Last Tuesday, Tate County Youth Court Judge Rusty Harlow handed down the sentence to a 10-year-old, ordering him to “serve three months’ probation and write a two-page book report on the late NBA star Kobe Bryant,” per The Guardian.
The crime? In August, the third-grader urinated in a parking lot while he waited on his mom, “who at the time was in a courthouse that had a sign indicating there were no public restrooms,” People writes.
According to Carlos Moore, the lawyer representing the child, “reached an agreement with a special prosecutor,” U.S. News reports. Moore also disclosed that the prosecutors had “threatened to upgrade the charge of ‘child in need of supervision’ to a more serious charge of disorderly conduct if the boy’s family took the case to trial.”
“I thought any sensible judge would dismiss the charge completely. It’s just asinine,” Moore says. “There were failures in the criminal justice system all the way around.”
“I don’t think there is a male in America who has not discreetly urinated in public,” continued Moore.
“He did what any reasonable person would do: he urinated next to the car behind the door — not exposing himself to anyone,” Moore added. “He would not have been arrested, prosecuted or sentenced if he was any other color, race, besides Black.”
This is even more egregious when the officer who initially saw the boy relieving himself, was seemingly satisfied with the child’s mother, who reprimanded her son.
But “[t]hen our other Senatobia police officers, including a lieutenant arrived, according to the mother. She said her son was arrested, put in a police vehicle and taken to a police station.”
For next steps, “We are not going to appeal. He will not have a criminal record, this is probation. And he is a fan of Kobe Bryant, so he doesn’t mind writing the two-page report,” Moore explained. “But, still, the principle of it — he should not have to do anything. He should be enjoying his Christmas holiday like the other kids.”
Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler put out a statement in August saying, “Several of our officers were recently involved in an incident that involved a ten-year-old juvenile. The officer’s decisions violated our written policy and went against our prior training on how to deal with these situations.”
His mom stated, “My son is going through enough getting arrested, and then for him having to see a probation officer and then write an essay, I don’t think it’s right or it’s fair.”
“The average child would use the bathroom outside…and probably some grown men that would do the same thing.” But, “I want to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” she emphasized. “No matter the color or who you are, no child should have to go through that.”