The family of a 10-year-old boy who was allegedly held at gun point have taken a Michigan police department to court for emotional trauma.
Benjamin Whitfield was with his father in Detroit’s Pittsfield Township when the pair were pulled over by police on 16 April.
His father had allegedly been driving in the wrong direction by a mall, and police who were responding to an unrelated incident suspected a connection – chasing the car.
The chase ended at a Kroger in Ypsilanti Township, with Benjamin and his father apprehend by half a dozen police.
Police allegedly handcuffed Benjamin for a few minutes, as was seen in newly released body camera footage of the encounter. The 10-year-old also had a firearm pointed toward him.
He was uncuffed so he could call his mother, Makia Dixson, who told Fox News this week that he was suffering from emotional trauma.
“Every time he sees the police, he gets scared,” she said. “He’s not gonna ever be able to trust a police officer.”
Benjamin’s family filed a lawsuit against the Pittsfield Township Police Department and the officer involved in the encounter last month.
It asks for $400,000 (£296,000) for causing “emotional injury” to the boy, and is being considered by a court.
At a demonstration to raise awareness of Benjamin’s ordeal on Tuesday, people stood outside the Pittsfield Township Administration Building.
Many held placards including one with a slogan: “Black Boys Matter”, ClickOnDetroit reported.
Another asked why another Black youth had been pulled over by police and “vitctimised”.
“Do I agree with what his father did? No, but he is like many Black people who police get behind and [make them] fear for their lives, and [then] they make choices that are not appropriate,” an activist, Trische Duckworth, told MLive.
While the number of Black youths in the US is about 15 per cent of the whole US population, more than 40 per cent of children in custody are of that background, according to figures from the Sentencing Project.
The Pittsfield Township Police Department told The Independent it could not comment during the litigation process.
