so you're not out here selling roses I am you are so he's out here doing the Roses we tried just talking to him do you have a business license I don't need that you do need a business license to sell anything or a peddler's license you have an ID on you why what are you doing cuz you're getting ready to go to jail is why this is how police officers treated a 13-year-old kid who was selling palmetto roses in front of a Walmart in Summerville South Carolina if you don't stop I'm going to t you you understand put your hand back cuz we know they're going to want him on trespass he's only 13 apparently let's go through the footage and see whether the officers violated this kid's [Music] rights right off the bat let's compare this situation to a three-year-old little girl who is selling lemonade in Kansas City a couple of years ago do you want to see a police officer today are you going to hug him yeah what do you want to be when you get grow up yeah another one is that exciting she's been out here since 7 so that energy is coming from somewhere oh my gosh the sheriff Sheriff's here you got do her streight got it honey look at her she aoud introduce yourself shake your hand hi I'm Kate nice to meet you I'm Hannah the way the officers treated the three-year-old girl was great but you say the three-year-old girl was nice to the officer she wants to be a police officer when she grows up yes but would she want to be a police officer if the officers came up to her aggressively and accusatory and in in a demeaning way in a threatening way would she still have reacted the same or would would she have cried and run to her mother her grandmother and never ever want to see a police officer again these sorts of things don't happen in a vacuum so let's compare the situation with a three-year-old girl in Kansas City with what happened in South Carolina on April 1st officers with the Department's Hospitality team LOL were patrolling North Maine after receiving complaints about people loitering and selling Peta roses two officers ghee and Sergeant Catherine Kirkland used a public announcement system in their marked Patrol vehicle to tell the two young men selling petto roses in front of Walmart to move along when they refused now this is according to the the cop statement the officers exited the vehicle to speak with them because the two sellers were blocking the entrance and exit of Walmart officers asked them to step aside well you can see for [Music] yourself do you have any hearing problem I'm going to try and be nice [Music] but come here you have an ID on you why what are you doing CU you're getting ready to go to jail is why how how because I'm going to put you in that car I so you're not out here selling these roses yep I am so you're not out here selling roses I am you are do you have a business license I don't need that sell you do need a business license to sell anything or a ped's license yes you do you'll go to jail for that listen don't do you have an idea on you right off the bat officer G's approach was aggressive and did not attempt to deescalate the situation according to state representative Marvin pendarvis who is representing this 13-year-old in the video he said this was an overreaction this was an escalation there was no attempt to try to deescalate the event from the time that they approached him the 13-year-old sells the rose-shaped flowers made with Palmetto Pon frons quite often though this was his first time selling them at the Walmart along somerville's North Main Street he's on spring break this week he was spending his time off from school trying to make it on his buck in the spirit of entrepreneurism it's not uncommon whether it's girl scouts or church groups or Little League groups to gather in front of storefronts selling cookies selling lemonade selling whatever to make an honest Buck or to raise money for particular situations he asked this question and it's a good one if there were Girl Scouts set up there would the results have been the same so what you've seen already is how they escalated just from Zer to 100 in no time and now just boom we have violence you'll go to jail for that don't do you have an idea on you stop so officer ghee chose violence this was his justification one of the individuals refused to identify himself and continued to use profanity towards the officers while customers were attempting to enter or exit the building because he was not cooperating the officers attempted to detain him according to the police department officer ghee grabbed his hand and he immediately curled his arm up to resist the rose Peddler then pushed the officer into a wall so the officer held him against his body to prevent the individual from fleeing the scene out Walmart give me your hand give me your hand stop give me your hand now give it a hand on officer Kirkland then gave loud verbal commands for the individual to stop resisting and secured a handcuff on the person's left wrist as the officers were attempting to gain control of the situation the seller struck officer Kirkland in the face with a closed fist the statement from the police alleges though see for yourself do you see that in the video get on the ground get on the ground get on the ground get on the ground now [ __ ] damn it if you don't stop I'm going to t you you understand put your hand behind your back put the other hand behind your back this right stop yelling please okay give me your hand I can't believe you you're going have to lose the a little bit 24 you guys one DET tank your on [Music] your [ __ ] stay like that stop can I get one more unit please good punch under for that dude what is your problem this is stupid just trying to talk to you dude we were just trying to talk to you is that true I believe this is called gaslighting this this is what really happened do you have an ID on you we're at the uh regular entrance not the grocery one we're just inside the doors all 13 you punched me in the damn don't Eng I got go outside down step outside [Music] problem [ __ ] they they're inside the door just right there if you want to go see what they [Music] need so he's out here doing the Roses we tried just talking to him and he want to act like hear us so we get out with him and he starts with like hey we need your ID cuz we know they're going to want him on trespass he's only 13 apparently you see the lady out there with her cell phone really that's why you're hearing about this that is Mimi rivers and she originally took the video that went viral off of her phone this is her post on Facebook where she says dropping my daughter off first day at work Walmart and Somerville and this happened because they were selling flowers who baby is this this is making sure he's okay that then prompted the Somerville police to post the body cam footage or the raw body cam footage and as often happens they think that the public is going to agree with them but do you agree what's the rest of the story well not a whole lot lot after the kid was handcuffed he told the officers that he was only 13 and because he was underage police will not release his name he declined medical attention and the officer who was allegedly punched in the face by him was treated by EMS at the scene according to the cops the rose Peddler as they refer to him was charged with assaulting an officer engaged in official duties and released to his mother the cops also said that the officers determined that the second person who was who had been selling Palmetto Rose was on an active trespass notice for Walmart police say that they've previously responded to several businesses that have complained about shoplifting by juveniles who were selling paletto roses prove it we will continue to conduct a thorough review of this incident to ensure our officers followed proper protocols and identify any areas for improvement the police chief said in an April 2nd statement well let me see if I can help you identify some areas for improvement here just give me a few minutes to think about about it I'm sure I can come up with something in almost all of these videos the police officers involved could have completely avoided negative exposure to the public if they had just used a little bit of Common Sense and some compassion you can't just be aggressive in every situation I tell people that that practicing law you don't want a lawyer who's just aggressive aggressive aggressive constantly nine times out of 10 you get what you want or what your client wants by being nice to people by being courteous by having compassion by being polite by having conversations with people it's almost always time to be nice that's what's effective until it's time to not be nice here the the critics will say well that's what happens when you fight with police you don't fight with police you know you don't be rude to the police both of these things can be true when you're a police officer you're going to encounter children who are not nice to you for whatever reason there could be hundred different reasons it's not your job to judge them for that or to punish them a little bit of being polite of being nice could have gone a long way here this wasn't a kid who was shoplifting this wasn't a kid who was standing outside selling drugs this is a kid who's making roses out of palm front come on or out of paletto leaves whatever they are I should know this how could they have handled this differently they could have said well Walmart called they don't want you out here you have to leave and then if they don't leave well you take it to the next step instead they can't they didn't bother speaking to them in person we don't see this part on the video but they called to them on the loudspeaker like they're holding hostages or something and then got out and just got in their face and were rude to them condescending how can you expect anything different than the reaction that they did receive all of this could have been avoided just by being nice legally speaking what are the rights here were rights violated this started off as a consensual encounter the kid wasn't immediately detained they started asking him questions they did not have probable cause to arrest a kid far as I know he wasn't under arrest as far as I know they were investigating which they like to do they didn't give him any warning just attacked him with violence so we went from a consentual encounter where the kid was never told he wasn't free to leave in fact he was supposed to leave that was the whole problem to Boom not only is he detained but he's detained with brute force with physical violence should he have not resisted should he have not fought back we don't see him punching but should he have not resisted them whatsoever yeah but our question here is never looking at both sides 50/50 you know who is in the right who is in the wrong this is an action taken under color of law by the government of the other individual it's not an equal interaction did the government act reasonably did they violate the fourth amend by acting unreasonably under the circumstances to detain him all they needed was Reasonable Suspicion they probably had that you've seen enough Walmart trespassing cases to know that but that doesn't mean that they get to do whatever they want with them just go automatically use violence I think they use successive force on this kid here they should have given him the opport they should have been nice as I said they should have given him the opportunity to leave and if you refused to leave then you do what you got to do they skipped several steps which were completely reasonable and this officer ghee went straight to violence I believe that that was excessive and that violated the kids constitutional rights let me know what you think in the comments as always thanks for watching uh please subscribe both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights lawyer.com follow me on Twitter John bran Esq where we go over legal stuff and also completely unrelated history stuff if you have a video you want me to look at a review you can ask me on Twitter I've I've been quite active on there also use the submission link below remember our rights don't end where year fear begins because selling Palm fron roses is really scary deal with [Music] it