Florida Sheriff Arrests 10-Year-Old, Releases Mug Shot and Perp Walk, Then Uses Media Tour To Brag About It

“Present deadly physical force at one of our schools, we’re not waiting one second. We are going to kill you, ’cause you can’t kill evil enough,” declares Lee County, Florida, Sheriff Carmine Marceno, in a TikTok video, in front of a pack of gun-wielding deputies, while Journey’s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” inexplicably serves as background music.

It sounds almost like a joke, something from a television show like Reno 911! that finds humor in some of the most awkward behaviors of law enforcement. It’s not. Marceno posted it on his YouTube channel Friday, part of his response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Much less amusing was his department’s decision to respond to an alleged school violence threat by a 10-year-old by arresting him on Saturday, releasing the boy’s full name and a mug shot, and even a perp walk. The boy is accused of texting a threat to commit a mass shooting using images of assault rifles, according to Marceno. The parents of the recipient of the text contacted the police.

It seems likely that the boy had no plan to commit violence at all, and Marceno fully acknowledges this. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office obviously had to investigate the threat, even if it came from a child. That’s not in dispute. But Marceno has also decided to launch a public campaign out of the incident, using this boy to draw attention to what he thinks is the right way to prevent school shootings by deliberately humiliating children who act out in ways that can cause real fear.

Marceno is on a full press tour following the boy’s arrest, and he’s retweeting the press coverage of the decision to treat the child as though he was arrested for knocking over a bank. He’s telling parents that they need to sit their kids down and teach them that fake threats can have real consequences. In an appearance on Fox & Friends (which he has excerpted on his Yo