It was August 10, 2023, when Tashawn Bernard, a 12-year-old, was arrested in Michigan. Of course, he was Black, and of course, he was not the real culprit whom the police should have arrested. They maintained that a boy with a similar description had been stealing cars in the area, which led to a police search for him. Lo and behind, it ended unexpectedly when Bernard seemed to “fit the description.”
Tashawn’s dad, Michael Bernard, had been washing the dishes at the time in their Michigan home and had somehow asked his son to go take out the trash when this happened. ABC reports that upon seeing his son arrested for no fault, Michael “dropped what [he] had in [his] hand … and rushed downstairs” and said to the cops, “You always use that as an excuse.”
At the time, Tashawn was wearing a bluish-grey shirt, and the real suspect had been seen wearing neon shorts with a white tee, per a federal court last month, and quite obviously, his attire had been very different from what the child was wearing.
Tashawn Bernard, in an interview with Good Morning America, spoke about this unwarranted arrest at length. He said, “When it happened, I was (…) shocked and frightened about (…) the situation, and how it happened.” To this, the Bernard family lawyer, who has presented the cops with a lawsuit, added, “This has been a very traumatic and emotional experience for him and his entire family.”
This lawsuit is against the city of Lansing, Michigan, and its ex police chief, Ellery Sosebee.
It reads: “Tashawn has increasing difficulty interacting with police authority figures and is frightened by them when they are in his vicinity. As a result of the incident, Tashawn has experienced panic/anxiety attacks, difficulty sleeping, and required counseling to address residual symptoms from the trauma caused by Defendants.”
This whole ordeal had been recorded on a mobile phone and later went viral on social media in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and global human rights violations. But what led to it? CCTV footage shows that the real car thief had run away from the scene (albeit clothed similarly to Tashawn), and that led to a police chase with several cars and chaos that led to the arrest.
F12 & F Your Apology: Tashawn Bernard’s Father Won’t Accept Lansing PD’s Apology For Handcuffing Son Taking Out Trash https://t.co/O5b1rgu6S7 pic.twitter.com/UI2efj5KgF
— Bossip (@Bossip) August 18, 2023
Lansing police officer Damon Culver drew his gun and told the boy to put his hands behind his back, then cuffed him.
After that, another Lansing officer, Stacey Myers, showed up and put the handcuffed boy in the back seat of a police car. These are the officers who have been named in the lawsuit. While being led to the car in cuffs, Tashawn asked tearfully, “What did I do?”
The body camera footage that Michigan’s Lansing Police Department later released had several parts of the audio muted or simply edited out, so it isn’t possible, as of now, to understand precisely what went down during the arrest, at least verbally.
As Tashawn’s dad was angry at this arrest and his son was sitting in the car for absolutely no reason, the police officers had a detailed conversation between themselves and realized it was not the suspect that they had been chasing for so long.
However, the child was released after that. The Lansing police haven’t said whether they eventually caught the actual suspect they were looking for that day.
The Bernard family’s lawyers, Ayanna & Rico Neal, said Tashawn is “traumatized” so much as he “doesn’t not want to go outside anymore.” pic.twitter.com/CNVMDixWAA
— ChudsOfTikTok 🖥️ (@ChudsOfTikTok) August 13, 2023
“The handcuffing of youths under the age of thirteen (13) requires approval from LPD 61 command unless (1) there are exceptional and exigent circumstances directly related to an 62 officer’s or youth’s safety, (2) if there is a court order or (3) there are other circumstances 63 to be considered, based upon clearance of a supervisor,” the lawsuit continues.
You know what’s worse? It also mentions a study that found, in 2020, 83% of the juveniles arrested by the Lansing Police Department, Michigan, in the year 2020 were Black, even though they only represent 28% of the local population.
