By
Donal MacIntyre
U.S.
cops and the justice system are being held up to ridicule as an eight-year-old
boy with severe learning difficulties has been charged by police after he ran
away from his special needs school.
Police
said that they chased 8-year-old Edward Hart, who had blted from the Hillside
Learning and Behaviour Center in Allegan, Michigan. He then cursed and hit an
officer when he tried to hand him back to his 'special needs' trained teachers.
The
Allegan police force is facing public ridicule over the incident and the
decision to charge the 8-year-old special needs student, with two juvenile
charges which could result in juvenile detention, an institution not unlike the
special needs school he currently attends.
Notwithstanding
the fact that the child is learning disabled, the public prosecutor is adamant
the charges will stick, despite the public outcry.
“I
don’t even think he did anything wrong in this case. He’s special needs,”
Robert Bluhm, Edward’s stepfather told Fox 17 news.
“He’s
ran away from the school before… but he’s never made it as far as he did this
time, he said.
Police
said that when the child was asked his name, he cursed and assaulted armed
officers.
The
child was then thrown into the back of a police car and taken to the station in
a move which is close to child cruelty, his stepfather said.
“He
has special needs. He has anger issues. They know this, and they’re going to
throw him in the back of a cop car all by himself,” Bluhm said.
The
child apparently broke a $50 camera in the back of the car and has been charged
specifically with malicious destruction of police property and resisting and
obstructing arrest.
“If
they had him under control, why didn’t they ride with him in the back of this
cop car. So this incident would have never took place?”, the stepfather told
Fox news.
The
police force are insistent on reclaiming the cost of the camera and the
prosecutor is insistent on bringing the child to court.
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