Federal Appeals Court Denies Honolulu Cops Request for Immunity for Handcuffing a Calm, 10-Year-Old Black Girl at School During Unlawful Arrest Over a Drawing She Made

From [HERE] A federal appeals court has held that three Honolulu police officers can be sued for using excessive force against a 10-year-old girl, finding that it is “beyond dispute that handcuffing a small, calm child who is surrounded by numerous adults, who complies with all of the officers’ instructions, and who is . . . unlikely to flee, was completely unnecessary and excessively intrusive.”

On January 10, 2020, N.B., a 10-year-old Black girl with a known disability, was handcuffed and arrested by three police officers at her public elementary school in Honolulu, allegedly for her participation in creating a cartoon-style drawing with other children, according to the federal district court.

A “simplistic cartoon-style picture” had been made by several elementary age students the day before in response to a bullying incident. N.B. used drawing as a coping mechanism, a lawsuit filed by N.B.’s mother explained, and another child took the drawing and gave it to one of the students it mentioned against N.B.’s wishes. School officials saw the drawing on January 9 and took no action.

But the next morning, a parent demanded that the school call the police on N.B. School officials complied, and three police officers arrived at Honowai Elementary School, where the complaint says they interrogated N.B. in a secluded room without knowledge or consent from her mother, who was not allowed to see her daughter.

Officers put 10-year-old N.B. in adult handcuffs and arrested her, according to the complaint. They then placed her in the back of a squad car and drove the crying child to Pearl City Police Station, where no charges were filed. When N.B. was finally allowed to go home with her mother, she allegedly had marks on her wrists from the tight handcuffs.

None of the other students—who were not Black—were investigated or disciplined for their involvement in creating and delivering the drawing, the complaint alleges.

N.B.’s mother filed a civil rights lawsuit for false imprisonment, racial discrimination, and excessive force, specifically alleging that the officers’ use of handcuffs was excessive given the age, size, and disability of her 10-year-old daughter, who was compliant and responsive to officers, posed no physical threat to anyone, was not resisting arrest, and had not attempted to flee.

The officers filed a motion to dismiss, asserting that qualified immunity shielded them from being sued. [MORE]