Miami-Dade Police remain under fire after the mother of a 14-year-old boy produced a cell phone video showing officers choking and beating her son in what appears to be an unprovoked attack that illustrates how racial discrimination today remains high.
Though officers later reasoned they only accosted Tremaine McMillan after he gave them a “dehumanizing stare,” they apparently had little trouble disrespecting the teen to the point where he could openly be seen urinating on himself as they held him, pinned down to the ground.
A still subdued McMillian, later told local TV station WSVN about the Memorial Day attack. “It makes me feel sad.”
All the teen’s troubles started late last month after officers assigned to patrol Haulover Beach spotted him wrestling with a friend. When officers approached and told him the rough play was “unacceptable behavior, McMillan retreated a few steps to retrieve his six-month-old Pit Bull puppy that was languishing nearby.
It was then officers contend he gave them a questionable stare, provoking them to follow him on their ATV’s, and soon confront him. By then, McMillan’s mother, Maurissa Holmes, was standing nearby and ran to tell officers “That’s my son… can you get off of him … he can’t breathe.”
Police later wrote in their official report that McMillian attempted to pull away from them and at some point clenched his fist in aggression, before shouting ‘”Man, don’t touch me like I did something.’”
Seasoned Detective Alvarado Zabaleta,"all that body language alone is already letting the officers know that this is a person that now is obviously getting agitated and can become violent. Of course we have to neutralize the threat in front of us. When you have somebody that is being resistant, somebody that is pulling away from you, somebody that’s clenching their fist, somebody that’s flaring their arms, that’s the immediate threat.”
But just how much of a threat is an unarmed teen carrying a puppy to a battery of armed and trained police officers? “How could my fist be balled up when I had a baby bottle (used to feed the puppy) in my right hand and my puppy in my left,” the teen wondered.
Just the same, as with numerous other race relation news stories, he’s now facing a felony charge of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He goes to trial on July 16.
Though McMillan family members contend the pup, Marco, suffered injuries to his front paw during the incident, police never mentioned the animal in any of their reports. The dog is filmed yelping in the video whenever his front leg is touched.
Change.org started a petition in hopes of having all the charges against McMillian dropped and the city held responsible for any medical incurred by he, and his dog. Upon a request from the boy’s attorneys, thus far city officials have declined to drop any of the charges.