The inhumane practice of handcuffs in the US has to stop

I have written about this in the past, but I think it deserves reiterating.

For some reason that I don't really understand in the United States "arresting someone" and "putting that someone in handcuffs" seems to be considered 100% synonyms. The former automatically and pretty much always implies the latter. When someone is arrested, that someone is put in handcuffs as a matter of course, like it were a verbal statement of "you are under arrest".

And what's worse is that this custom is so deeply entrenched in the American culture that nobody considers it odd or wrong.

However, the fact is that the practice is inhumane and barbaric, and should be put in the same category as tasers and pepper spray. In other words, to be used only in extreme need, if there's no other way. Even American police officers don't automatically pepper-spray and tase every single individual they arrest, "just in case" and for "officer safety". When they arrest someone they don't just, as a matter of course and custom, start pepper-spraying that someone and take out their tasers and start tasing him "just in case".

There are countless cases of young adult healthy men being put in handcuffs and getting at a minimum bruises and skin lesions. There are example of even more severe injuries.

It becomes absolutely horrendous when police will automatically handcuff people completely regardless of the circumstances and things like the age and health of the person. There are videos out there of them handcuffing 80-year-old geriatric women, causing them extreme pain. Putting a very old person, especially someone suffering from problems that come with age (such as lowered bone density or sensitive skin) can be dangerous, and can cause pain and injury. Yet, the police routinely does that, just because "arresting someone" and "putting that someone in handcuffs" are considered complete synonyms, and one automatically implies the other.

And this even though a geriatric 80-year-old woman is hardly a flight risk or dangerous. Yet they still do it.

They will put pregnant women in handcuffs, completely disregarding their condition (even though a woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy is in no way a flight risk nor very dangerous to the police officers). Again, at the risk of injury, pain and suffering.

And what's absolutely astonishing, and something that police officers should be prosecuted for and put in jail, they will even put children in handcuffs. And not just "children" as in "under 18-years-old". I mean literally children. Under 10 years old. Even 6 years old. There are many examples out there if you google for it.

If any police officer puts a child in handcuffs, no matter what the situation, that police officer should be prosecuted for child abuse, thrown in jail, and castrated for being a complete disgrace of a man. No sane person does this.

This practice of automatically handcuffing people is in no way universal. It's very rare eg. in Europe. Even in former police states like most Eastern European countries it's today very rare. You can find lots of videos of people being arrested, even people who could potentially fight back or suddenly flee, who are not put in handcuffs. Most certainly police do not put in handcuffs people who are in no way a safety or flight risk. (The United Kingdom might be an exception to this, but the UK is a police state anyway, so it's not surprising that it's an exception.)

This barbaric practice has to stop. It's inhumane, it's barbaric, and it doesn't belong in a civilized society. Handcuffs should be put in the same category as pepper spray and tasers: Usable if necessary, but only if necessary. They don't go pepper-spraying and tasing every arrestee "just in case" because that would be torture and police brutality. The same should go for handcuffs.