‘Somebody Help!’: Cops Handcuff Mentally Challenged Boy, Before Pepper Spraying & Beating Him

Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

Albion, MI — Utterly horrifying and extremely hard to watch body camera footage has just been released of the arrest of a 13-year-old boy, whose only ‘crime’ had been acting up at home. Da’veon Cieslack, the mentally ill child had been hiding his grandmother’s keys and throwing pillows and so police showed up, handcuffed him, threw him in the back of a cruiser and proceeded to savagely beat him. 

The incident occurred on November 24, 2018 as police were called out to a home to deal with the 13-year-old. The boy’s grandmother called them and rather than deal with her own flesh and blood herself, she had police do the dirty work—and dirty it was.

When police showed up, Cieslack allowed them to handcuff him without incident and sat in the back of the cruiser thinking he was going to be taken to a hospital. However, a the boy overheard police deciding on where they should take him, juvenile detention over the hospital, he began to get scared.

For hiding his grandmother’s keys, police were going to take the boy to juvenile detention. After all, when your only tool is a hammer, even mentally ill boys look like nails. Sadly, as police become the go to call for mental health issues and behavior problems—instead of medical professionals and parents—this sort of situation is getting more common.

When Cieslack—who had not committed a crime—heard that police were going to bring him to jail for misbehaving, he went into panic mode and began begging the cops to give him one more chance. His cries for help are utterly heart breaking.

“Please give me one more chance. I have church tomorrow. Just give me one more chance. I’ll do anything,” Cieslack pleads in the video. “I’ll even clean up the police cars for you guys. I’ll do anything.”

But these officers from the Albion Police Department were not giving in. For misbehaving, they were going to take him to jail.

Cieslack responded to the idea of going to jail by banging his head against the window—which likely seemed like the only option to the frightened boy. When the officers opened the door to stop him, all hell broke loose.

Not wanting to go to jail, Cieslack began squirming and flailing about. Despite the fact that the boy was in handcuffs, one officer felt it necessary to begin punching the restrained 13-year-old in the face—repeatedly.

When the other officer entered the other side of the vehicle, the screaming child allegedly spit on him which made the cops that much more intent on hurting this boy.

“Close the door,” an officer can be heard saying. “I’m going to pepper-spray him.”

For refusing to be kidnapped and thrown in a cage for his misbehavior, Cieslack was savagely beaten and pepper sprayed while handcuffed with his hand behind his back.

Despite clear evidence of child abuse and the beating of a handcuffed person in their custody captured on video, the officer was not criminally charged, only fired.

“As a result of the internal investigation, the involved Officer was found to have violated several Department policies which warranted termination of employment. On February 20, 2019, then Acting City Manager and Chief Kipp issued a termination letter to the Officer,” a statement read from the department.

Sadly, the only person to be charged that night was the 13-year-old boy who was kidnapped and thrown into juvenile detention on charges of resisting and obstruction—two charges that never would’ve existed had police not been called to deal with a misbehaving child.

Since that fateful night in November, five months ago, Cieslack has been locked up in juvenile detention.

Free Thought Project