The attorney for the 10-year-old Black boy who was charged after urinating in public believes that race played a factor in his sentence.
Quantavious Eason was taken into police custody by Senatobia, Mississippi, officers for urinating behind his mother’s car in a parking lot in early August. His mother, Latonya, was visiting her lawyer at the time, and the office did not have a public bathroom. He was placed in the back of a police cruiser and transported to the station. Quantavious was reportedly charged with being a child in need of supervision, and the situation has changed his views on law enforcement.
The third grader, who was not handcuffed during the controversial arrest, appeared in court on Tuesday when he was given three months probation and required to do check-ins, WMC reported.
Additionally, he was ordered to write a two-page assignment on the late notable basketball star Kobe Bryant. Quantavious’ family attorney, Carlos Moore, slammed the decision, adding that the same outcome would not happen to his counterparts of other races. A lawsuit against the department is in the works.
“Black boys are demonized or criminalized at a very young age. Had he been a little white boy urinated he would had not been arrested,” Moore told the outlet. “We are going to take this to the highest heights, and we are going to file it in federal court. We are going to fight for justice, and they are going to pay this family for what they have endured.”
Days after the incident, the Senatobia Police Department announced that the officer involved in the case was no longer an employee. The other officers who were present faced disciplinary action, and officers would have to attend mandatory juvenile training.
Latonya doesn’t think her son’s punishment is justified: “My son is going through enough getting arrested, and then for him having to see a probation officer and then write an essay, I don’t think it’s right or it’s fair,” she told NBC News.
“The average child would use the bathroom outside … and probably some grown men that would do the same thing,” the mother added.
Speaking to WMC, Moore described the situation as “an informal adjustment probation” and emphasized that he didn’t plead guilty to any charges.
