A police officer in Grand Rapids, Michigan is under investigation after bodycam footage emerged of him handcuffing a crying 11-year-old girl.
In the footage, the officer can be seen making Honestie Hodges, an elementary school student, turn around so that he can put handcuffs on her.
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The young girl can be heard screaming fearfully as the police officer says to her, “You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re all right. You’re not going to jail or anything.”
According to Inside Edition and Wood TV, the officers, who also told her to “quit crying,” were at Hodges’ residence looking for her aunt, currently wanted on an attempted murder charge.
“When my mom was walking past, I was putting my hands through the little bars, banging on the windows, screaming, ‘Please don’t let them take me,’” the young girl recalled to reporters.
Additionally, Chief David Rahinsky spoke at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon and said that hearing Hodegs scream on bodycam footage made him feel “physically nauseous” and that the entire situation was “a discredit to the way the community is being served.”
“The screams of the 11-year-old, they go to your heart,” Chief Rahinsky added. “You hear the mother yelling from the steps, ‘That’s my child!’ That’s our community’s child. That’s someone who lives in Grand Rapids. That’s someone who should feel safe running to an officer.”
“The juvenile is treated the same way you would have treated any adult,” Rahinsky also said. “And when you’re dealing with an 11-year-old, it’s inappropriate. So, as an agency, we’re going to have some tough conversations that include the community. It goes to the heart of what we’re trying to accomplish with (consulting firm) 21st Century Policing.”
Chief Rahinsky also took time out to meet with Hodges, her family, and Cle Jackson, the president of the Grand Rapids chapter of the NAACP. According to Jackson that meeting went “well” and that Chief Rahinsky “promised” to “act fast, and act swift” as far as getting answers for how this could have happened.
