Posted on 06/29/2007 11:42:03 AM PDT by Sleeping Freeper
June 21 was Go Skateboarding Day across the United States. But for skater Matt McCormack and handful of others in Hot Springs, Ark., celebrating the unofficial holiday by hopping on their boards landed them behind bars and under house arrest.
According to the skaters, Police Officer Joey Williams used excessive force in apprehending them for violating a city ordinance against skateboarding on the street. They have circulated a video of the incident on YouTube that has garnered almost a million views since it was posted June 25 and landed Williams at the center of an internal misconduct investigation and on paid leave from his post.
Caught on Tape McCormack, 21, who shot the video and posted it on YouTube, told ABC News that he always carries a digital camera while skating, as he is gathering material for a local skate shop and feels particularly fortunate to have caught this incident.
"On YouTube you can see [Williams] choking the 13-year-old girl," McCormack said. "I think it's wrong. He was calling us thugs, but if you think about it, we were a whole bunch of kids and none of us had any drugs on us or anything like that. That's not that thuggish."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
To be honest, I sympathize with the kids. The cop absolutely did not have to use any force at all, not to mention the extent to which he took the situation. The video showed him double-headlocking two kids, a boy and a girl. Completely inappropriate, even under the circumstances.
Obviously, somebody has been watching “Will Traveler” with a little too much enthusiasm.
Utter foolishness by some thug cop who likely wouldn't have the stones to handle a real serious situation. Those honorable type officers would never see the need to behave like such with a 13yr old girl.
I saw the video, the guy obviously was on a power trip, but they most definitely interfered with the officer. If you run from a cop, you will get taken down, no matter who you are, and 13 year old girls can carry knives or other weapons as easily as a boy. A written reprimand is in order and move on.
Gee, I am just so shocked to see a cop pummeling the citizenry. Frickin losers with a badge. The 60% of the bad cops give the decent 40% a really bad name.
I agree skate boarding is no crime..however, it is posted every where.. NO skateboarding. No bike riding, no roller blading. No skating... NO swimming, it is no wonder our kids are obese.... Even climbing trees out here on the left coast can get you in trouble..
Those kids need to realize that one day, they’re skateboarding; the next day, they’re dancing in a honky-tonk. Next thing you know, they’re breaking the Sabbath.
Cops using excessive force???? Never!
“Skateboarding is not a crime.”
It is when it endangers pedestrians, destroys public and or private property and creates a health hazard when they’re too stinking lazy to skate home or somewhere else to pee.
If skateboarding is not a crime, then why all the “No Skateboarding” signs?
I guess now we know why the cops don’t like people videotaping them.
Yeah, I’m sure it’s tough to be called a man when you’re being videotaped putting a chokehold on a 13 year old girl. Seriously, where’s the pride....
Nobody was arrested for skateboarding.
Well, ya got trouble, my friend.
Right here, I say trouble right here in River City
Why, sure, I’m a billiard player
Certainly mighty proud to say,
I’m always mighty proud to say it
I consider the hours I spend with a cue in my hand are golden
Help you cultivate horse sense and a cool head and a keen eye
Didja ever take an’ try an’ give an iron clad leave
to yourself from a three-rail billiard shot?
But just as I say it takes judgement, brains and maturity
to score in a balk-line game
I say that any boob can take and shove a ball in a pocket
And I call that sloth,
the first big step on the road to the depths of degreda-
I say, first- medicinal wine from a teaspoon,
then beer from a bottle
And the next thing you know your son is playin’
for money in a pinchback suit
and listenin’ to some big out-o’-town jasper
Hear him tell about horserace gamblin’
Not a wholesome trottin’ race, no,
but a race where they set down right on the horse
Like to see some stuck up jockey boy sittin’ on Dan Patch?
Make your blood boil, well I should say
Now, folks, let me show you what I mean
You got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table
Pockets that mark the difference between a gentleman and a bum
With a capital ‘B’ and that rhymes with ‘P’ and that stands for ‘pool’
This happened about 400 yards from where I now sit. Several local merchants and others witnessed the event, and their account of the incident differs significantly from the accounts given by the skateboarders. In this, as in other videotaped episodes, the camera does not see all. The episode which was shown on youtube was edited and posted by the skateboarders themselves (remember how only the worst few seconds of the infamous Rodney King video was shown in the media for months before the trial to “inflame†the community?). Also, the “kids†were warned by the officer minutes earlier not to skateboard on the sidewalk and were “running tourists off of the sidewalk†and “flipping people off†who questioned them. A 71 year old community service police officer was injured in this incident, and the “kids†were described by numereous witnesses as “egging on†and “taunting†the officer. Further, they admitted knowing that they were not supposed to be skateboarding on the sidewalk. The downtown merchants association has come out solidly behind the officer and his account. In this, as in any use of force situation, its best to let the investigation be completed before jumping to any conclusions based upon a questionable online video.
“Skateboarding is not a crime.”
It may not be a crime, but if a skateboarder is injured doing his/her thing on your property or on the property of a business - you and/or the business owner is liable. We have to constantly keep them off school property (before and after school) as they try to “skate” down the steel handrail of our concrete stairs. If they are injured on school property - the school district is liable.
Most cities have banned teenagers.
ABC really smoothed that one out. seems they left out a few details.
Police spokesman McCrary Means identified two of those arrested as McCormack, 21, and Skylar Nalls, 19, both of Hot Springs. McCormack faces a misdemeanor battery charge after allegedly pushing or striking a 67-year-old city employee during the altercation, Means said. Nalls was cited for skateboarding and faces misdemeanor charges of fleeing and obstructing governmental operations.
Four juveniles involved in the incident also face skateboarding citations and resisting arrest charges, Means said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070627/ap_on_re_us/skateboarders_police_video
“Several local merchants and others witnessed the event, and their account of the incident differs significantly from the accounts given by the skateboarders. In this, as in other videotaped episodes, the camera does not see all.” ....
This is what I suspected may have happened....
So when is the videographer going to prison for an illegal wire tap?
Our Masters don't like being challenged, don't you know?
Great idea! I’m getting really tired of swerving around female teenage drivers with cell phones stuck to their heads.
Kind of the point isn’t it? No this, No that. Nanny State to the rescue. Keep you safe, Save You.
LEAVE ME ALONE.
I do not need ‘keeping’. My Gov’t is not composed of my Betters.
Don't be silly. All one has to do is change one's name to Moonbeam or Antelope and climb a redwood. Stay up there a few weeks and you become a cultural icon.
I ever see that and I'd attempt to affect a Citizens Arrest against the out of control LEO for Deprivation of Civil rights under Color of Law and Assault.
What would that be?
The root cause of the problem here is the Jackass judges who would even consider the school remotely liable. Someone riding a skate board should assume all responsibility for their actions. The public should be no more liable for a skateboarder than they would be for a skydiver landing on a school yard.
Can’t say I disagree.
we were a whole bunch of kids ....
This guy is 21, is that still a kid, or a case of arrested development?
no they were just harrassed...
and beat up ...
what would what be?
In regards to this incident, I think the LEO over reacted here. If the girl had robbed someone, or if this 13 year old girl had become violent, I could see this.
This one cop should have just arrested one of them if an arrest was justified, (send the message) instead of running all over the streets, tying to grab several of these young people. Looked bad.
Let me know how that works out for ‘ya......
Actually, in that city it is a violation / crime!!!!
The part that landed the “kids” in trouble is the whole disobeying a police officer, resisting arrest, fleeing from a peace officer, interfering with a police officer, etc after the officer told them to stop skating.
Those are crimes and they got what they deserve. I do like how the video does not “show” anything leading up to the use of force.
Maybe the kids parents should teach them to actually respect the law ?
A bit like the road-raging off-duty rookie up here who tried to point a gun at a legal CW permit holders wife. Got shot for his idiocy.
If these kids were causing damage, get them for that. Just arresting them a priori of any real victim is Nanny State fascism writ large.
Admit it. You’re the preacher from Footloose. :p
If these kids were causing damage, get them for that. Just arresting them a priori of any real victim is Nanny State fascism writ large.
You mean wait for them to break the leg of an old person or young child?
Same as it would be for the wanna-be Lance Armstrong types or anyone else.
I don’t particularly care for skateboarding. Nevertheless, skating in a posted area is, at best, a public nuisance, not a violent crime. Officer Unfriendly could have told them all to beat it, or called their folks, or simply written them all tickets. Instead, he had to be SuperCop and rough the kids up, “tactical style”, for what must be no more than a misdemeanor crime at worst.
Well, I’ve known a zillion cops just like him, and I hope those kids’ families sue him into oblivion.
Always the police get a paid leave when they do this kind of crap.
If you beat someone down like this you’d go to jail, WIth no pay.
“landed Williams at the center of an internal misconduct investigation and on paid leave from his post.”
“Officer Unfriendly could have told them all to beat it”
He did. Minutes before the viedotaped incident. They chose to ignore him (and the law) and continue their behavior. See my earlier post #18 above.
Would you feel the same if your 3 year old had been run over and had an arm/leg broken(or worse, forced into the busy street and hit by traffic) by these “kids”?
Having watched the videotape, the cop overreacted, but he was basically surrounded by the uncooperative and in some respects harassing kids. He shouldn’t have gone that far, but its not as bad as the internets are making it out to be.
What I’m learning here is that cops can get away with shooting soldiers, choking skateboarders, slamming women against cars and arresting them when their father is in the emergency room with a coronary, and making a mother with a baby miss her flight and clean up the floor at the airport, and there are people here who think that’s all okay because the cops can not do wrong.
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