GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WOOD/CNN) - Honestie Hodges was heading out the back door of her home when she was greeted by Grand Rapids Police. Officers told her to walk backward with her hands up and then put her in cuffs, patted her down and put her in the back of a cop car.
“They had police cars over on this street. They had police cars all along the alley,” the girl's mom, Whitney Hodges, said. “The whole time they are telling her to come down, I’m telling them, ‘She’s 11 years old. That’s my daughter. Don’t cuff her.’”
But her pleas did not stop police. The incident left Honestie shaken and, she said, afraid to open or go near her back door.Grand Rapids Police admits they put her Honestie in handcuffs. The girl said she was horrified by what happened.
“When my mom was walking past, I was putting my hands through the little bars, banging on the windows, screaming, ‘Please don’t let them take me,’” she said.
Police were at the home to look for the girl’s aunt, Carrie Manning, who was wanted for allegedly stabbing her younger sister. The family says the problem is that Manning is a 40-year-old white woman, and Honestie is a little black girl. Honestie said being arrested for no reason has changed her outlook on law enforcement, even on her own future.
“I wanted to be a detective or a police officer, but now I don’t want anything to do with those kind of things,” she said.
Asked what she wanted to tell the police department, Honestie said, “I don’t know. I’m just wondering why they did that to me.”
The Grand Rapids Police Department says an internal investigation sparked by concern from the family was started the day after the incident.
Copyright 2017 WOOD via CNN. All rights reserved.
