Orlando School Cop Keeping America Safe From Cranky Six-Year-Old Girl

And how did the school think arresting a six-year-old is a good idea?

A school resource officer in Orlando, Florida, has been suspended after arresting two children at a charter school last Thursday and trying to send them to juvenile detention. One of the kids, a 6-year-old, was cranky after not sleeping well, and had kicked at someone in the school office during a tantrum. (It's not clear yet what the other child, aged 8, supposedly did to deserve also being handcuffed and arrested.) Her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, was called and informed the girl would be charged with battery and was on the way to juvie, which is about as America in 2019 as a story can get. No, hold on, it won't be that until Donald Trump praises the cop's quick action to protect the community from a young thug.

The Washington Post reports the cop, Dennis Turner, was

accused of not following the department's policy regarding juvenile arrests and has been suspended from his duties pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón said in a statement to The Washington Post. According to the policy, any arrest of a minor younger than 12 needs approval from a supervisor, which police say Turner did not obtain.

"As a grandparent of three children less than 11 years old this is very concerning to me," Rolón said. "Our Department strives to deliver professional and courteous service. My staff and I are committed to exceeding those standards and expectations."

Ms. Kirkland said her granddaughter, Kaia Rolle, attends the Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy, and that Kaia had been sent to the office for having a tantrum in class because she was worn out after a bad night with sleep apnea. Once there, a staffer tried to grab Kaia's hands. Kaia kicked at the staffer, and instantly became a little criminal, subject to arrest, handcuffing, and fingerprinting. It was not immediately clear whether Kaia had shown any signs of bulking up to three times her normal size or of going into a murderous rage, common problems when black children encounter law enforcement officers. We bet someone would be willing to say they were in fear for their life.

So far, the school hasn't said a word about why the hell anyone there thought it would be appropriate for Kaia or the other child to be arrested. Maybe they just really, really respect the judgment of our brave boys in blue who keep us safe. Or maybe they are terrible, terrible people. We think that's a definite possibility.

Kirkland tried to explain the problem to Turner, but he wasn't about to buy any excuses for criminality on the part of a diminutive black child:

"She has a medical condition that we're working on getting resolved," Kirkland said she told Turner. "So he says, 'What medical condition?' I said, 'She has a sleep disorder, sleep apnea.' He says, 'Well, I have sleep apnea and I don't behave like that.'"

It's true: Most cranky tired adults don't have tantrums unless they are "president" of the United States of America.

Kaia wasn't ultimately taken to the juvenile detention facility because an officer in charge of transporting arrestees found out Turner hadn't gotten the proper authorization. So Kaia was sent back to school and released to Kirkland. The other child was also released to a family member for the same reason.

Turner sounds like a real prize, just the sort of cop we want in our schools to ensure children won't be massacred by an armed patriot with a semiautomatic rifle:

Turner spent 23 years as a police officer in Orlando before retiring in June 2018, according to the department . In 2016, Turner was issued a written reprimand for excessive force after he Tasered a man five times, jolting the suspect twice when he was already on the floor and no longer resisting, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Police said he is assigned to the Reserve Officer Program, which reportedly consists of retired officers.

A lot of people in Orlando are calling for Turner to be fired, but they probably just love criminals and fail to understand that police are always right. No less an authority than Attorney General William Barr explained at a cop convention last month that our brave law enforcers are literally at war with disorder, and that when people lose the ability to control themselves, then it's only appropriate to Git Tough.

We need to get back to basics. We need public voices, in the media and elsewhere, to underscore the need to "Comply first, and, if warranted, complain later." This will make everyone safe – the police, suspects, and the community at large. And those who resist must be prosecuted for that crime. We must have zero tolerance for resisting police. This will save lives.

Guess all we need now is for Tucker Carlson to speculate Kaia must have been smoking dope before the incident, because when have you ever heard of a child having a tantrum so bad that they had to be arrested for it? Was MS-13 involved somehow?

[ Washington Post / WKMG ]

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