A blogger about politics and crime from Austin, Texas says that he was detained and handcuffed by police officers because he was walking home with his granddaughter, a five-year-old. The reason for the detainment, according to the blogger, is the fact that the girl was black and he is white.
The blogger is Scott Henson, who is also a political consultant. He blogs about the country’s criminal justice system. Henson said that he was walking with his granddaughter back home from a roller skating rink. The granddaughter’s name is Ty and the incident occurred last Friday when Henson and Ty were approached by a female deputy.
The deputy informed Henson of a report of a black girl who was kidnapped by a white man. He was forced to walk away from Ty as the deputy asked her questions about Henson. The response from Ty to the deputy questioning her was pretty simple:
“He’s my Grandpa!”
The two were questioned separately by responding officers for a handful of minutes before they were allowed to continue their walk home together. The pair was only two blocks from home when they were stopped by police cars with lights flashing and a large crowd of police officers.
“The officers got out with tasers drawn demanding I raise my hands and step away from the child,” Henson explained.
Despite complying with police, Henson said that the police officers handled him roughly by jerking his arms around as they placed handcuffs on him. As Ty witnessed this, she walked away from the area up a hill because she was scared and in tears.
“One of them called out in a comforting tone that they weren’t there to hurt her, but another officer blew up any good will that might have garnered by brusquely snatching her up and scuttling her off to the back seat of one of the police cars,” Henson said.
Officers questioned Ty repeatedly but the police officers decided to take their time calling phone numbers provided by Henson to verify he is the grandfather of Ty. The police officers never apologized to Henson, even after they released Henson was the grandfather of Ty. They only said to Henson that they respond to kidnapping calls with the utmost seriousness.
Henson did say that even though Ty was absolutely frightened during the incident she was happy because the police officer let her play with the flashlight while in the cruiser.