These type of stories are the reasons why we need to embrace the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s the reason why Colin Kaepernick took a knee. It is why African-American communities don’t trust the police.
The City of Chicago recently settled a multi-million dollar suit with the family of Davianna Simmons because the Chicago Police Department pointed a loaded gun at the then 3-year-old during a raid at her grandparents’ home in 2013. (SB: Ironically, that’s the minimum age of immigrant children that are being asked to defend themselves in court, but that’s another story.)
Court documents suggest that the gun was pointed at the toddler’s chest, despite pleas from her handcuffed mother, Aretha Simmons, and grandmother, Emily Simmons, to turn the weapon away from the child. The family alleges they were told to “shut up” and the gun remained pointed at the innocent child.
Davianna, who The Daily Mail reports was once a happy-go-lucky kid, suffered from PTSD following the horrific incident. Her family says she “springs up in the middle of the night and looks around, crying and screaming, ‘the police are coming, the police are here!’ or ‘they’re here.’”
According to the complaint, the police were looking for Aretha’s boyfriend who didn’t even live there. After ransacking her home, they found no illegal drugs or weapons.
Davianna was later diagnosed by pediatric psychiatrist Dr. Niranjan Karnik with “one of the worst cases of child post-traumatic stress disorder” he had ever seen, reports the Mail.
The settlement from the city of Chicago was proffered on Feb. 20, 2018; hours before the case was set to go to trial. Just weeks earlier, thousands of pages of documents were surrendered by the city, which led to further allegations some officers involved in the case had committed perjury.
