White Grandfather Detained While Walking With Black Granddaughter: Scott Henson Cuffed By Texas Police

A crime and politics blogger living in Austin, Texas, claims he was cuffed and detained by police for simply walking home with his five-year-old granddaughter.

The reason this happened, he says, is because he is white and she is black.

Scott Henson, a political consultant who blogs about the criminal justice system at Grits For Breakfast said he was walking home from a roller skating rink with his 5-year-old granddaughter Ty last Friday night when he was stopped by a female deputy.

The officer told him that there were reports of a white man kidnapping a black girl and he was ordered to step away from Ty as the officer questioned the girl, the New York Daily News reported.

"He's my Grandpa!" was Ty's response, according to Henson's blog.

After a few minutes of questioning, Henson and Ty were allowed to walk home. They were just two blocks away when they were stopped by five flashing police cars and a crowd of police.

"The officers got out with tasers drawn demanding I raise my hands and step away from the child," Henson said.

Henson complied, but he said the cops handled him roughly, jerking his arms as they cuffed him. The scene caused Ty to edge up the hill away from the officers, crying.

"One of them called out in a comforting tone that they weren't there to hurt her, but another officer blew up any good will that might have garnered by brusquely snatching her up and scuttling her off to the back seat of one of the police cars," Henson said.

The officers kept questioning Ty over and over again, but Henson said they took their sweet time calling the phone numbers he gave them to verify that she was his granddaughter and he had permission to walk her home.

Henson said the police never apologized, even after they released them, though they did explain that they take kidnapping calls very seriously.

Henson, however, recalls that a very similar situation happened back in 2008, according to the Daily Mail.

As frightening as it was for Ty, Henson said she was happy about one thing: The police officer questioning her did let her play with the flashlight.

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[nachocat]

07:08 PM on 02/22/2012

It turns out this guy is a big fat liar.

[Jerilyn Jund]

06:18 PM on 02/20/2012

Kidnapping should be taken seriously, and that the man was of a different race, one may question this after being told the man was kidnapping the child, why should they doubt this? The Grandfather and Child should have been approached in a less traumatizing way for the child's sake, she may fear police now and may not call for assistance if ever in need of assistance. Too bad, but I'm glad the police stepped in to investigate for the safety and well being of the child, they just could have been nicer about it.

[mother10]

03:54 PM on 02/20/2012

Somebody CALL the Cops ! hahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHhahahahah...

[mother10]

03:51 PM on 02/20/2012

Man that picture does NOT look right ! sorry...

[zebestblonde]

11:18 PM on 02/19/2012

Adding to the previous comment- cops put themselves in the FINAL situation regarding how they handled ALL the information that was given to them. No one else. Find for society to be concerned, but a white guy, walking with his granddaughter, red-white-black-green-yellow... you get the point- last time I looked- wasn't illegal. Nosy people just wanting to stir something up. And the pulling out of tasers is overkill. Really... given the story and the facts- that's excessive and NOT the training. Cops are taser and shoot happy- if the guy had been black and the little girl white- say it was a grand daughter from a son he had who married someone who already had the girl, cops may have used the taser or worst. In this case- they let him go, then all come at him again- if the idiots had truly thought he wasn't who he said- poor police work to let him go, but they did- so why chase him down again. The cops screwed up in several ways. Kinda has you wondering how many REAL crimes went down when they wasted grandpa's time

[djtejas]

12:35 AM on 02/20/2012

It's already been proven they did not point tasers at him after he saw the video last Friday.
The video will be released this week and we can all see what happened. Supposedly the video will show they did not be rough with him either.
No one called because he was walking with her...someone called because they saw a man chasing a little girl from the recreation center around 7:45 in the evening.
Henson even says he was in fact chasing behind his "grandaughter" because she was running ahead of him.

[zebestblonde]

05:23 PM on 02/20/2012

Also- going off the article- many reports can NOT ever get their facts straight. The point is the cops FAILED- all they had to do was VERIFY the grandpa's info- then do their job and move the HELL ON- the fact this made the news- HELLO- cops failed to do that! And how many REAL crimes were actually going on they weren't responding to where innocent people were waiting and the SCUM bad guys or worse were getting away

[Julie Atlas]

04:34 PM on 02/19/2012

My now husband, then fiance, had the police called on him because he is African American and my daughter is Caucausion, when he took her for ice cream. Someone called and reported my daughter as being kidnapped by my fiance. My daughter was happy and content and the officer that was called was very apolgetic. It is unfortunate that society puts police in this bad position. While the police shouldn't have jerked him around, they have to take every report of a kidnapping seriously. We decided to write him a permission note after that, very sad.

[peacedreammusic1287]

03:35 PM on 02/19/2012

Honestly, this is like totally racy! in my family, half of us are Caucasian on my mom's side and on my dad's side we are African-American. whenever i walk around with my mom, we look nothing alike except for our hair! police have bothered us this way, and my dad wanted to sue them! good heavens, WHAT is WRONG with the police?! they totally have issues!

[bravo11delta6]

01:11 AM on 02/20/2012

Are you 9? Like, OMG!! Totally!

[mother10]

03:52 PM on 02/20/2012

hahahhahahHAHAHAAHHAHAHAhahahahahahhahaha...you are so wrong for that ! But still...hahahahhahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH

[peacedreammusic1287]

09:02 PM on 02/20/2012

no, im not nine, im waaaaaay older than that.

[mother10]

03:52 PM on 02/20/2012

IT'S HARD BEING MIXED

[inkhosi]

01:07 PM on 02/19/2012

That must be his stepgrandaughter. She is way too dark to realistically be even a quarter white. I mean, it is possible...but I doubt it very much. Either way, that's their business and him being a good grandfather is all that matters.

[Cristancho]

07:48 PM on 02/19/2012

My nieces are quarter white, and their skin is just as dark especially in the summer. Confusing, huh?

[inkhosi]

10:57 PM on 02/19/2012

That's an exception. Generally, that's not the case. But, anyway, on another article I read that this young girl is actually his goddaughter's daughter...not exactly a "granddaughter."

[Dani09]

11:20 PM on 02/19/2012

We are all part of a complicated fabric. Some people are a bit more conversant than others. You communicated that kindly. Thank you. :)

[MsJanice]

01:18 PM on 02/20/2012

She could be black as tar and be 100% his natural granddaughter. Mixed raced children are not what YOU expect them to be. That's God's work. I have numberous colors in my family. You are an idiot.

[mother10]

03:53 PM on 02/20/2012

TAR ?

[inkhosi]

12:16 AM on 02/21/2012

I don’t know why everyone is getting up in arms about something that’s factually true. A mixed person is generally not going to be as a black person who is unmixed. It’s just common sense. Doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions---but they’re just that and only that. Just because someone in YOUR family might be an exception doesn’t mean that reality changes completely. That’s one case. And what is it that you find offensive anyway? News outlets did report, after all, that she’s his goddaughter’s daughter…so this doesn’t prove your case.

[prettylites2011]

04:13 PM on 02/19/2012

This is a racist comment that you have made by calling this lil Black girl a "pickaninne"--but it does not surprise that a racist website like this would post your comment either.

[djtejas]

05:41 PM on 02/19/2012

Not a cool comment...

[djtejas]

11:59 AM on 02/19/2012

Here's what Henson now says about making incorrect statements in his blog...You can't just make public accusations and after it all blows up say "oh I got those wrong, but it wasn't intentional". The damage was already done by the time he said it was wrong....if you are going to publicly accuse someone of something, you should make sure your accusations are correct. If some of his accusations were now in fact incorrect, how many others might be?

Did I intentionally make up the drawn taser? Of course not, no more than a witness who falsely identifies a suspect by mistake. In 2001, I helped pass the legislation to require cameras in police cars, for heaven's sake, I knew full well the incident was being taped! I said what I remembered and remembered that detail wrong. Vision and memory is not the same as a videotape.

[Sean Harrigan]

04:19 PM on 02/19/2012

if it was anything like many other cases ive seen, i bet the police treatment was extremely heavy handed and just plain rude. citizens deserve much better. we don't need better cops, we just need better protections from their abuses

[djtejas]

06:00 PM on 02/19/2012

But the point here is no one should be judging what happened until we see the video.
Anyone can make accusations all they want, but that doesn't make it so.,,but everyone takes the side of the accuser that offers no proof.

[djtejas]

11:53 AM on 02/19/2012

An actual comment from Scott Hensons' update on his blog:

Many, many people have asked whether I will sue or file a complaint, so let me reiterate here, just as I said in the blog comments and in writing to Chief Acevedo and Ms. Osborn (though somehow she didn't find it fit to print): "Not only am I not going to sue the police, I doubt anyone even violated APD policies so a complaint wouldn't do much either - they're TRAINED to respond like that, which is my main beef with what happened. This wasn't a bug in the system, it's a feature."

[Sean Harrigan]

02:30 PM on 02/19/2012

police need to be trained to treat citizens civilly. im with henson on that 100%

[djtejas]

02:55 PM on 02/19/2012

Yeah, it would be pretty nice if they could just politely ask suspects if they are the "bad guy" and need to be arrested....

[Connie Kenney]

11:29 AM on 02/19/2012

Was the person who called in the false report arrested?

[djtejas]

01:32 PM on 02/19/2012

When a person calls in and reports a "POSSIBLE" kidnapping because they saw a man chasing a little girl from the recreation center close to 8:00 in the evening, should that be considered a false report?

[Lifer2006]

10:59 AM on 02/19/2012

This is "The great State of Texas".....yeeehaaaaa¡¡¡¡

[Ashleigh L]

10:04 AM on 02/19/2012

Cops suck Sh**. Oh, the stories I could tell you of actual, true abuse & corruption in San Jose, CA, Hollister, CA...the Santa Clara County Police. It'd take up way too much space, but I and others experienced or witnessed it 1st hand. All cops have power issues. This came straight from the mouths of cops & wan to be cops I have spoken with.
This family should sue & those things should be relieved of their duties as public servants & protectors!

[inkhosi]

01:07 PM on 02/19/2012

You're looking good! Oops, sorry for ignoring your comment. You shouldn't distract people with that beautiful picture.

[Stephany Sigers]

09:42 AM on 02/19/2012

Wow! Call me an overprotective mom, but If I were this beautiful little girl's mother, I'd be ready for heads to roll. This isn't the impression police officers should be given little children. Yes, take kidnapping seriously but get your freaking facts straight. While harassing an innocent man and frightening a little girl, who knows how far the real kidnapper got.

[djtejas]

11:46 AM on 02/19/2012

Evidently you not read the latest news on this...do some research instead of relying on the little bit of misleading info here...