I try very hard not to start out my posts with “I just wrote this shit,” because I want to make it clear that each case of brutality happening to a minor leads to yet another child traumatized by flagrantly unacceptable police behavior.
But I just wrote this shit.
According to WGCL-TV, a 14-year-old black boy was choked and slammed to the ground by police officers in a Georgia school after he and other students swiped some candy from an open vending machine.
What, were you expecting me to say he assaulted a teacher, or attacked an officer, or stole thousands of dollars worth of school equipment? Nope—none of those things would have warranted this level of force, from multiple officers, much larger than this one teenage boy—but nope.
It was over a fucking Snickers bar. The student, Asah Glenn, grabbed some chocolate and tried to run, and the police, scions of justice that they are, were not having that, so they yoked him up and body slammed him.
So here I am, trying to figure out why any force was necessary, let alone an officer choking him against the vending machine, or another officer picking him up and slamming him onto the ground. I realize school funds are tight, but to slam a teenage boy onto the ground over a couple dollars—can someone make it make sense?
According to WGLC-TV, “Glenn hurt his rib and scraped both knees. He is suspended from school for three days.”
Ah, so they do have suspensions available as disciplinary action; I wouldn’t have guessed, since there were officers meting out their own vigilante corporal punishment.
A sheriff’s office press release explained, “Initially, [deputies] thought it was a fight but quickly determined it was theft of snacks from the vending machine. Three juvenile students were charged as a result.” Not quickly enough, apparently, and I’m still trying to figure out how the officers joining the fight was going to de-escalate it, but hey.
Per Yahoo, “Those charged are a 14-year-old student (theft by taking and disorderly conduct), another 14-year-old (theft by taking), and a 15-year-old (disruption of a public school, obstruction, theft by taking, and disorderly conduct).”
Asah’s mother, LaToya Glenn, said she’s “very concerned for his future,” and Asah said he was “scared for his life and…didn’t know what was going on,” WGLC-TV writes.
All this—bodily harm, trauma—over candy. How many kids have to be brutalized and dehumanized for being kids before we get police out of their schools and farther from hurting them?