A Stitch in Haste

lost enforcement = when law enforcement, politicians or bureaucrats, when unsure of what the law is, choose to err on the side of arrest, threatening to arrest, confiscation of property or otherwise improperly infringing on individual liberties, often under the guise of "act now and let the courts figure it out later"

A quick pass-along:

Two officers accused of handcuffing a 5-year-old boy after a fight on a school bus have been suspended with pay from police duties while the city investigates the allegations, authorities said.

Chief Tom Streicher assigned officers Douglas Snider and Kaneshia Howell to desk work Tuesday and took away their guns, police officials said. Mekel Finch, the boy's mother, sued the police department, the bus company and the driver in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on Friday. She is asking for more than $50,000.

The lawsuit claims the driver improperly detained the boy after he was struck by another child on the bus on Jan. 13. The lawsuit also claims that Snider and Howell put the child in handcuffs "for an unreasonable amount of time." The child wasn't charged.
...
Fanon Rucker, the lawyer representing Finch and her son Izell, said the other boy in the fight was not handcuffed.

You would think, after enough headlines and outrage, that police departments might get the message and start sending memos or something: Handcuffs are only for restraining a criminal suspect who is a potential flight risk, or a danger to the officers, himself or others. No unarmed five-year old can ever possibly fit that description.

Previous kids-in-cuffs stories here and here.