Dashcam footage, released by the Sacramento Police department, captures a police cruiser crashing into a 16-year-old boy on a sidewalk in July.
Yes, you read that right, a police car ran over a kid on the sidewalk.
So, how did this happen? Well, according to another police officer, detective James Allen in a video statement released by the department, the officer at the wheel was speeding down the road when he tried to turn and “this unsafe speed resulted in a loss of control.”
The result was, thankfully, not life-threatening, but the boy did have to be hospitalized after crashing into the hood of the cruiser and then being thrown backwards. Officers then handcuffed him bleeding and screaming in pain on the ground before checking on his injuries.
So, what was this kid’s terrible crime that put him in the hospital?
Riding his bike at night without a light. Yep, the very threatening teenage boy out for a bike ride.
Initially, the police stopped him riding his bike to ask him about the missing light. Halfway through that stop, the boy took off. The officer chased him on foot before calling for back up from the second officer in the patrol car.
That means that because a kid was riding a bike without a light the police felt justified in engaging in a high-speed chase on foot and by car. What do you think endangers a kid more? Having no headlight on his bike, or getting chased at high speed by a cop car?
Here, as has happened across the country, police took a non-dangerous situation and made it potentially lethal. That is unacceptable, instead, police should focus on de-escalating situations and responding appropriately.
Police should be in the business of keeping communities safe — not creating violence on the streets.
