And this “non arrest” custody with handcuffs sounds hokey. If you are not free to go you are arrested.
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Likely she was “detained” but not arrested. Not finger printed and thrown in a cell. Whatever it was it was wrong.
Lets say the card was stolen or expired. If she had gone to court for a $1.00 misuse of a subway card, in otherwords the same as a stolen token what would her punishment be? Nothing. A warning at most not to do it again. But getting your face smashed up agains the wall and having cuffs on for more than about 60 seconds is more punishment than she would have received by any court, many times over. The little girl, and she was just a little girl, was abused and will never forget it. She will never have any respect for cops nor will any of her friends and family.
Too, too many cops abuse their powers and throw around their power of intimidation because they can. It is sick what they did to this poor little girl, it is wrong. I hope the cops that did it are fired and never allowed to wear a badge again, ever. Every cop should be a good cop or fired, period. There should never be a second chance for abuse of authority.