Daily News

You are acting like a child

the officers tell her. To which

she responds I am a child

The only "adult in the room"

a 9-year-old girl surrounded by cops

about to pepper spray her

A 9-year-old black girl

studies show is 3 times more likely

to be treated with such violence

than white girls

And the classroom is a squad car

And the assignment to get help

for a girl in trouble and her mother

is the teacher

but pepper spray becomes the switch

the stick the fist and the cops

are schoolyard bullies

getting off on the fear

And we become bystanders

and our anger and our indignation

turn to bile in our throats.

And the girl in most need

tells us all what we need to hear.

I am a child.

Which means her childhood

has just been stolen from her

with a slam of a patrol-car door