Honestie Hodges is an 11-year-old elementary school student in Michigan. Last week on Wednesday, Honestie was leaving her house via the back door to go to the store when she found herself in the middle of a Grand Rapids, Michigan law enforcement police action. As NBC affiliate WOOD TV8 in Grand Rapids explains Honestie has been profoundly troubled by this experience.
“I wanted to be a detective or a police officer, but now I don’t want anything to do with those kind of things,” she said. “I’m just wondering why they did that to me.” [...]
“I’m afraid to open or go near my back door because of what happened,” she said.
What happened, according to the report, is that Grand Rapids police were pursuing a “dangerous” 40-year-old white woman. Honestie happened to walk out of her house into an area where the police were setting up a search. The problem is that instead of moving Honestie along safely—since she is clearly not a middle-aged white woman—the police felt it necessary to, at gunpoint, put handcuffs on her and pat her down. They then loaded the child into the back of a police car. You know, the way you might treat an adult criminal who was just arrested.
Honestie said the officers had their guns drawn and they ordered her to walk backwards with her hands up. Then after slapping on some handcuffs, she said they patted her down and they took her to the waiting squad car.
"When my mom was walking past, I was putting my hands through the little bars, banging on the windows screaming, ‘Please don’t let them take me!'" she said.
The woman being sought after is allegedly Honestie’s aunt, wanted for a stabbing. Once again, Honestie’s aunt is a white lady born around 1976-1977. Sgt. Cathy Williams told the news station that all over investigations have been put on hold until this situation has been fully investigated. Of course, as of this moment, none of the officers involved have been suspended or even taken off their normal beat.