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Pa. police apologize for scissors arrest (of 10 Year Old Girl)
Boston Globe ^ | 12/13/04 | Maryclaire Dale

Posted on 12/13/2004 10:47:06 PM PST by kattracks

PHILADELPHIA -- The police chief and the head of the city's schools apologized Monday to the mother of a 10-year-old girl who was arrested and handcuffed after she brought a pair of scissors to school in her backpack. Although officers were following protocol when they drove the girl to a police station with her hands cuffed in front of her, discretion will be used in future cases involving young children, Police Chief Sylvester Johnson said.

Johnson said he told Rose Jackson that the arrest of her daughter, Porsche Brown, was "extremely unfortunate" and apologized for "any trauma that her daughter experienced" on her way to the station. The district said Brown had violated a ban on bringing scissors -- which are considered potential weapons -- to school.

"But calling in local police to address such a matter involving a 10-year-old criminalized the young student who apparently meant no ill intent," said a statement from the office of school district Chief Executive Paul Vallas.

It also was "a waste of vital law enforcement resources," the statement said.

The girl's suspension, initially set for five days, was amended to two days and she was expected to return to class Tuesday, district spokeswoman Barbara Farley said Monday. She said she knew of no plans to expunge the suspension.

[snip]

Police officers decided Thursday that the girl hadn't committed a crime, and let her go.


(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: New Jersey; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist; donut; donutlist; donutwatch; leo; pspl; scissors; weapons; weaponsoffence; zerotolerance
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1 posted on 12/13/2004 10:47:07 PM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
Everyone involved in this should be fired. Twice.

If they have anything in their offices that wouldn't make it past airport security, then they should be dragged out in handcuffs, and brought to the police station for their crimes.

And slapped. Repeatedly.

2 posted on 12/13/2004 10:51:31 PM PST by Steel Wolf (Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules. Mark it zero, Dude.)
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To: kattracks

::::sigh::::

You would think there would have been some discretion when the officers arrived at the scene, even though there really wasn't a scene in the first place....


3 posted on 12/13/2004 10:51:47 PM PST by MikefromOhio (27 days until I can leave Iraq for good....)
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To: Steel Wolf

brainless goons enjoying themselves....School administrators should lose their jobs too. There is no excuse for this insanity.


4 posted on 12/13/2004 10:57:57 PM PST by squirt-gun
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To: kattracks
Apologies solve everything for the state. It is the rest of us that must be punished to the full extent they can get away with. Even for possession of scissors.
5 posted on 12/13/2004 10:58:03 PM PST by JLS
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To: squirt-gun

Zey ver only following orders!


6 posted on 12/13/2004 10:59:52 PM PST by agitator (...And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark)
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To: kattracks
Further down in the story, it referred to them as 'shears' - I would love to see the stupidity of this episode heightened by having them turn out to be pinking shears....
7 posted on 12/13/2004 11:01:57 PM PST by beezdotcom (I'm usually either right or wrong...)
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To: kattracks

Kinda shows ya where the future of America is headed to, don't it? Wasn't it just a week or two ago the police in Florida tasored a six year old boy because he had a piece of glass in his hand? And what city was it in last month when they arrested a little boy in school and booked him because a teacher found a tiny jacknife in his pocket? It's insanity.


8 posted on 12/13/2004 11:20:22 PM PST by TheCrusader ("the frenzy of the Mohammedans has devastated the Churches of God" - Pope Urban II, 1097 A.D.)
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To: kattracks

"Although officers were following protocol when they drove the girl to a police station with her hands cuffed in front of her,.."

Couldn't have happrned 50 yrs ago. Not wouldn't---COULDN'T. Today not one guy was man enough to say 'cut the crap'. "Protocol" my arse. This is the sort of claim that is the first refuge of the gutless.


9 posted on 12/13/2004 11:31:51 PM PST by TalBlack
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To: kattracks

I remember being five years old and getting into a friendly scissors fight with one of my classmates on school grounds right after school let out for the day. We were the only two kids around, and clearly having the time of our lives, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a grim-visaged teacher appeared, seized the scissors out of our little hands, and strode back inside the building, all without saying a word. I never saw the teacher again, or my scissors.


10 posted on 12/14/2004 12:28:01 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: beezdotcom

Everyone on this thread should read the papers, as well as this site. The scissors were 8", not some little toy snippers. She had hidden the scissors in her backpack, which were discovered when a search was made due to a theft from a teacher's desk. I would be highly concerned if a child, 10 or not, brought 8" scissors to my child's elementary school, and the event was just swept under the rug. Being Philadelphia, she probably had in mind some defensive or aggressive action with that tool. I am sorry to see so many Freepers join the "poor victim of the mean cops" crowd.


11 posted on 12/14/2004 12:51:40 AM PST by Original Kamaaina
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To: Steel Wolf

I think you covered it.


12 posted on 12/14/2004 12:56:14 AM PST by SoDak (home of Senator John Thune)
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To: kattracks

Use the tools of the idiots against twist against them. Sue the School, the school system, the teacher personally and the police.


13 posted on 12/14/2004 12:59:21 AM PST by TASMANIANRED (Free the Fallujah one)
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To: kattracks

In 1981, as a shop project, I brought to school a .22 Cal Remington Rifle. I rode the bus that day. The bus driver insisted on seeing it, sighted it and told me he thought it might shoot a little left. As soon as I got to school, the Superintendant grabbed the rifle out of my hands and asked if I liked the Remington better than a Winchester. I put it in my locker, and later took it to the shop where I dis-assembled it and proceeded to refinish the stock, and re-blue the mechanism. Times have, apparently, changed. I'd still be in prison now under todays climate.


14 posted on 12/14/2004 1:00:15 AM PST by SoDak (home of Senator John Thune)
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To: Original Kamaaina
I was at my kids' school yesterday for an event, and some of the kids actually had brought a sword to school for a little skit. Nobody paid any attention to it.

I miss living in America less and less.
15 posted on 12/14/2004 1:03:38 AM PST by Bon mots
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To: Original Kamaaina

"But calling in local police to address such a matter involving a 10-year-old criminalized the young student who apparently meant no ill intent,"

Hate to think what you would have said about the knife I carried (concealed!) in my back pocket from 3rd grade on...


16 posted on 12/14/2004 1:05:36 AM PST by Mr Rogers
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To: TalBlack

As they say in the National Scissors Association, "When scissors are outlawed, only outlaws will have scissors!"

Cop should have beat the Principal for public stupidity!


17 posted on 12/14/2004 1:08:58 AM PST by Mr Rogers
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To: Mr Rogers

Almost every boy in my school had a jack-knife.


18 posted on 12/14/2004 1:09:27 AM PST by SoDak (home of Senator John Thune)
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To: SoDak
Sounds like a milder version of Lafayette.
19 posted on 12/14/2004 1:25:49 AM PST by Do not dub me shapka broham (Why did it take me so long to come up with a new tag-line, huh?! What's up with that?)
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To: SoDak

I get sick when I hear these stories. It's as though these mindless enforcer drones are only able to push around someone small. Common sense is definitely not present.

Send them over here - let's see how the PC Nazi's react to some real threats. Yea right........


20 posted on 12/14/2004 1:57:23 AM PST by LFOD (The Green Zone - Where every day is a blast......)
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