12 year old Jamaican boy handcuffed while taking out the trash

A viral video which was posted to TikTok August 11-2023, shows officers detained and handcuffed a 12-years-old black boy they claimed to be a suspect in a string of car thefts in Michigan. The Lansing Police Department has addressed the video and calls it an “unfortunate understanding.”

The video captures the young boy in a parking lot near a large dumpster, shortly after a police officer detained and handcuffed him. Soon after, a man who identified himself as the boy’s father came out to find out why his son was being detained.

“They traumatized my son,” the man says in the video. The father and the person filming can both be heard saying that the young boy was simply taking out the trash. 

In the video, you can hear the boy’s dad rightfully upset saying, you always used that as an excused. The dad from his accent, you know he is Jamaican, he said, you messed up my kid psychologically.
He went on to say, “once you are black you always fit the description. That is a 12 years old, he said.

The man insisted that his son just came down to bring out the garbage after washing the dishes.
“I will die for my fucking son”. The bomboclaat unu come wid unu fuckery.

The video which was posted by careyann327, currently has more than 2.6 million views and multiple comments defending the young boy who was detained. 

“Our hope is we can put this unfortunate case of ‘wrong place, wrong time’ behind us and continue to represent the community that we serve,” Lansing police said in a statement.

“Too often, Black bodies are harmed while law enforcement hides behind the phrase ‘they fit the description,” Alese said to NBC News. “While law enforcement calls it an ‘unfortunate misunderstanding,’ they don’t know what kind of harm they have done to the psyche of this child, this family or this community.”