'We Want You to Beat Him’: Video Shows Maryland Cops Berating and Handcuffing a Kindergarten Student Who Left School After Tantrum
Video at the link. The entire article is worth reading.
"'Newly released police body camera footage shows a pair of officers in Montgomery County, Maryland verbally berating and handcuffing a 5-year-old kindergarten student, then repeatedly telling the child’s mother that she should “beat him” because of his behavior.
The Montgomery County Police Department on Friday released video of the incident, which took place in January 2020. The young boy allegedly wandered away from his school without permission after throwing a basketball at a teacher and knocking over a computer. The officers’ names were not released by the department but they were identified in a subsequent lawsuit filed by the child’s mother as Dionne Holliday and Kevin Christmon.
“Does your momma spank you? Does your momma spank you?” Holliday asked. “She’s gonna spank you today. Because they’re gonna call her and tell her exactly what’s going on.
She’s gonna spank you today. I’m gonna ask her if I can do it.”
“Boy, I’m telling you. I hope your momma lets me beat you,” Holliday said, holding her face directly in front of the child’s face. “His momma gonna beat him.”
She then backed away from the child momentarily. As he continued to cry Holliday suddenly pounced back into the camera’s view, crouching down so her face was separated from the child’s by only inches. She proceeded to let out five extended “Ahhhhhh!” screams at the top of her lungs.
“Oh my God, I’d beat him so bad,” she said.
The footage also showed what transpired when the child’s mother arrived at the school, with
both officers repeatedly telling her that she needs to use physical violence to control her son.
“I don’t like bad children—bad disrespectful children. I think they need to be beaten and that’s what I told your momma,” Holliday said to the child as he stood next to his mother.
Christmon then took out his handcuffs and said, “You know what these are? These are handcuffs. These are for people that don’t wanna listen and don’t know how to act.”
He then handcuffed the child’s hands behind his back and told him to always listen to adults.
“We want you to beat him,” an officer said.
The child’s mom said she could not go to prison for child abuse, to which the officer incorrectly responded,
“You don’t go to prison for beating your child.”
A spokesperson for the Montgomery County Police Department confirmed that following an internal investigation,
both officers remain employed by the department. The findings of the investigation are confidential.”'