Outrage over handcuffing of 12-year-old boy
Published: 6 Oct 11 08:09 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/36574/20111006/
A YouTube video showing a 12-year-old boy being handcuffed and wrestled to the ground by two security guards in a Stockholm metro station has prompted strong reactions from family members, but police claim the guards did nothing wrong.
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The incident took place last summer at the Slussen metro station after guards were called to deal with youngsters who were reportedly riding between the rail cars of the Saltsjöbanan tram line.
When the guards met up with the 12-year-old and his friends, the situation quickly turned heated.
“I climbed between the cars, and then went in again. Then they came up and said, 'follow us, don't resist',” the boy told Sveriges Television (SVT).
“Then I looked back at my friends, and that was like, resistance, or something. Then they pushed me into a wall and then I got handcuffed. The rest is on the film.”
In the YouTube video, filmed by one of the boy's friends, the guards can be seen pressing the 12-year-old up against a window with his arms behind his back before placing him in handcuffs and wrestling him to the ground of the platform.
The guards were reported to police for professional misconduct, but the case was dropped after investigators concluded that guards acted appropriately.
“There is nothing in the film that demonstrates professional misconduct,” Britt-Marie Hackzell of the Stockholm police told the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper, adding that the boy didn't do as he was told and that the guards were dealing with a group of rowdy young people of various ages.
However, the boy's mother remains adamant that the guards acted inappropriately.
“It doesn't matter what happened before the assault,” she told SVT.
“I know my son can be difficult and cocky, but you can't act like that toward a 12-year-old.”
Jesper Pettersson, a spokesperson for public transit operator SL, which managed the contract with the security company that employed the guards in the film, admitted that the film is provocative.
“It could have been handled differently. It's part of being a security guard to be challenged, to be called names, among other things. But a guard should be able to handle that, especially when it comes from small children,” he told Aftonbladet.
In the wake of the film's release, the guards have been taken off duty pending an internal investigation.
External link: Video Clip (in Swedish) »
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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If true and they were riding the trains outside them?, then grabbing them seems quite fair in preventing a worse accident. The mother is just after attention or cash, her little angel was innocent!
The boy's squeals of pain, and cries of "Ow my leg" is powerful evidence the guard was hurting the child for some of the time he was prostrate and bound.The guard will need to show why it was necessary for him to hurt the child at that time. I look forward to hearing his explanation.
A guard who is unfit to be around children, is unfit to work in public places. He may have to be reassigned to guarding then coal pile, at nights.
And probably they were told to stop doing what they were doing. And probably they continue doing what they were doing, making fun of the guards. They do the same in the schools. It is really wrong beating a child, we all agree on that. But it is really wrong let youngsters do what they want to do all the time without limits, even in schools. And Sweden will pay the price in the future.
The teen deserves it, period.
Kids today do seem to get away with much more than they did in my day, so maybe this is a step back to how it should be.
Saying that why didn't the kids just run? These two have to be the most overweight guards I have ever seen!
Well, the most important function of the police is actually quite cheap. It needs a commandstructure and men with sticks.
swedish police are very expensive, rentacops are very cheap. So, this basic function has been franchised to rentacops in sweden, to a large extent. I know nobody ever talks about this and that it was not planned but thats how the system works nowadays.
Its pretty much the same in other countries even thou the state employs the men-with-sticks directly. Like for example maderas in Spain?
@RobinHood @007 @JohnAndersson
In your world the criminals and the ruthless and the violent would rule with impudence. You are a supporter of chaos and destruction. If you have swedish citizenship, may i suggest that you vote for MP. Their policies are exactly the same. Just read their party program, longer version.
Sorry, but it sounds like the brat finally got some discipline. The mother said "I know my son can be difficult and cocky." Well, if she would've disciplined him properly (nothing physical btw) he probably wouldn't have ended up in this situation. The fact that she's trying to defend his actions speaks volumes about her parenting.
If was screwing around on rail cars, got caught, gave attitude to the guards and got handcuffed / arrested my parents would've been livid with me, not with the guards that made me to stop risking my life. I would've been grounded and had privileges taken away for a very long time.
I agree with you 100%. That action could possibly have saved his life. The mother defending his stupidity is just another example of lack of discipline or accountability. I am against child abuse 100%. ( now I am talking about Sweden, but it happens in many other countries too) There are enough, spoiled, indulged, mouthy, bratty little Swedes running around with their "entitlement" attitude that could use a good old fashioned dose of a swift kick in their ASSets.
"In your world the criminals and the ruthless and the violent would rule with impudence."
The law in Sweden is not "my world", nor my law. I do not make the Swedish law, nor necessarily agree with it. However, I must respect it, and I must agree to abide by it. I must do this because I have chosen to live in Sweden.
If you yourself are unablle to abide by the Swedish law, (for example by hurting a child,) you must quickly leave the jursdiction, before you find yourself in serious trouble with the law you seem to so disrespect.
Personally, I would be extremely uncomfortable to have you around my children.
Seems you are not aware that this case has already been found to NOT be in breach of swedish law :) Funny.
His explanation would be that he took the youngster to the ground because he was kicking. By taking the suspect to the ground you remove the threat of him kicking. Thus preventing any injure to yourself, him or anyone else.
He then put his knees on the youngsters bum which he could have planted in his spine instead, but he didn`t. That way he could keep the youngster down while having his hands free to push of any of the youngsters friends.
In other words,little Johnny's reign of terror at home, met the real world. Hello! There are consequences to misbehavior that Mama and Papa have not reinforced. LOL.
I don't agree with Swedens "vakt" mentality (most of them have failed to get into the Police or are ex crims & bullies) but something needs to be done about youngsters disrespect & disregard for safety rules.
And the debate, in this forum, and many other branches of the media, is whether the police decision not to prosecute was correct.
If I were you, I wouid keep well away from children until that debate is concluded, and even after then too.
Not so funny now laughing boy.
he did something stupid and dangerous. the guards acted violently. they need better training. the CEO of the security company admitted that there is no training specific to how to handle children.
If you wish to avoid having your children manhandled by guards, i suggest you teach them to behave. I do not work as a security guard so your constant references to me and your children is somewhat peculiar?
The presecutor and the police decided to close the investigation. The youngster was misbehaving and did not obey the orders of the guard. And there is nothing in swedish law about an agelimit for handcuffs, according to the police.
I mean, not agreeing with the swedish law and arguing that in your opinion it should be changed is fine. Even thought it would be a rather abrupt change in position from your posts #4 and #23.
Ignorantia juris non excusat :)
OK lets go with your VERY strict definition of the law.
If child A was going to cause serious harm to child B
lets say with a knife or a stick.
How would YOU stop stop child A from carrying out the attack WITHOUT causing any harm to child A.
Remember what you said in your original post 'hurt, hard or frighten'.
The law in Sweden regarding those three parts is NOT that black and white or strict.
The parents are as much at fault, as are his school. As said it probably the first time someone said "no don't do that", but then actually followed it up with some reprisals when he never. We need more people like that is Sweden, then the kids wouldn't get like this is the first place.
Perhaps they could introduce some different take down tactics for teens, but at the end of the day. The only person who slightly hurt if at all (he probably played up once he knew his mates were recording it) was the kid riding trains.
As mentioned above, there are plenty UK underground drivers with horror stories having been the driver hitting adult suicides, imagine if a child got hurt and the staff have to deal with that. Why is it always about the hard done law breaker?!
So I agree with muscle but think that also the guards should be fined.
So fine the guards for using excessive force
Fine the kid and his friends for criminal behaviour.
And fine the parents for failing in a huge way raising their child.
You see these cases often though. In our increasingly rightwing society we all want harsher punishments, but when somehting happens to us or our children we don't want to accept things that were normaöl 50 years ago.
It is not good to hit children, but this action is hardly worth complaining about.
The worst thing that one can do for the boy's character development at this point is instill into him the notion that he's a victim, thereby reinforcing his delinquency.
Stupid actions have consequences. It's a good lesson to learn.
Deal with overbearing guards as a separate issue.
sure guards probably were tugs like most cases, but swedish kids have this whole thing about anti authority as if they have something to prove, and since the encouragement given by grown ups is so past normal they most of the times end up facing no consequences
they should have kicked him too.
he is a disgrace and so are his parents for raising a brat like that.
According to SvD the police ruled that the guards acted correctly based on the knowledge available to the police, including seeing the movie.
In my experience, videos like this that end up on YouTube are typically edited to cut out the parts where the suspect fights, endangers him/herself or others, etc. All that is shown is a poor, innocent individual being manhandled by the police (or security guards in this case). This video starts when the boy is already restrained. We don't know what led to the kid being cuffed - other than "he said, she said" testimonies.
All that aside, one comment on the security guards. I know they're not police officers, but for crying out loud - have some professional pride (or at least concern for their health) and lose the gut!
It's about time people (in this case 'Security Guards) grew some testicles and are 'dealing' with these 'hooligans' in the appropriate way, which was cleared by Swedish Police.
Perhaps a positive way to look at this situation is that the child's life was saved from unsafe horseplay. The parents' hands are tied because of Swedish law in regards to 'Childrens' Rights', this might explain why this child is out of control, hence "Spare-The-Rod, Spoil-The-Child" : )
He doesn't have the intelligence to know when to follow instructions.
HINT: The guy with the gun is right, even when he's wrong.
He was clearly a danger to himself and possibly to others.
The Rent-A-Cops did the right thing to keep him alive and uninjured.
Momma should be chastized for raising a stupid kid.
I fully agree with your comment.
These guards maybe saved his life, these children had to be stopped quickly -what they did was very dangerous. Trains can cut you in pieces....
Parents (better say single moms nowadays) should not be always blamed as they cannot do anything to discipline their children - this boy can even claim his 'Children Rights' and demand compensation if his mother dares to lock him up over the weekend at home as punishment for doing such 'wannabe-hooligan' nonsense.
To refer to this 12 y/o boy as 'small child' is wrong. 12 y/o boys and girls are not 'small children' anymore. They understand what they are doing, they can be kept responsible for bad behavior.
To blame for such incidents are all these do-gooders who think, children should not be disciplined and can do whatever they like.
Security looked calm and in control until the brats started to escalate and then yes, they had every reason to put a fast stop to the situation.
I repeat: Security had every right to stop them from doing something illegal and dangerous not only to themselves, but to others as well. The brats knew it was wrong when they did it, they needed to learn cause and effect. Just imagine how people would be complaining about Security if one of those boys had caused an incident that resulted in death and (heaven forbid!) lengthy schedule delays because Security was afraid to do the right thing.
Yes. Except in this case I see only one parent mentioned, the mother.
Where's Dad?
Where are all the missing Swedish fathers?