Harshly Admonished Desk Doodler to Sue City for $1M

In this file photo, a dangerous perp is apprehended by police.

The pre-teen who was cuffed and detained after doodling on her desk this year wants the city to pay $1 million in damages for its overreaction. Queens junior high student Alex Gonzalez was hauled off in front of her classmates after writing "Lex was here 2/1/10'' and "I love my friends Abby and Faith'' on her desk in erasable maker. The family may have a case, since after the 12-year-old’s arrest a DOE spokesman admitted that “Based on what we've seen so far, this shouldn't have happened," and the NYPD’s Paul Browne said that “common sense” should have prevailed.

The case hinges on “the excessive use of force and violation of the girl's rights” in the ordeal, according to the News. Alexa's mother told the tabloid that "The whole situation has been a nightmare." Two other court cases concerning student arrests are ongoing: that of 13-year-old Chelsea Fraser who was arrested after scribbling “okay” on her desk and of Dennis Rivera, a 5-year-old who was cuffed for throwing a temper tantrum (after which police piloted the use of velcro kiddie handcuffs). The NYCLU has also filed a class action suit on behalf of wrongly arrested students.

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By Sabrina Jaszi in News on April 3, 2010 2:00 PM

Comments [rss]

treetalk

"and the NYPD’s Paul Browne said that “common sense” should have prevailed." --

Sure there are probably a couple cop geniuses, but the average IQ of a cop is likely to be well below 95. They simply don't have enough grey matter on average to have "common sense" to begin with. That's why they're cops to begin with. They are usually just a small step away from being power hungry criminals themselves. Every last cop I've ever met has never had anything intelligent to say. But give them a doughnut and they are happy.. .

Såkandulæredet

Where do they get these numbers $1 million? Do they just make them up? Is there any rhyme or reason to it?

robingee

Every lawsuit begins with $1 Million. Someone I know filed a lawsuit once and the lawyer was like, "Let's start at one million." Because they can always talk them down. They ended up with $40K.

jnguy

One million dollars.

GalBklyn

With the murder rate going up, and the level of pedestrians being killed you would think the NYPD would have something else to do.

But I guess it is all about priorities -- easier to cuff a jr. highschool girl then do some gumshoe work and get the bad guy who just ended a life.

Thanks Ray Kelly for all you do.