During the second week of testimony on New York City’s controversial stop-and-frisk program, an officer admitted to detaining and then mocking a 13-year-old boy when he started crying. Though the boy was innocent, he was still cuffed and brought to the station:

Appearing on the stand Wednesday, police officer Brian Dennis testified that he had taunted a 13-year-old boy after he detained him. Dennis told the handcuffed child, Devin Almonor, to “stop crying like a little girl.”

The teen was reportedly stopped on the street in Harlem when he reached into his pants’ waste-band. The two officers that stopped him claimed to have been searching for a firearm, but Almonor was found to be carrying no weapons. He was nonetheless handcuffed, taunted and taken to the station house.

Dennis conceded that he no longer thought the taunt was appropriate, but another officer, Jonathan Korabel, maintained the stop of the boy was a “lawful frisk.” He claimed the teen was jaywalking and started “yelling and making a scene” when officers tried to frisk him.

Almonor is hardly the NYPD’s youngest target. In December, the police were once again sued for cuffing and arresting a 7-year-old boy for stealing $5 from a classmate. Lawsuits over police misconduct cost the city $22 million in just one year.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/28/1787441/nypd-officer-told-innocent-13-year-old-to-stop-crying-like-a-little-girl-during-stop-and-frisk/