Pennsylvania cops arrest of 11-year-old girl draws outrage

Zakiyah, 11, of Chester, Delaware County, shows marks on the right side of her face after a fight on a school bus Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018. Darby Borough Police arrested Zakiyah, handcuffed her, and held her at Darby Police Station. (Courtesy of Jawania Browne)

Police sprang into action Tuesday after a call came in about a disturbance on a bus. When an officer arrived on scene in Delaware County he conducted some interviews and decided that he had probable cause to make an arrest. He proceeded to handcuff an 11-year-old girl.

Zakiyah is small for her age and attends Chester Community Charter School. She’s approximately 4-feet-5 inches and weighs only 55 pounds. Despite a cell phone video of her sitting calmly on the bus before her arrest, she was cuffed with her hands behind her back and put into the back of a police van.

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Zakiyah explained how scared she was to NBC10, stating that she thought she would never be permitted to see her family again.

Her mother was shocked at the arrest and is struggling to make sense of it all.

“I never thought that I had to give my 11-year-old ‘the police talk,’” said Jawania Browne, referring to warnings that black parents have been forced to give their children for years about how to conduct themselves around police officers for their own safety. “I was thinking more so my son, and he’s only 1. But as he grows up, I was thinking that I’ve got to really drill it into my son – but not my daughter. But I guess none of us are exempt.”

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The little girl was taken to the police station and put into a juvenile holding area. Zakiyah was given a citation that stated the “defendant did, with the intent to cause public inconvenience or alarm, create a physically hazardous or offensive condition by actions which served no legitimate purpose to the actor.”

This all started with a fight on a school bus. This is not an uncommon occurrence, children fight. Now Zakiyah has been left traumatized after what her lawyer says was “the worst day of her life.”

The girl had previously been in counseling for emotional issues and according to her mother has not been dealing with the trauma well. She hasn’t been sleeping well and has had nightmares.

When contacted Police Chief Robert Smythe said the arresting officer was following established protocol.

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“I understand that it sounds harsh,” Smythe said. “She was in custody for an assault of which we were processing her. There were wounds to the other child. I understand how it sounds, but that’s the policy.

“She was being processed because she committed an aggressive assault against another person,” Smythe went on. “We had her in custody for 57 minutes. It’s not like we put her in a cell and held her for hours… There are police policies that we try to follow. If you are in custody, you are in handcuffs. That’s the policy.”

He said she was confined to the juvenile holding area because “She just can’t walk the hallways.”

As far as being placed in the back of a police van, Smythe said that was the arresting officer’s vehicle for the day.

Zakiyah’s mother has not sent her back to school yet and has instead been taking her to counseling. She is also considering private schools.

“I would never have thought that they would have locked up an 11-year-old child and treated her like that,” she said.

 

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