Videos showing an innocent Black middle schooler in central New York state being detained by deputies who insist she matches the suspect description of a car thief has drawn thousands of outraged reactions online. The clips show deputies from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office in Syracuse, New York, placing an 11-year-old girl in handcuffs as her friends watch. Confused and alarmed by the detainment, the child’s cousin explains to the officers that they had just left school and were playing in the snow before the deputies arrived. A video screenshot shows an 11-year-old girl being arrested. (Photo: Facebook/MacKenzie Breeanna) A female deputy explains that officers are looking for a woman who stole a black Kia and is being sent a picture of the suspect to confirm whether the handcuffed child is indeed the culprit. “She can’t drive!” one child proclaims. “What do you mean?” the female deputy questions. “Most kids can’t drive and they’re still out here stealing cars.” “That’s a sixth grader,” one boy states. After the kids ask about the suspect description, the deputies state that the young girl, who is wearing a pink jacket and dark-colored pants, matches the description to a tee. Once the cop is messaged a picture of the perp on her phone, she says to the handcuffed girl, “Girl, you telling me this ain’t you?” The other kids gather around to view the picture and insist that the suspect isn’t their friend, pointing out that the woman in the photo has a lighter skin complexion and is wearing a different pair of shoes. As other deputies pull up to the scene and exit their cars, the kids shout that they have the wrong person detained. Once it appears the young girl is about to be taken into custody, she begins crying. Then, another deputy walks up to the girl, shows her the photo, and asks, “You’re gonna lie and tell me that’s not you?” Her friends vehemently assert the girl’s innocence and the girl insists the suspect is not her. “Listen, it is what it is. If you’re honest, it’ll make it easy,” the cop states. “She is honest,” one friend yells back. Immediately after that back-and-forth, a female deputy shouts that the suspect is not the handcuffed child, and the deputies remove the girl’s handcuffs. The video shows tears streaming down the girl’s face while her cousin hugs her to comfort her. “This is so crazy,” the girl’s cousin proclaims. A deputy tries to defend the detainment, stating that the girl and the suspect resemble each other, but the girl’s cousin points out clear distinctions in the photo, including the suspect’s height, hair length, and shoe color. As the kids begin to walk away from the police scene, one deputy maintains that the girl might still be the suspect. “You guys are twins, alright?” the deputy rudely states. “If it is you —” “It’s not,” the female deputy shouts. “This girl’s got hair down to her ass,” she adds of the suspect. “I just watched the video, you guys are identical, it’s nuts,” she tells the child. “I’m sorry but you matched the description pretty clearly,” another deputy is heard telling the girl. “But you guys are good to go. I’m sorry.” “That’s racism,” the girl’s cousin states as she and her friends walk away. Atlanta Black Star reached out to the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office about the deputies’ treatment of the young girl while she was detained. The girl’s mother, Mackenzie Breeana, recently posted the videos to her Facebook page, stating that her daughter was released at school at 1:55 p.m., less than an hour before deputies detained her. “When did she have time to steal a Kia? If she did steal the Kia, where is it? Why would she be talking down the street playing in the snow with her friends?” the mother wrote, tagging the sheriff’s office profile. Her videos were shared nearly 5,000 times on Facebook and drew the fury of hundreds of viewers who challenged the deputies’ actions. “This just broke my heart, then to hear her cry, omfg,” one person wrote. “The police saying she looks like her twin was very racist and doesn’t justify why they automatically put her in handcuffs,” someone else commented. “But she looks like a kid cause she’s a kid,” another person added. “Nothing about her says grown women, smfh.” According to the Center for Policing Equity, adultification is a phenomenon that Black children suffer at disturbing rates in the United States. The term refers to racial biases that account for why Black children are perceived as less innocent and more adult-like than white children, which often results in discriminatory treatment. A 2017 study conducted by Georgetown University’s Center on Poverty and Inequality found that young Black girls are often treated with less protection and support by adults than white girls of the same age range, particularly in schools and the juvenile justice system. ‘You Guys Are Twins’: Outrage As New York Cop Handcuffs Terrified Black 11-Year-Old Girl Walking Home, Accuses Her of Being Adult Car Thief In Shocking Viral Video