The cover of the New York Post is a real doozy today, even by Post standards, and features a photo of a 7-year-old, snapped by his worried and litigious mother, handcuffed to a railing. According to a $250 million (!!!) claim against the city, the kid was “handcuffed and verbally, physically and emotionally abused, intimidated, humiliated, embarrassed and defamed” by the NYPD for allegedly punching a kid and stealing his $5. The robbery charge was later dropped and another child admitted to taking the money, the lawsuit says. Just doing our jobs, ma’am, counter the cops, politely doffing their caps.
“It’s unfathomable, what the police did. The whole thing sounds so stupid. They were interrogating him like he was a hardened criminal,” the family’s lawyer told the Post. But based on the Daily News version of events, he is: “The kid is no angel, even though he may look like it,” a police source said. While the suit says the boy was held for ten hours, the NYPD claims it was more like four hours and 40 minutes.
Besides, “We let him have pizza,” the source added. “We let him see his mother.” (Hence the amazing photo, the centerpiece of this tabloid feast.) “He had to be handcuffed — he was a prisoner,” said one of the keepers of law and order in this city. “If we didn’t handcuff him and he ran out the front door, then we would have had an escaped prisoner on our hands.” Yeah, that would not look good.
