A child was arrested and handcuffed over a bag of chips.
Syracuse police officers escorted an 8-year-old boy with his hands clasped behind him to a police car on Sunday afternoon for stealing a bag of chips.
The young boy protested by screaming and cried as angry bystanders argued with police, according to a bystander's video of the incident.
"What are you all doing?"
"If he steals some chips, I'll pay for them!" Kenneth Jackson, a city resident, told police as he recorded the incident.
The man continued, as the police put the boy in the back of the police car.
According to Vice News, the four-minute video, which Jackson posted on Facebook on April 17, has reached more than 49,000 views on the platform, and nearly 5 million on Twitter, while police now say they are reviewing CCTV footage, hoping to provide an explanation of exactly what happened.
"The minor suspected of the robbery has not been handcuffed," a Syracuse Police Department information official wrote in an emailed statement.
Rather, he was “placed in the back of a patrol unit where he was brought straight home. The officers met the child’s father and no charges were brought.”
Anthony Weah, the boy's father, said he wished officers had handled the situation differently, even if his son was wrong, according to Syracuse.
In the video, the officer can be seen holding the sobbing boy by the arms, while onlookers ask why the policemen forced the boy into the car.
During another part of the video, a bystander can be heard telling the police that they had no reason to hold the boy over a bag of potato chips.
"It was Easter Sunday, and this kid in the store is stealing chips, why don't we go into it instead of criminalizing him," Jackson said.
In some states, children as young as 7 can be arrested and charged with crimes.
Reform advocates say that needs to change and that children should be educated, not punished.
The financial burden of their imprisonment also falls on the parents, who sometimes cannot afford the extra cost.
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