Questions have arisen over the force Miami police officers used on Memorial Day when restraining a 14-year old named Tremaine McMillian. McMillian was reportedly fighting with another teenager in the water when cops told the boys to cut it out. Upon being asked to point out his mother, McMillian allegedly refused to cooperate, with Detective Alvaro Zabaleta telling a CBS affiliate: “When he started to leave the beach area, officers had to get off their ATVs to detain him. He had closed arms, clenched fists and pulled his arm away.” Tremaine McMillian Restrained by Police Officers: Report Citing “dehumanizing stares” and a “threat” from the young man, officers placed him in a chokehold and wrestled him to the ground. Tremaine later told a juvenile court judge that he urinated on himself out of fear because he could not breathe. Moreover, he was holding a six-week old puppy named Polo in his arms at the time of the incident. “At that point we are not concerned with a puppy,” Zabaleta told CBS. “We are concerned with the threat to the officer.” Police took McMillian in on a felony charge of resisting arrest with violence, as well as misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. A hearing is scheduled for 16.
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Police Officers Restrain 14-Year Old with Puppy in Arms, Cite "Dehumanizing Stares"
