Did Sacramento Police Put a Plastic Bag Over a 12-Year Old Black Boy’s Head During His Arrest?

Sacramento, CA — The Sacramento Police Department is under fire again after a video has surfaced showing police officers brutally arresting a 12-year old Black boy using what appears to be a plastic bag wrapped over his head. Civil rights activists all over the country are furious about the excessive use of force.

The local Black Lives Matter chapter in Sacramento posted the video on Facebook, which quickly gained hundreds of thousands of views. The boy, whose name has not been released, was reportedly attending a festival when he was chased down by private security due to reasons not yet clear. Police were called and arrested him.

In the video, the boy can be heard protesting while being handcuffed as he was pinned to the ground. He appeared to be calm when another officer came, but then a white bag was still placed over his head. The bag called spit sock is typically used on offenders who try to spit on police officers. It was not clear if the boy did so.

Several witnesses on the scene can be heard on the video demanding why the child was receiving the brutal treatment.

Mark T. Harris, who works with civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump and represents the boy’s family for the case, wrote in a statement that the boy who is about 4’10” and 100 pounds “was born with significant upper respiratory complications and according to his mother and grandmother, suffered from breathing difficulties particularly when anxious.”

Harris also mentioned the community felt that Sacramento Chief of Police Daniel Hahn, who is Black, is turning his back on them and said that he is “blue and not Black.” He added, “It appears to many of us that when you have as many incidents of questionable police conduct directed towards one singular demographic group, within an entire community, the ‘cat needs to be let out of the bag.’ The Sacramento police department appears to be representative of a ‘bad orchard’ as opposed to a few ‘bad apples.'”