The lawyer said he’s baffled that prosecutors pursued the case and that a youth judge oversaw a sentence that included probation and requiring the child to write a report about Kobe Bryant.

A 10-year-old Black child in Mississippi who urinated in public in August was sentenced Tuesday in youth court to three months’ probation, a decision the child’s attorney says was influenced by race.

Quantavious Eason, who is in the third grade, was arrested by Senatobia police Aug. 10 after a police officer saw him relieving himself outside next to his mom’s car when the woman was inside an attorney’s office, according to family attorney Carlos Moore.

Given the circumstances, any child would have done the same thing, Moore said. He noted there was no public restroom at the attorney’s office.

      • Something_Complex@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Even If it was I would take a piss on your officer.

        God America is weird, you realize in most European countries if you are caught pissing in the street the police will:

        1 shout to try and scare you and then tell you to fuck off

        2 nothing else unless you have a private beef with that specific cop

        3 Scandinavian countries are their own thing, but Scandinavians probably wouldn’t piss in the street lol

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Last year I took my daughter to her therapist. She goes after hours. I really had to pee. There was no bathroom in the waiting room and all the other places in the building were closed, so I ran out and peed behind the dumpster. Sometimes you just have to pee.

  • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Here’s an idea, blanket ban on arresting kids unless they’re creating an immediate danger to others.

    • Altofaltception@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Your idea is better. I would have suggested arresting white kids at the same rate as black kids in solidarity with the all lives matter movement.

    • Neato@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Even then I wouldn’t ever term it “arrest” officially. “Detain” and then have a child welfare officer present 100% of the time until the parents can be found. The idea that cops would ever need to arrest a 10yo speaks to their utter ineptitude and malice. If you can’t handle a literal child without resorting to violence and incarceration then you have no skills.

  • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Even if this were a grown man… how is peeing in public a jail sentence or probation?? Here you just get a fine. Or am I too european to understand?

    • Cap@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Not only that put if you do it as an adult you will be put on the sexual offenders list for life. Yay America!

        • Fosheze@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Technically it can happen. Usually is doesn’t. Peeing in public is technically indecent exposure if you are seen (which someone has to see you to catch you anyways). Indecent exposure is considered a sexual offence and can be tried as such.

          But from what I’ve seen in my area of the US if you get caught pissing in public you will just get a fine unless you are a frequent repeat offender or there is some extenuating curcumstance like doing it in full view of other people. It’s one of those things where technically it can get you labeled as a sex offender but it rarely actually does. Of course we have plenty of corrupt judges and that decision lies solely with them so it is always a possibility.

        • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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          11 months ago

          No. California recently got rid of or changed it though I forget the particulars other than it doesn’t come with a sex offender charge now. Another state had also done much the same before California did. Michigan, I think?

    • khannie@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      European here. Public urination is illegal and a friend of mine was nearly charged for peeing on the side of the road on a country lane at the woods when we were kids (edit: around 16).

      This whole thing is crazy though. 10 year olds need to pee.

      • noobnarski@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        Here in Germany it is illegal and you can get fined (no jailtime, as long as you dont try to show your dick to everyone).

        But I have never heard of anyone getting fined for it, but I only know people who pee in bushes and shit, no one that is so trashy that they pee on buildings and stuff, because I would imagine that those cases are prosecuted much more stringently.

        If you stop at any reststop at a highway or country road its also not very unlikely to see someone peeing into some bushes.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        There’s also a big difference between doing it on a street and doing it in the country road. The main difference being you’re not peeing on concrete.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Hes a child; let him go potty. What the fuck is wrong with the world.

      • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        RACISTS

        Never forget that these aren’t monsters. They are flesh and bone and shit humans who fucking bleed.

        • arin@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Wish racists couldn’t breed but that’ll be called eugenics. But they don’t call it eugenics when they put black people in prison where they can’t breed…

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Racism isn’t genetic. Stopping racists from breeding is not the answer. Educating their children and exposing them to diversity is.

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    11 months ago

    I’m pasting part of a comment I made a few days ago on a different post:

    This is called implicit racism, and it permeates our society to a systemic level. Healthcare can be a good example, and the U.S. criminal justice system is the best example imo.

    One thing that really drives home the systemic implicit racism in this country are studies that have people rate black and white men on how strong/large/muscular and threatening they perceive them to be. The black men were perceived to be more threatening and that use of force was more likely to be viewed as justified. Black and white Americans both perceived the black men to be stronger, taller, and more muscular than their equal-sized white counterparts. Source

    Another study found that people view black boys as older than they are, and that they are more responsible for their actions than white boys, whose actions were more likely to be excused by the belief of childhood innocence. So our society essentially strips black boys of their perceived childhood innocence. Same Source

    Also should definitely be pointed out that Black Americans are incarcerated at a nearly 5 times greater rate than are White Americans. Source

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Another study found that people view black boys as older than they are, and that they are more responsible for their actions than white boys, whose actions were more likely to be excused by the belief of childhood innocence.

      Tamir Rice right there. When he was murdered, people online were all over the place saying how he was a tall kid etc, as if that matters in any way

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      11 months ago

      Worth pointing out that, since the first racially biased “study” about crime and race, blacks have been wrongly painted as being “mOrE PrOnE to CrIMe” which has done a lot of damage in further spreading and embedding systemic racism. (Source: The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad)

    • Omega@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      First off, not a fan of ADL and equating anti-zionism with antisemitism.

      Second, just want to call out my home state Arkansas for making it illegal to make mandatory implicit racism training. Like, you aren’t allowed to tell people they’re being racist. Ridiculous.

      Third, fuck the ADL.

  • pandapoo@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    Well, how else should we punish children for…peeing in public? Should we beat them? No, that’s inhumane. Clearly the right answer is…checks notes… separate them from their families and stick them in a cage.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      11 months ago

      I mean it’s the American Way. We get them used to the cage when they’re young first and then when we throw them back in there later on to be an actual slave for corporations for rehabilitation they are comfortable with it!

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      And even before that, the kid should not have been arrested in the first place. That’s just insane to think that a cop can actually arrest a small child at all.

      That poor kid will remember this for the rest of his life and never trust police (if he ever did anyway)

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Sadly, he shouldn’t. Especially since he is black. But really none of us should. They’ve done everything you can imagine to earn our suspicion and loathing.

        It’s downright fucking sickening to imagine a little boy getting ducking arrested. JFC.

        • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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          I’ve said this before it doesn’t matter what color your skin is, cops are not on “your side”

    • khannie@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It never should have been sent to a prosector. Wild that it made it all the way to a judge. Wild.

      Even wilder that the judge didn’t dismiss it out of hand.

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    11 months ago

    The thing that sticks out to me, that no one seems to be talking about, is this:

    “…this week oversaw a sentence that included probation and requiring Quantavious to write a two-page report about Kobe Bryant.”

    He’s charged with urinating outside. Already stupid and ridiculous. But then the judge assigns homework, which… What? And then it’s about Kobe Bryant which has what to do with urinating outside? Why Kobe Bryant?? Is there a public urination charge in his past I don’t know about? Did the judge ask “who’s your favorite person?” and assign homework based on that?

    It’s a dumb thing to be concerned about, but it’s somehow even weirder to me than the rest of it.

    • ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      Read in white news lady voice:

      Quantavious Eason, the urban youth convicted in the case, is alleged by police to have yelled “I’m the Kobe Bryant of public urination” while urinating in front of the officers near his mother’s car.

      Judge Smith, who oversaw the case, assigned Quantavious probabtion, and ordered him to write a two-page essay on Kobe Bryant, asking the boy:

      court recording plays

      Judge: WHAT is WRONG with you?

      Quantavious: N-nothin I just really needed to pee…

      Judge: Are you aware of Kobe Bryant’s dominance in the sport of basketball?

      Quantavious: Ummm… Y-yes sir he’s the g-goat

      Judge: Do you really think your pitiful little pee pee you did by your momma’s car puts you in the same league as Kobe? May he rest in peace

      Court: murmurs

      Judge: Young man, you need to reflect on what you’ve done and take that stank off Kobe’s name.

      Quantavious: But I didn’t even s-say that stuff though…

      Judge: Is that back-talk? Alright. Probabtion. slams gavel

      Quantavious: Sir I’m 10 years old…

    • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I just think the article doesn’t give enough detail. At the same time, I also don’t think it matters really what the person writes about as long as it’s some sort of topic that has to do with being a good community member.

      • Perhaps the urge is to make the person write about why they shouldn’t do the crime again (not that this should have been a criminal matter), and the instinct is to make the person feel ashamed about their antisocial behavior. Better to build a relationship to a positive role model in the community than to label the person as shameful, imo.
  • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Wow, that’s just shameful to arrest a kid over. How about a conversation about why this isn’t acceptable and what to do in the future. Maybe he was scared to ask his mother (doesn’t mean that fear was rational).

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Not only shameful, but wasteful. An entire court room full of people had to get paid to come to this ruling.

      If I were the judge I’d have taken that money out of the cop’s pay and fined him for wasting the court’s time.

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      11 months ago

      Little guy pissed by his moms car because there were no bathrooms. What else was he supposed to do?

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      If the cops racist pigs actually viewed this little boy as equal and human they might have opted to converse.

  • MTLion3@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    10 years old. What the fuck. Little man wasn’t attacking people or breaking shit. Insane

    • pensivepangolin@lemmy.world
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      I mean I think every little boy that’s been on a long car ride ever has done this. How is this worth of any criminal sanction? Insane.

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    11 months ago

    The mom was with the lawyers and they didn’t give them access to a bathroom??? Were they hoping this to happen?

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      I’d say the kid was too shy to go in and ask tbh, especially if his mum was not in the waiting area. Parent of many and I could totally see that happening.

      The whole thing is batshit crazy.

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        Shocked they didn’t go after mom for child negligence or worse. I’m afraid to give them ideas. So sad.