Video: 9 Cops Detain 1 US Teen For Refusing To Use Sidewalk

RT
Sep. 18, 2015

A US teenager has been detained with the use of force and hit several times for what witnesses described as jaywalking in Stockton, California. The 16-year-old boy was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. Early Tuesday morning, the teen was walking near the city’s bus depot, when a Stockton Police officer saw him. The video of the interaction begins with the cop restraining the young man and then starting to beat him with the baton.

“It’s a f**cking kid!” someone in the group of onlookers keeps shouting as the situation unfolds. “Get off him! He’s been jaywalking! Leave him alone, he didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Stop resisting!” the cop shouts, not paying any attention.

Because of the gathering crowd and what the police described as the boy resisting arrest, the cop called for backup, bringing available officers who were in the vicinity to the scene, Joseph Silva, the department’s public information officer, told RT.

Four police officers came up to the teen and wrestled him to the ground. Then another four law enforcers cordoned off the scene from the public.

In the end, there were nine officers involved in detaining the boy. Finally, the teenager was handcuffed and marched off to a police car. He was brought to the police station where he was charged with trespassing in violation of the city’s municipal code and resisting arrest. The 16-year-old was released to his mother that day.

Yet police say that the video doesn’t show the whole story. The teen wasn’t jaywalking, but clearly ignored signs that said he couldn’t walk in that location.

“He was walking in a lane that is designated only for buses to drive in,” Silva said. “It was a safety issue, and trespassing according to the posted signs and the Stockton Municipal Code.”



When the officer approached the boy and asked him to move to the sidewalk, “the kid immediately started using obscene language and said that he wouldn’t listen,” Silva said.

Witnesses said that before the camera started rolling, the cop was telling the teenager to sit down, but the boy continued walking to his bus.

The officer kept grabbing his arm, but the kid still went on, so the cop took out his baton.

A scuffle ensued, during which time the officer’s body camera was knocked to the ground, Silva said.

The teen then grabbed the officer’s baton.

“We cannot and will not allow anyone to take our weapons,” Silva said, adding that the officer then employed a “weapons retention technique” to gain full control over the baton.

“If people would just comply with a lawful order from police, force would never have to be used in the first place,” Silva told RT.

The Stockton PD has automatically instituted a review on the use of force by the officers, none of whom have been placed on any sort of leave, he said.

“The preliminary report looks like the use of force was within our policy,” Silva said, noting that the incident is still under investigation.












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