Lansing NAACP Council calls on mayor, police chief for community discussion after 12-year-old is wrongfully detained
LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Lansing seventh-grader Tashawn Bernard was taking out the trash when he was wrongfully detained by a police officer earlier this month.
Now, the Lansing NAACP's Youth Council is asking the city's police chief and mayor for a community discussion. The group wants to make sure this sort of incident doesn't happen to another 12-year-old.
"The mayor is willing to meet with us. We're waiting on Chief (Ellery) Sosebee to give us a time and date," said Toni Wheeler, who serves as an advisor to the youth council. "He supposedly is willing to meet with us, but he has not confirmed a date and time, and the mayor is willing to open up his schedule when we can make that happen."
Wheeler says members of the youth council are rattled by Bernard's experience.
"The youth would like to feel safe in their neighborhood," she said. "Right now, I have a lot of youth who are afraid to come outside. One young man stated earlier this week he's terrified. He doesn't want to go outside to take the trash, especially if his parents are not at home."
The youth council is looking to have a conversation with the mayor and police chief about training. Wheeler noted concern among the kids about being mistaken for an adult like Bernard.
"They want to be able to talk to the police chief, see if there's more training, see if when the police are looking at suspects, if there is a way that they can hear in the child's voice that they're a young child versus an adult. Or look at their frame, their body to see [they're children] and not just be so harsh when approaching the youth."
NAACP Lansing President Harold Hope said the adult chapter of the organization is supportive of their young people's actions.
"Our youth have spoken out so clearly, they're afraid, and it makes all the sense in the world for them to see this and say, 'I can't even step outside of my own door, go to a dumpster and be safe without being detained by the police.' We're encouraging the mayor to end the police chief to support our youth," he said.