Syracuse police are under fire for their response to a call of an 8-year-old accused of ѕтᴇɑʟɪпɡ a bag of chips from a store in the city’s Northside neighborhood, according to multiple reports.
The clip shows three Syracuse police officers appear to apprehend a Bʟɑᴄᴋ boy who allegedly stole a bag of Doritos from a Syracuse, N.Y., shop. The boy is visibly shaken up and sobbing as one of the officers grabs the boy by his arms and puts him in the back of a police cruiser.
“What are you doing?” Kenneth Jackson, the bystander who recorded the video, can be heard asking.
“Take a guess what I’m doing,” the officer responded.
“What’d he steal — a bag of chips? You’re treating him like a whole cold-ЬʟᴏᴏԀᴇԀ f—— ᴋɪʟʟᴇг,” Jackson continued. “I seen you snatch him up off his bike like he’s a grown ass man,” he shouted, before offering to pay for the boy’s chips.
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Officers dropped the boy and his two brothers back off at their home, according to Syracuse.com.
Police told the boys’ father, Anthony Weah, that his son was accused of ѕтᴇɑʟɪпɡ chips, although the father recalled to the outlet that the interaction with the cops was friendly, and no charges were pressed.
But when Weah saw the video, he was outraged, the outlet reported.
“Why would the police treat that child like that?” Weah asked. “Over a $3 bag of chips.”
The dad of three reportedly wants to file a complaint against the officers. “The policemen, they are not children. They are not boys, they’re men,” he said.
The boy was never һɑпԀᴄᴜffᴇԀ and he came home without any ɪпȷᴜгɪᴇѕ, per the outlet.
Still, Weah said he is grateful Jackson was there to capture and intervene during the incident. “He was standing up for them,” Weah told the outlet.
