Police Punish 13-Year-Old Girl for "Getting Too Close"

This week, Phoenix police are dealing with the fallout from a video showing an officer beating a 13-year-old girl. The child was first accused of exiting a stolen automobile, authorities said. Later reports said that the child was not in the automobile and was just coming up to the scene. In the footage, four cops hold the girl as another officer repeatedly strikes her in the face. Throughout the assault, the lady recording it repeatedly yells “she's a minor!” But it made no difference.

The girl was charged with a serious assault.

In the footage, there is a minor girl inside an inhabited stolen car. “At least two persons were detained, including that juvenile female,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Ann Justus told FOX 10.

That was the first claim. As previously stated, police then amended their statement and said that the youngster was not in the stolen automobile.

PHX PD update Initially, the adolescent girl was thought to have exited a stolen car. Now we're informed she "approached cops" before being hit repeatedly by an officer on film.

In the video, the cops “racially profile” two young guys in a vehicle, according to a witness.

The youngster was too near to authorities, so they took her down, police said Tuesday afternoon. In the video below, the child does not seem to have swung at any of the cops.

“A 13-year-old girl approached the cops as they were arresting individuals. She was repeatedly told to return. He pulled her out of the way as she stepped in front of authorities attempting to place one of the males in the backseat of a police vehicle.

She then rushed through the cops who had told her to remain back and approached two officers holding a guy. A female cop spotted her coming and pulled her back. The female threw her arm at the female cop, hitting her in the face. The officer's body camera flew off her vest, as shown on other officers' tapes. After being struck, the female police punched the female in the face.”

The Phoenix Police Department is a notoriously brutal and unaccountable force.

In 2018, we reported that the department had set a new low. Their cops shot 31 individuals in the first eight months of 2018, breaking their yearly record with four months remaining.

Following the previous high of 31 shootings in 2013, an Arizona State University report recommended “reform and increased training” for cops. 

“A policeman may have all the de-escalation training in the world, but it's not going to work all the time if you're dealing with highly volatile, difficult people,” Crane told The Republic in a previous interview.

AZ Central contrasted the shootings in Phoenix to those in San Antonio and Philadelphia, both of which had a 1.5 million population. It has eight officer-involved shootings, whereas Philadelphia has four. Phoenix had over four times as many police shootings as San Antonio and over seven times as many as Philadelphia.

No one here should be holding their breath, hoping that the Phoenix cops would alter their minds and put an end to this craziness.