
Nestel said the officers tried to talk the rider off the train so they could peacefully cite him, but Smith refused. But that doesn’t excuse how officers behaved, especially with a child in the equation, Nestel said.
“It’s not about him. This is about us,” Nestel said. “I’m not going to change how someone in the public deals with the police. I have to change how the police deal with the public.”
See "What’s behind the arrest of a man holding his young daughter on SEPTA’s Market Frankford Line on Thursday?" at http://billypenn.com/2015/06/26/whats-behind-the-arrest-of-a-man-holding-a-young-child-on-septas-market-frankford-line-on-thursday/
What do you think?
Contributor: Greg Krasovsky
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/gkrasovsky/posts/10153110733218742
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