MIAMI, FL — “Let me show you. I’m going to show you what happens so that you can understand,” said Officer Paul Gourrier as he handcuffed a 5-yr-old child and yanked the child’s ear.
The officer is a 22 year old veteran of the Miami Police Department and the person who was cuffed was a five-year-old kindergarten student at Eneida Harter Elementary School at the time.
The pre-schooler had been fighting with another child over a toy when his teacher took him to the school counselor Margarita Fernandez’ office.
She says he was playing around in her office, un-phased by how much he had upset the other kid – not uncharacteristic for children that age.
That is when Officer Paul took matters into his own hands.
He asked the Feliciano boy if he knew what could happen to him if he continued not to listen.
When the young boy said a simple “no”, the officer handcuffed him and walked him out of the counselor’s office.
A school security guard says Paul then took the boy to the school’s front door and pointed to his police cruiser.
He told the boy he could end up in jail if he continued misbehaving.
The boy’s father, Hector Feliciano, learned of the incident when the two were on their way back from school.
Hector says he had intended to deal with his son in his own way.
However, there was more to officer’s senseless action – the kindergartner said Paul had pulled his ears too.
When confronted by the school’s principal, the policeman coolly admitted cuffing the kid.
In a later investigation he also said he wanted to teach the kid a lesson.
Counselor Fernandez says the Feliciano boy had some continuing issues with the other boy.
Officer Paul’s record is disturbing.
There have been six citizen complaints against him and there are four incidents of use of force on his file.
The public is raising questions over why a man with such a troubling background was allowed to be around young children.
According to an internal affairs investigation his actions are in breach of several policies and rules of the city of Miami.
The department penalized the officer by suspending him from duty for 20 hours, four months after the incident.
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