Miami-Dade Police Thwart Juvenile Puppy-Carrying Ring

[woody60707]

It kinda sounds like this teen was bullying another kid, and the cops put a stop to it. Too often bullying gets dismissed as just roughhousing. If a cops see a teen bullying another teen, it would be a crime to not stop the teen and ask him where the hell his parents are at the least. The teen says i'm not taking you to my parents, then the cops have every right, if not a duty to detain him.

Maybe the cops got too physical in arresting him. Maybe the charge is a little over doing it. But I find it hard to shed a tear for a bully.

 

[MobBoss]

of course, even the cops said they asked him where his mom was and he turned and headed in her direction and thats when they thought he was trying to leave the scene

Well....yeah.

There is this thing called 'speech'. It's used to communicate. They asked him where his mom was, not if would he lead them to her. And fwiw, I'm not sure any truly logical person wouldn't draw the same conclusion - that the kid was just going to ignore them and walk away. I think that is indeed a reasonable assumption.

In other words I think anyone that really thinks this kid was going to lead the police to his mom like that has had to suspend his disbelief even more than if he were watching a JJ Abrams production.

 

[kramerfan86]

Im sorry their story sounds a bit off to me. He's in water playing with friends but he is also apparently holding a tiny puppy and bottle feeding it in the water too? I dont know, that just seems a bit odd, not that the police didnt clearly use a bit of excessive force, but I feel they might be overselling their side a bit as well.

 

[JollyRoger]

The cops were just standing their ground.

 

[Perfection]

I like how 14 year olds have more credibility here then cops.

 

[Farm Boy]

I like how 14 year olds have more credibility here then cops.

Sometimes they do. Sometimes the public does, but that's often the police's fault. Anytime a black college student is shot through the chest for operating a vehicle inebriated then handcuffed face down on the ground to die while the police wait an hour to call an ambulance then yes, the conduct casts grave doubt on the entire account of the event from the police.

Anytime rules of engagement are written such that a ATF sniper feels ordered to kill an unarmed woman holding a child then that casts doubt on the orders and accounts of all officers involved prior and after. That guilt by association thing that can get you arrested in the states? That goes both ways for both good and ill.

Also head lock =\ chocking. The video clearly shows he was not choked.

Didn't some guy with Down Syndrome who didn't want to leave a movie theater just get "head locked" and handcuffed to death within the past year? You might be comfortable distinguishing head locking from choking but bear with my skepticism that members of law enforcement can reasonably be expected to do so while performing the operation.

Maybe I'm being too cynical. It's possible. Call it lingering suspicion from growing up in a state where if you filmed a police officer with your cell phone it was chargable as a felony that carried a maximum sentence of 15 years. That only got struck down by the courts within the year. Enforcement is still catching up to that change.

 

[Formaldehyde]

It kinda sounds like this teen was bullying another kid, and the cops put a stop to it. Too often bullying gets dismissed as just roughhousing. If a cops see a teen bullying another teen, it would be a crime to not stop the teen and ask him where the hell his parents are at the least. The teen says i'm not taking you to my parents, then the cops have every right, if not a duty to detain him.

Maybe the cops got too physical in arresting him. Maybe the charge is a little over doing it. But I find it hard to shed a tear for a bully.

Or the kid was merely playing in the water with his friends, as he and his family claim instead. And he also claims he never stated anything of the sort. That he actually was leading them to his mother. We simply don't know enough at this stage other than two cops apparently used excessive force to subdue a 14-year-old who was holding a tiny puppy.

Im sorry their story sounds a bit off to me. He's in water playing with friends but he is also apparently holding a tiny puppy and bottle feeding it in the water too? I dont know, that just seems a bit odd, not that the police didnt clearly use a bit of excessive force, but I feel they might be overselling their side a bit as well.

Where did any of the articles state that the boy was holding the puppy with a bottle while in the water? But you do have to wonder why there was apparently such a big gap between this supposed assault of another child and the police accosting him while he was holding the puppy on a sidewalk seemingly some distance from the water. It sounds like the police were told by someone about some supposed "rough housing" between two boys, and they assumed it must have been this boy who was guilty of some supposed crime.

I like how 14 year olds have more credibility here then cops.

It is apparently himself and two other members of his family and probably the friends whom he was supposedly playing with in the water.

But why should cops inherently have more credibility than anybody else, especially when their excuse for choking him to the point where he wet his pants and the puppy was apparently hurt being underneath him was that the boy gave them "dehumanizing stares" and supposedly "clenched his fists" while holding a puppy and a bottle? Merely mentioning the former shows that the cops were the ones who likely had the attitude problem, and the latter is hardly a justification to use excessive force on a child even if it is true.

 

[Tarquelne]

The family's version of the events conflicts completely with the police version:

Well, heck: What I've seen of the police version doesn't justifies what happened.

 

[EvenStranger]

I'm sure some day we'll move past all of this. One day we'll have black police and even a black president!

Hang in there, Traitorfish.

IOW: Some cops are still racists, but I resent the attempt to broadbrush it to the entire country.

 

[Azale]

I agree, the attempt is awful. We need to be much better at broadbrushing it to the entire country.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'm sure some day we'll move past all of this. One day we'll have black police and even a black president!

Hang in there, Traitorfish.

Why does having a handful of black authority figures suggest that race is no longer an issue in the US?

IOW: Some cops are still racists, but I resent the attempt to broadbrush it to the entire country.

Florida is part of the United States. If Florida has an issue with race, the US has an issue with race. That's not the same as saying that all Americans are racist- or, for that matter, that other countries aren't.

 

[Luckymoose]

He must have done something wrong. I won't jump at the cops until more evidence comes out.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Polo

“At this point we are not concerned with a puppy,” said Zabaleta.

 

[Traitorfish]

He must have done something wrong.

Doesn't that contradict the principle of presumed innocence?

 

[kramerfan86]

Where did any of the articles state that the boy was holding the puppy with a bottle while in the water? But you do have to wonder why there was apparently such a big gap between this supposed assault of another child and the police accosting him while he was holding the puppy on a sidewalk seemingly some distance from the water. It sounds like the police were told by someone about some supposed "rough housing" between two boys, and they assumed it must have been this boy who was guilty of some supposed crime.

The article you quoted mentions both the playing in the water and the feeding the puppy in the water. Like I said I still think the cops grossly overreacted, but I dont think he was as sweet and innocent as his family is trying to make it sound.

 

[Formaldehyde]

The article you quoted mentions both the playing in the water and the feeding the puppy in the water. Like I said I still think the cops grossly overreacted, but I dont think he was as sweet and innocent as his family is trying to make it sound.

Nope. Both articles are from the same source and are essentially the same with a few minor differences. This paragraph is identical in both:

His family said, just before all this happened, McMillian had been playing in the water with some of his friends. He said he was holding his 6-week-old puppy when officers came up to him and asked what he was doing. Miami-Dade Police said the reason officers approached McMillian is, because they saw him roughhousing with another teenager.

Again, the police appear to have approached him later after he was nowhere near the water. There is no indication that he ever claimed to have been in the water with the puppy and the bottle. But he does claim he was just playing instead of "rough housing", whatever that supposed crime is.

 

[JollyRoger]

The cops must have done something wrong. I won't jump at the kid until more evidence comes out.

 

[nc-1701]

What gets me here, more than anything is the absurdly low bar for "resisting arrest". They say he "stiffened his body" and "clenched a fist", those are involutary reactions to danger/pain/fear. Hell if I got tackled and choked by a cop (or anyone else), I would probably pull guard and definitely tuck my chin etc. to keep from being choked. Even if I had no intention of resisting or causing them harm, it's purely autonomic defense mechanisms to keep yourself from being hurt.

I hope this gets thrown out and the family gets a nice settlement, and if we can do that without turning this into a race thing then all the better.

 

[Farm Boy]

What gets me here, more than anything is the absurdly low bar for "resisting arrest".

Heh, just catching on to that?

 

[Quackers]

But let's not pretend America has an issue with race, okay?

Two men brutally murder a British soldier in London in broad daylight.

"Lets not tarnish Muslims with the same brush!".