“Why is my baby in cuffs? What are you all doing?” Police handcuffed minor Black boy who was heading to a basketball tournament, only to realize moments later they had made a huge mistake
A Black family faced an unwarranted encounter with police due to an error in entering the license plate details. The police department clarified that the officers mistakenly registered the vehicle’s license plate as being from a different state than its actual origin. This oversight caused the system to incorrectly flag the vehicle as stolen.
On July 23, while en route to a basketball tournament, a family was mistakenly approached by police. Officers, when checking the car’s license plate, confused Arizona for the correct state, Arkansas, leading the system to believe the vehicle was stolen, as stated by the Frisco Police Department.
Body camera footage shows an officer aiming a gun at the family, with instructions for them to display their hands. The driver was directed to step out, turn, lift her shirt to show her waistband, and walk backwards.
Although the driver tried to confirm the car’s registration and her state of origin, her son was put in handcuffs, leading to her understandable anguish.
She passionately voiced her concern, stating, “Please don’t let them do that to my baby, this is very traumatizing. Why is my baby in cuffs? What are you all doing? Do not treat my baby this way.”
After recognizing their misjudgment, the officers acknowledged the oversight.
An officer expressed, “This was an honest mistake,”and another accepted the blame saying, “That’s on me.” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson later declared, “We acknowledge our oversight. Our department is committed to learning from such errors rather than concealing them.”
David Henderson, a civil rights lawyer, suggested potential racial profiling and posited that the family’s rights might have been infringed upon.
He remarked to The Dallas Morning News, “In cases I’ve seen involving people of color who have a license to carry, as soon as they alert the police to the fact that they have a weapon, the police change drastically in terms of how they deal with them.”
