Family Of 5-Year-Old Black Child Allegedly Frisked By Ohio Police During Routine Traffic Stop Speaks Out

When it comes to the issue of systemic racism in policing, an aspect that only ever seems to be discussed within the Black community is the way law enforcement perpetuates the adultification of Black children.

We’ve seen police officers handcuff Black children as young as six and put them face down on the ground during a wrongful stop and detainment. We’ve seen a cop pepper spray a visibly distraught 9-year-old Black girl for behaving in a manner she deemed unruly before telling the pre-adolescent child, “You did it to yourself.” We’ve seen, over and over again, adult police officers treating Black children in a way they would consider monstrous if their own children were handled the same way regardless of what they had done (or in many cases, including the aforementioned examples, what they had not done).

On Dec. 26, in Parma, Ohio, police officers pulled over Black father Brandon Wilson because his tags were expired and the tint on his windows was allegedly too dark. Somehow, this routine stop resulted in a 5-year-old Black child (allegedly) being made to put his hands in the air and frisked by an officer. Now, the boy’s family is demanding justice.

From KNOP News 2:

Wilson’s brother captured the encounter on video in which Wilson can be seen with his hands in the air being searched by an officer. Next to him is his 5-year-old son, Brandon, who allegedly had his pockets searched by police.

In the video, the 5-year-old puts his arms in the air, but it’s unclear if he may have put his arms up because that was what his father was ordered to do at the time.

One officer says to the little boy, “Dad didn’t give you nothing, right?”

Police say Wilson was pulled over for a license plate that expired in September 2024 and for a front tinted window that was too dark. Wilson says the officer opened his driver-side door, and he asked what was going on. As he got out of the car, so did his son.

“My son right here and he’s going in my son’s pockets. I’m like, ‘Y’all shouldn’t touch him at all in the first place.’ Then y’all search my car, and there’s nothing in there,” Wilson said.

In the video, Wilson can be heard telling his son to put his hands down and go over and stand with his uncle.

Following the incident, Wilson says the 5-year-old appears to be traumatized. He says he wants his children to grow up and respect police, not fear them.

“He’s reenacting it with his toys. That’s not cool. They could have went about it a whole different way,” Wilson said. “The officers didn’t have to touch him. I don’t care what y’all do to me.”

Wilson was cited and released after the officers found no probable cause to detain them, begging the question: What was their probable cause to search Wilson, his car or his son in the first place?

Last Friday, the Parmer Police Department released a statement explaining that during the stop, a K-9 was brought to the scene and was alerted to the presence, or recent presence, of a controlled substance at the front passenger side, where the child was seated. “The police department clarified that its K-9 is trained to only alert to narcotics, including heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine,” and that “Officers do not use K-9s that are imprinted on marijuana in these situations,” KNOP reported.

Here’s a question: Why was the K-9 brought out in the first place?

After all, this wasn’t a car that had been reported stolen or suspected of being used to commit a crime. There was no readily apparent reason to suspect that Wilson may have had anything illegal on his person (and certainly not his 5-year-old) if he was only pulled over for an expired tag and window tint. And if it’s a routine practice for stops like this to bring K-9s to start sniffing for probable cause (and you’ll never convince me that this practice is routine for civilians of all demographics equally), how is that practice not simply a loophole to get around people’s constitutionally protected Fourth Amendment right not to be subjected to unreasonable search and seizure? How is it not just “stop-and-frisk” with a couple of extra steps?

The fact remains that it turned out Wilson, his car and his son were clean, meaning his privacy and civil protections (and allegedly that of his son) were violated for no reason. It’s interesting how the Second Amendment was be protected regardless of how many mass shootings occur, and the First Amendment must be protected no matter how much hate speech and misinformation becomes commonplace — but there’s no strong, multiracial advocacy movement behind protecting the Fourth Amendment. 

I can’t help but wonder if it’s because the violation of that constitutional right largely affects Black and Latino people — including their small children.

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