posted April 24, 2005 01:26 AM            

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Video Shows Police Handcuffing 5-Year-Old Girl

ABC News

The girl screamed "No!'' as officers put handcuffs on her.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (April 23) - An attorney says he plans legal action against police officers who handcuffed an unruly 5-year-old girl after she acted up in her kindergarten class.

A video camera, which was rolling March 14 as part of a classroom self-improvement exercise, captured images of the girl tearing papers off a bulletin board, climbing on a table and punching an assistant principal before police were called to Fairmount Park Elementary.

Then it shows the child appearing to calm down before three officers approach, pin her arms behind her back and put on handcuffs as she screams, "No!''

Largo lawyer John Trevena, who provided the tape to the media this week after obtaining it from police, says the officers went too far.

"The image itself will be seared into people's minds when you have three police officers bending a child over a table and forcibly handcuffing her,'' said Trevena, who represents the girl's mother, Inga Akins.

"It's incomprehensible ... There was no need for that,'' he added.

Police declined to comment, citing an official complaint by Akins that has sparked an investigation by the supervisor of the four officers who were present. Two are new officers who were being trained that day.

Spokesman Bill Proffitt said the investigation would be complete in about two weeks and the findings would be made public.

The 30-minute tape shows assistant principal Nicole Dibenedetto trying repeatedly to calm down the girl, who ignores her commands and begins punching her.

The child's mother was called but wasn't able to immediately come to the school.

After being placed in the back of a police cruiser, police released the girl to her mother after prosecutors informed them they wouldn't bring charges against a 5-year-old.

04-23-05 15:05 EDT

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Go get'em boys! Show the world that Floridians mean business when it comes to the law!

So what are the charges to be present over there down South, "Indecent rudeness of a child"?! I think that she needs to be taken to Temper Tantrum Anonymous right away as soon as she finishes her time in the "Big House"!

Kinda Mickey Mouse and a little Goofy, dont you think? But hey, it's Florida!

posted April 27, 2005 04:08 PM            

I like that new gun law the Governor signed the other day! Ya see that, a 5-year old can be arrested for misbehaving, but people can now shoot eachother on the streets of Florida now-a-days and just say that the person that got shot was harassing the gunner without having to worry about going to jail!

posted April 27, 2005 09:22 PM            

Hell, it's just terrible that Florida citizens will be able to defend themselves now, without fear of prosecution...isn't it? I can see where that would upset those who always come down on the side of criminals.

posted April 28, 2005 04:20 PM            

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Yeah, I thought it over the top to handcuff a 5 year old. They should have handcuffed the parents. Obviously, this child has never heard the word NO.

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Surely, I've even spoke with a couple of mothers and now-a-days they tell me that the only thing that children today are missing in they're lives is a hand on they're @$$! And then you have laws today that if you look your kid the wrong way, you can lose custody of your child and go to jail anymore! And then you can see on the news that some parents beat they're kids to a bloody pulp, so what do you do?

In the state of PA, if I had a teenaged son that went out and jimmyed a car and then drove off to wrap it around a tree, I'm to be held responsible, after I've been told that I can't even tell him "NO!"? That's why I don't have kids, thank God! I've seen too many of my old friends get locked up over that crap!

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Hell, it's just terrible that Florida citizens will be able to defend themselves now, without fear of prosecution...isn't it? I can see where that would upset those who always come down on the side of criminals.

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Anybody can be a criminal, it only takes the first time! But Florida is gonna have a hard time proving a "first timer"!

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Believe it or not, violent crime is down in Florida since the legislature passed the concealed weapon permit law.

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That's all in a matter of what the commissioner(in certain areas) writes up, I should know, my brother is a cop and tells me all the time that his commissioner makes The Bronx sound like Candy Land!

posted April 28, 2005 06:42 PM            

Crime statistics don't lie. Violent crime is down in states which permit citizens to carry concealed weapons.

posted April 28, 2005 08:17 PM            

The biggest port in the world, it is still not too hard to get anything that you want without the use of a proof on anything!

So long as you have cash! No credit, no charge!

posted April 29, 2005 03:53 PM            

We had "Neighborhood Watch" before there ever was such a thing!

My best advice: Don't judge NY until you've lived NY!

posted April 29, 2005 04:50 PM            

Out of all you and your little band have to say(and ever had to say), the only thing that I like to know is: When are we gonna see this SOB's blood shed?!