A seventeen-year-old who was arrested by Senatobia Police officers for public urination received a three-month probationary sentence and was required to write a two-page paper about Kobe Bryant.
Even within the police department, there was controversy surrounding the child’s arrest on August 10; as a result, an officer who had been holding the child for the entire duration of his detention was fired.
The child, who was ten years old at the time, reportedly stepped behind his mother’s car to use the restroom while she was inside an attorney’s office, according to his mother Latonya Eason, who spoke with FOX13.
According to Eason, the first officer to see her son was going to release him with a warning. But when a lieutenant showed up on the scene, he was taken to jail and put in the back of a police vehicle.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” one Senatobia resident said Tuesday. “I have two boys and that’s how I potty trained them.”
In an interview with FOX13, a second Senatobia mother expressed her opinion that the police are prioritizing non-issues.
“I think we should be focusing on things that are more important,” said Patricia Mitchell. “There’s bigger issues to be concerned about than a 10-year-old urinating in public.”
“He did not expose himself,” said Carlos Moore, who’s representing the child. “There was no public restroom available and he went to the bathroom behind a car. Discreetly.”
The young child had claimed in an earlier interview with FOX13 that he was being held in a detention cell. After a while, he was finally accused of being a child in need of assistance and was subsequently returned to his mother.
Soon after the arrest, Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler declared that several other officers would face disciplinary action and that one of the officers would no longer be employed by the organization.
“It was an error in judgement for us to transport the child to the police station since the mother was present at the time as a reasonable alternative,” Chief Chandler said after the incident. “Mistakes like this are a reminder in this profession as to the continual need for training and refreshers on the various topics that we encounter each day.”
