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May 30, 2013

Miami Police Shove, Choke Black Teen for "Dehumanizing Stares" 
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An African-American teenager is accusing Miami police of brutality after
being pushed to the ground and placed in a chokehold. Fourteen-year-old
Tremaine Mc Millian was carrying his young puppy when a Miami-Dade
police officer confronted him. Police say Tremaine appeared to be a
threat because he gave the officer "dehumanizing stares." The officer
pushed Mc Millian to the ground and held him there in a chokehold.
Speaking to CBS Miami, Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta tried
to justify the incident by saying even though he tried to walk away, Mc
Millian was accosted because his "body language" amounted to a threat.

Alvaro Zabaleta: "Once he's approaching the roadway, they grab him. And
then once his body language of stiffening up, closing the fists, flaring
his hands, trying to pull away — well now you're resisting an
officer that point. Of course we have to neutralize the threat in front
of us. And 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. At this point,
we're not dealing or concerned with the puppy, what we're concerned
about is the immediate threat towards the officer."

Mc Millian says he was feeding his puppy with a bottle when the police
attacked him. The puppy suffered an injury to his left paw.

 

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