Earlier this week, four Senatorial police officers in Mississippi, including a lieutenant, arrested a 10-year-old boy for urinating in public. Reportedly, the mom, LaTonya Eason, said the arrest was made because of racial bias and demanded an apology and the firing of the officers involved.
According to Eason, a passing officer saw her kid (Quantavious Eason) urinating in a parking lot and brought him to her. The woman, who was at an attorney’s office in Senatobia at the time, said she reprehended the child for hir behavior. After this, the officer told her, “Since you handled it like a mom, then he can just get back in the car” and thought the officer was satisfied.
However, the situation was far from over as more police officers appeared in the area, including a lieutenant, who arrested Quantavious Eason for urinating in public. In a recent interview, LaTonya Eason stated that “I’m just speechless right now. Why would you arrest a 10-year-old kid? “For one officer to tell my baby to get back in the car, it was OK — and to have the other pull up and take him to jail. Like, no.”
The concerned mom also stated that her son might feel traumatized and could avoid having any encounters with the police in the future. About the situation, Quantavious said it put him in emotional distress and affirmed he felt confused about why he was being arrested.
“I started crying a little bit. They took me down there and got me out of the truck. I didn’t know what was happening.”
After this, Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler issued a statement and saying that there was an error in judgment because the kid had been arrested without the officers apparently knowing that his mother was in the same place.
“The officer did not observe a parent on the scene during the initial contact. The officers then transported the 10-year-old to the police station to complete the paperwork, where the child was released to the mother. The child was not handcuffed during this incident. It was an error in judgment for us to transport the child to the police station since the mother was present at that time as a reasonable alternative.”
