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A 7-year-old boy was arrested, handcuffed, and hauled to a police station for mug shots and fingerprints, all for allegedly riding a motorbike on a Baltimore sidewalk, claims his mother.

“They scared me,” said Gerard Mungo, Jr. tearfully.

This incident has brought more heat on the Baltimore police department who are already criticized for making unnecessary and frivolous arrests.

According to police commissioner Leonard Hamm, the 7-year-old’s arrest wasn’t consistent with the department’s philosophy of handling neighborhood problems and the case would be investigated internally. He added that the police officer had the option to talk to the boy’s parent or confiscate the bike instead of arresting him.

Details of the Case

Mungo Jr., who just turned seven in February, was sitting on an off-road motor bike on a sidewalk near his house when a cop yanked him by the collar, pulling him off the bike, said his mother Lakisia Dinkins, who witnessed the arrest.

Dinkins alleges she called a police supervisor to handle the situation, but the confrontation escalated after the supervisor arrived.

“They started yelling at him, ‘Do you know what you did wrong, son?”’ she said. “He was so scared he ran upstairs.”

The bike was confiscated and Mungo Jr. was arrested. At the police station, they handcuffed him to a bench and interrogated him before his release. There is no confirmation that the boy was actually photographed and fingerprinted.

Baltimore’s zero-tolerance arrest policy has become a controversial issue, with the state’s attorney, civil rights activists, and some judges arguing that such arrests usually occur in poor, African American neighborhoods.

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