Youth in Conflict with the
Law
Student name
Learning Institution
Youth in
Conflict with the Law
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 porgramming.
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