'Am I going to jail?' US police criticised for pinning 10-year-old boy during father's arrest

July 26, 2018

Police in the US state of Georgia have been accused of using excessive force by pinning a 10-year-old boy to the ground who became distressed during his father's arrest.

The Athens-Clarke County Police Department has released bodycam footage from an officer who restrains the boy as he leaps at him during the arrest while yelling "he didn't shoot no body".

The officers then proceed to pin the child to the ground while getting increasingly irate, screaming "back off" to family member of the boy who try to intervene.

"Stop resisting, stop resisting, calm down, you gotta calm down for a second, we gotta put handcuffs on OK, you're not going to jail" the officer can be heard saying to the boy. 

The boy can then be saying to the officer: "I'm sorry, yes sir, am I going to jail?"

The officer then lets the boy up without handcuffing him saying "we're going to have a conversation OK".

The officer in question then becomes angry at family members of the boy who are objecting to his treatment of the boy, demanding they "back up, back away from my vehicle".

Separate footage of the incident filmed by a family member of the boy posted online has generated much criticism of the officer's actions.

Athens-Clarke County Police Department have subsequently released a statement over the incident and have ordered an internal affairs investigation.

"On more than one occasion, the other adults on scene attempted to restrain the child without success," police said.

"As an officer was walking the suspect to his patrol car, the child attempted to block his path and again had to be removed and restrained by the adult family members.

"As the suspect was being placed in the back of the patrol car, the video clearly shows the child run past family members and again ran towards our officer and lunged at one of the officers."

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