Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm on Thursday announced an internal investigation into the arrest of a 7-year-old boy for allegedly riding a dirt bike. City leaders, meanwhile, reacted with outrage to the boy?s treatment.
The investigation was announced after The Examiner reported on Wednesday that Gerard Mungo Jr. was arrested, handcuffed and photographed for a mug shot after police said they observed him riding a dirt bike outside his East Baltimore home.
But Mongo?s mother, Likesha Dinkins, said she had the key to the bike and her son was just sitting on it.
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“He was waiting for his father,” she said.
Mungo was put in metal handcuffs and taken to the Eastern District station house, where he was questioned by police.
In statement issued early Thursday, the police commissioner said the arrest was “not consistent” with his policy.
“Dirt bikes pose a serious risk to both the people who ride them and to pedestrians, several of whom have been killed by dirt bikes over the past few years. We constantly receive complaints about them. Having said that, arresting a 7-year-old child is not consistent with my philosophy of trying to solve problems in neighborhoods. We will investigate internally,” Hamm wrote.
Other city leaders were horrified by the arrest.
“I think he is simply too young to be arrested for an offense like that,” said Frank Conaway, clerk of the courts. “They?re majoring in minors.”
“It is another example of failed leadership in the city,” said State Delegate Jill Carter ? who, like Conaway, is running for mayor. “We?d be better off if the police were spending their time going after people who are harming our children.”
Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the Baltimore Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said his membership was angered by the arrest.
“We all know we have a problem with dirt bikes in the city,” he said. “But it is inexcusable and angers us that we have a police force that feels this is what it means to protect and serve.”
“There was no reason to arrest this child,” Cheatham said.
