The police overstepped their authority in the case of Gerard Mungo. That is no question. An officer pulled Mungo, 7, off his dirt bike ? illegal in Baltimore City ? and put him in handcuffs earlier this year.
But does the family deserve $40 million for the offense and the pain and suffering caused by it as it alleges in a lawsuit against the city? Please. Has everyone lost a sense of proportion? Forty million is 13 percent of the police budget in fiscal 2008. Redistributing it to the family means less money to combat gangs and drugs and murders ? 266 so far this year.
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No officer with a proper understanding of police procedure would even consider handcuffing a 7-year-old for riding a dirt bike. Any parent would be outraged at both his behavior and that of his supervisor. They should have been punished and sent to a remedial class on proper procedure. And if they have not already personally apologized to Mungo, they must. They traumatized a young man when a much milder response would have been appropriate.
At the time, his mother, Lakisa Dinkins, said: “This has changed his life. He will never be the same.” And the arrest of Dinkins two weeks later ? on charges dropped because, according to a states attorney, they were “legally insufficient to proceed” ? raises questions about officers? reputation for vendetta.
But she allowed him to ride the dirt bike in the first place.
She deserves some of the blame as her son?s life-changing experience never would have happened if she required him to abide by the law. Children riding dirt bikes in the streets endanger their lives and those surrounding them and divert police from focusing on more dangerous crimes.
The court should throw out the suit. Doing so would not condone police actions either in arresting Mungo or his mother two weeks later. It would show common sense and send a message that payments for pain and suffering should not go to those who aid and abet crimes like Dinkins chose to. The only real victim in this case is young Gerard Mungo, who is learning to hate the police from an early age and to solve his problems through the courts.
