In September 2019, former Orlando school resource officer Dennis Turner, who handcuffed and arrested a 6-year-old girl at Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy Charter School, was fired days after the incident hit the news. On Monday night, new video from another school resource officer’s body camera shed light on the cruel use of fear employed by Turner after he arrested 6-year-old Kaia Rolle for throwing a tantrum and kicking a couple of school employees.
The body camera footage shows Officer Turner replying to young Kaia’s question about the zip ties he has in his hands by saying, “They’re for you,” as he applies them to her wrists. Rolle begins crying, saying “No … no, don’t put handcuffs on!” The rest of the video consists of Rolle weeping and pleading with the officer to let her go home and not take her away as Turner escorts her to the back of his vehicle. School employees apparently have nothing to say about this, as they do nothing and don’t make a peep while Rolle is taken away.
The Reserve Officer Program employs former Orland Police Department officers like Turner, who retired from the force in 2018. It also turned out that Turner had arrested an 8-year-old at the school earlier that morning. Turner was fired after an investigation into the arrest showed that, among other things, Turner had not followed protocol which dictates that no child under the age of 12 can be arrested without approval from the watch commander. In his report, Turner stated that one of the employees who was punched and kicked by the 6-year-old had stated that she wanted to press charges against Kaia. School employees denied this recounting of events, saying they didn’t ask to press charges nor did they want the child arrested.
Kaia was booked, fingerprinted, photographed for a mug shot, and charged with battery. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Rolle the next day because SHE’S A 6-YEAR-OLD WHO THREW A TANTRUM!!!! Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon apologized at the time, saying it made him “sick to my stomach” knowing a young child was sitting handcuffed in a squad car. “As a grandfather of three children less than 11 years old, I can only imagine how traumatic this was for everyone involved.”
Dennis Turner had a real storied, decades-long career in the the Orlando police force, according to The Washington Post, consisting of abusing his own 7-year-old son, and excessive force reprimands.
Turner spent 23 years as a police officer in Orlando before retiring in June 2018, according to the department. Early on in his career, Turner was arrested and charged with abusing his 7-year-old son, the Orlando Sentinel reported at the time. Rolón said Monday that Turner was disciplined following an internal investigation. Turner was also issued a written reprimand for excessive force after he Tasered a man five times, jolting the suspect twice when he was already on the floor and no longer resisting, according to a 2016 report from the Sentinel.
Kaia’s grandmother Meralyn Kirkland told CBS at the time that when she went to get Kaia, she informed the Juvenile Assessment Center official that her granddaughter did suffer from sleep apnea, a condition that they were trying to get her treatment for, and led to her not getting the best sleep. The official told her that he too had sleep apnea and didn’t “behave like that.” Which, to be honest, is such a holy shit kind of thing to say, I’m almost speechless. The whole fucking police department seems to be acting like they need to get some sleep and wake up in a better mood—and they aren’t SIX YEARS OLD!
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Turner told school administrators that up until Kaia, the youngest child he had arrested was a 7-year-old boy caught stealing from a supermarket. According to the paper, Turner said he arrested the kid because he didn’t cry like the rest of the other kids who were busted for stealing—something that Turner believed proved the boy thought getting in trouble was “just a joke.”
It is important to note that Turner’s actions were not illegal under Florida’s laws, as they do not have a minimum age requirement for arrest. Meanwhile, the other officer involved has not been identified, and by all accounts has not even been censured. What that officer’s purpose is, other than to film child abuse with his body camera like a creep, remains to be seen.
For anyone who believes in the ‘scared straight’ model of learning, the one that helps perpetuate centuries of abuse and addiction and depression among generations of children, this is a reminder that you are wrong. The lessons you think are being learned are a small fraction of the deeper, more painful, and much harder-to-understand “lessons” that those children are truly learning.
WARNING: The video is rough stuff to watch, as you might be able to tell by my use of bad words and ALL CAPS.