The 4 officer arrest is clearly over the top, but I find it a bit suspicious that we’re not being treated to the full text of the e-mail, or at least relevant excerpts beyond a single 3 letter word. If there were also threats of physical violence, then it’s a serious matter, regardless of what names the sender did or didn’t call the recipient. I’d also like to know a bit more about this kid’s disciplinary history at school. If he’s an established playground bully who makes a habit of beating up the weak and unpopular kids, aggressive intervention is warranted, though not the way it was done here.
The arrest of the kid who didn’t want to sit next to Asian classmates was also over the top. But I fail to see what the arrest and fine for throwing a snowball at a (presumably moving) car, has to do with either of the other incidents. Throwing snowballs at passing cars is calculated to startle the driver, and can very easily cause an accident involving property damage, injuries, or worse — there’s nothing “politically correct” about dealing with this as criminal activity, when the perpetrator is certainly old enough to understand the potential for harm. An arrest, followed by an approximately $200 fine and apparently no prison or other detention sentence is quite appropriate — even a tiny fender bender with a car parked on the side of the road would incur much costlier damage than the amount of the fine. And most likely the kid had “priors”.
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