Cop Breaks Youth's Arm On School Bus, Police Say 'Within Protocol'

Chris | InformationLiberation
Feb. 04, 2014

Two Rotterdam, New York police officers helping to remove a youth with developmental disorders from a school bus got tired of trying to reason with him, so he and his partner escalated to using physical force.

Surveillance video of the incident shows the youth was simply sitting in a bus seat refusing to move, after police grabbed him he is seen not putting up any real fight, at most he appears to be going limp. After pulling him out of his chair, the cops put him against a seat, then one cop decides to twist the youth's arm behind his back in a hammerlock, but then the cop winds up and decides to shove his arm even further, literally snapping his bones in the process.

It seems the officer can slightly be heard saying, "oh [expletive]," after he breaks the boy's arm, though one must wonder what he thought would happen by cranking the youth's arm overwhelmingly past the breaking point like he was prying on a car jack.

The youth continued to put up no resistance despite his arm being broken, yet the officers elected to charge the boy with "obstructing governmental administration in the second degree."

The boy is still facing charges, his family in the meantime has filed suit against the department for a million dollars.

His parent's attorney told the press "there was clear and obvious use of excessive force."

"They placed his arm in a position where they locked the arm and proceeded with significant force to break the arm between the shoulder blade and elbow, creating a displaced fracture."

Despite breaking the youth's arm, Rotterdam police chief James Hamilton cleared his officers during an internal investigation saying they "followed department protocol and procedures."

All the cop had to do was calmly walk the boy off the bus, he was being compliant enough. Instead, for whatever reason, he chose to put him into a hammerlock, then break his arm. I guess the chief is telling us hammerlocks into over-crank arm-breaking is now part of Rotterdam police's official protocol.
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