I've had the same thing happen to me in Denver.
Numerous eyewitnesses were on the news saying that the skateboarders started out cursing the officer and when he turned toward one of them and held his hand up telling him to watch his mouth, the other one jumped on his back. Of course this video (shot by their friend) doesnt show that part
Cite a source Tiffany, cite a source. And lifting a girl off the ground by using a choke hold on her is not warranted by cursing. The video is actually two videos spliced together filmed from two angles by two different people. If you have video disputing it tell us where we can watch it.
Ok im tired of hearing all this cliche fuck the establishment talk so this has to be said. those kids clearly had a fuck the police mentality. had they not stood there and harassed the officer they would have went home scott free. as for the girl. that bitch ran when he told her not to. it doesnt matter if the cop is being a dick or you didnt do anything wrong. if you run from the police they will catch you. and if you fight the police when they catch you they will take you down much harder. and if your friend attacks the police officer while your fighting him well your fucked. and thats what happened. this video doesnt show what started the confrontation and im 100% sure that they filmed that part. but their instigation of the events doesnt help their cause. they deserved every bit of what they got. regardless of the cop being a dick.
How did they “harass” the police officer? Perish: you don’t say how they harassed anyone.
You also seem to think there is no presumed liberty in this country and that it is a police state where people are required to obey all orders given by cops. You make accusations that people attacked the cops. Why doesn’t the Mayor of Hot Springs know this? Why doesn’t the media it? How is it that you know it but no one else? You are 100% sure of what you can’t see and what doesn’t exist. How psychic of you! Impressive.
Now lets assume these kids were immature. What a shock for kids! Why was the cop no better than they were? What is his excuse for immaturity? You don’t seem to expect police to act better than some juveniles. And you think I’m antipolice? You have such a low view of cops that you expect them to act just like some juveniles who lack maturity.
What an unfortunate situation to have occured in such a hospitable town as Hot Springs, Ark., host to nearly 3 million visitors a year.
Tourists particularly enjoy our historic downtown district, stretched primarily along a 10-block section of Central Avenue. Sandwiched between two mountains, a row of eight bathhouses - named a Historic Landmark District - faces dozens of shops on the opposite side of the street. Hot Springs National Park, celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, comprises the entire area.
To protect pedestrian safety, the City of Hot Springs passed an ordinance prohibiting bicycles, skateboards, rollerskates, rollerboards and any similar apparatus in these clearly marked areas. Tom Daniels, president of the Downtown Merchants Association, says despite strategically placed signs designating the no-wheels zones, skateboarding violations have been an ongoing problem.
Most of the time, local police just ask the skoarders to move on, and they do. This time, however, at least one of violators had already been asked to leave Exhange Street Parking Plaza before he joined the group of two adults (ages 21 and 19) and four juveniles (three 16-year olds and one 13-year old) on Central Avenue. According to newspaper interviews, several of the group knew they were violating the ordinance, but were prepared to lose their boards and possibly pay a fine. After they taped the event.
Did the arresting officer perform his job appropriately? We'll see. Should young teenagers be hanging out with 19- and 21-year old adults who have nothing better to do than skate through downtown during the summer? Probably not. Hello p-a-r-e-n-t-s? Does Hot Springs need another skating venue to add to the nine parks and Hot Springs Greenway where skating is already allowed? That's being discussed.
Thanks for helping us let the world know this video is neither a complete account of the skateboarding incident nor an accurate portrayal of Spa City, America's first resort.
Rebecca McCormick,
Travel Journalist and Photographer
they harassed the cop by hanging around him as he arrested the other kid. one kid got back on his board right in front of the cop. then he ran. while he ran the other 3 kids could have left. one of them in fact suggested it. but they didnt. they instead decided to stay, taunting him saying "why are you arresting him? why for skateboarding? just for skateboarding?" the girl continued to talk shit to the officer to the point that he said he was arresting her too (for obstruction of justice). which is what they were in fact doing. she ran. he apprehended her, she decided to fight him. so it looks like hes trying to hurt her. the other kid in white sees this thinks hes super man and attacks the police officer exacerbating the situation. i dont understand why i have to give you a play by play of a video that is already up there.
That police state rhetoric is played out. running from the police regardless of guilt or innocence is suspicious behavior. and yes, when a police tells you to do something(with in reason) you are suppose to do it.
There are clear safety reasons that skateboarders should not ride on sidewalks. If a family walks out of a store and some hot-dogging skateboarder plows over a toddler, what do you think will be the result? You shouldn't ride bikes or scooters or drive motorcycles on the sidewalk because that's a place for people to walk. There's nothing wrong with skateboarding, but there is something wrong with unnecessarily endangering others. Please, have fun riding your boards.... just do it in a skating park or somewhere that you can't harm others.
Dear Ms McCormick,
You are a silly ignorant bitch, and you contribute nothing to this discussion. What is your post even about? Did you copy out a brochure or something? Anyone with the slightest sense of history knows that Hot Springs was a cesspool of crime with frequent gun battles between overzealous cops and mafia club owners. You didn't bring up the whorehouses or the largest illegal gambling site in US history (not that I'm against such things myself). I wonder why?
And what the hell is this crap?
"Should young teenagers be hanging out with 19- and 21-year old adults who have nothing better to do than skate through downtown during the summer? Probably not. Hello p-a-r-e-n-t-s?"
Are you fucking gossiping? "Ooh, their grass is too long and I think the oldest one smokes..." Shut up! What the hell does that have to do with a guy my size choking a little girl? Most police departments have disallowed the use of choke holds, precisely because they have found that people get permanently injured or killed. Crushing a trachea takes as much effort as squeezing the juice from a lemon. Think about it.
You're a photographer, huh? How about taking a shot of the inside of your ass and see if your head is in there somewhere.
In the meantime, fuck off and stop wasting everyone's time.
LiamH, chill, dude.
It's OK. It'll all be alright. Just relax.
(She made better points than your pointless and profane rant, IMO. You both have rights to express your opinions, but right or wrong, I'll listen to someone who sounds reasonable over someone spewing vitriol and adding nothing to the discussion but insults. FYI.)
Ms. McCormack: Note I am not so much questioning whether or not skateboarding should be allowed there. I personally think the sidewalk should be under the jurisdiction the adjacent property owner and not the city council.
And if the young people were warned previously, as you say, and they were making a point and prepared to lose their skateboards then they have a right to make a point by through civil disobedience. But if warned previously then their identity was known. And they could easily, peacefully and nonviolently been arrested if that was deemed necessary.
I think you are attempting to skew things by referring to the 19 year as an adult and the 16 as a young teenager. The age differences are rather small between them. But none of this is the issue. The issue was could the cop have handled the situation better. Damn right he could. He was the mature adult and he was the one who should have kept control. There was no need to use choke holds, etc. But I understand your job is to promote Hot Springs. I assume you do wo without a contract from the city or income from them in any way.
Perish: It is not harassment to watch a police officer, in fact more people ought to do it. Nor is it a crime nor harassment to ask them why they arresting someone. If we reach the point that people agree with you we are in a police state because then anyone asking for proper authority by police for doing something is obstructing justice. It isn’t. People have the right to ask. Obstruction requires more than people asserting a constitutional right and asking questions.
LiamH: I don’t actually appreciate your use of such vile language to Ms. McCormick who was polite in her response even if she made into a commercial for Hot Springs. I agree with your points not the abuse.
Regardless of any city ordinance pertaining to skateboarding on city streets, I'm of the opinion that an officer using a pain-compliance technique on an adolescent for doing so, while threatening to mace the kids who were violating the ordinace, is a very sad example of inappropriate conduct on the officer's behalf. There are several instances in the clip where you can listen to the skateboarders, and rather than 'taunting' the police officer, as some have claimed, they're genuinely asking 'Why are you choking him? Why are you arresting him? Now, in my town, we have a similar ordinance, and we do have skateparks where we're allowed to go. We clean up after ourselves, we watch our language when younger kids are around, and follow the rules set for the park. However, I'm sorry to say that we've been accosted by officers even -inside- the skatepark for skateboarding, saying 'You punks should be out doing something worthwile, instead of causing trouble.' Now, here's where I get confused. We're not causing trouble, and we're skating in a designated area. Getting exercise instead of sitting in front of a game console or computer all day. And yet we're 'punks' and 'troublemakers'. I think the police need to start dealing with situations on a case-to-case basis, rather than lumping everyone together in a group like this. I'm by no means involved in the situation, but what the clip looked like to me portrayed a group of reasonably respectful kids meeting a gung-ho cop on a power trip.
CLS: I was actually holding back quite a bit. People who lie, twist facts, and rewrite history in an effort to make money from the abuse of children don't rate very highly in my book.
Once again, I am a huge person, a martial artist since 8, and in the security biz my entire adult life. I'm a pretty good judge of necessary force. There is NO EXCUSE for Williams's response. When he had that blonde girl in the air, with her entire body weight supported on a couple cervical vertebra and her larynx, I saw red. He could have killed her.
And for her to support that type of abuse of authority in order to put a few extra bucks in her pocket is unforgivable.
That being said, this is your site, and you get to make the rules, not I. I can see you not wanting it to devolve into one of "those" places, where people just type "f-a-g" at each other and have that suffice for political discourse.
Sorry if I've caused you any upset,
LiamH
The prob here is that we expect the police to protect us, and when they do not they are no good, when they do they are no good. How do you expect someone who deals with the slime of the earth day in and out, react when confronted? I speed, jay walk etc. the laws were put there to protect people like me, and hve never been put on the ground for a minor prob. I say "yes sir, no sir" when caught, and I am a lot older than most of the police and I still have the ability to strand up for myself. But why should I when I have the police to protect me, if they come.
I hope that when you need them they do not show up, we would not want you ti have any prob with the police do we.
Given response times to violent crimes, that's a total non-issue. The chances are that they won't be able to get there in time to do anything but tag the crime-scene.
I hope that when you need them they do not show up, we would not want you ti have any prob with the police do we.
I finally saw the video today, and I have to say; if I had viewed that video when I read the comment that Liam had responded to... I probably would have written a similar post.
As it stands, while I would not be so... basally loquacious (
), I still agree with his opinion.This sort of behavior must never, under any circumstances, be condoned, let alone tolerated.
Time to eat crow, eh? I'm PERSONALLY encouraging the officer to sue you and a host of other sites for slander for saying he "choked" and brutalized someone now that an official inquiry has WITHOUT A DOUBT determined otherwise. The comments that you have made and permitted to be posted by others are slanderous, damaging and blatantly false. It may interest you to know that the Supreme Court has ruled that a wesite host bears SOLE LIABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY for damages related to what they say and what they "allow others" to post about someone. Now that he's been cleared of wrongdoing my prediction is that he'll be a very wealthy man soon because of people like you who injured his proefessional reputation. Serves you right for being such a judgemental idiot.
Utoober: Tell the fat bastard to bring it on. First off only an idiot would think that police don't get off scott free in almost single case of abuse. It is always deemd within policy. To deem it outside policy immediately opens them up to a lawsuit so they routinely say it was permitted. In the case where a cop told a man he handcuffed to stand up, the man did and the cop then shot for standing up. He was cleared because he claims he was "confused" and said "stand up" when he meant to say "lie still". Bullshit excuses work like that because no city government wants to admit that the cop did wrong since that immediately means they are financially liable.
They prefer to say it was permitted and then hope there are no law suits. I don't think the donut muncher is going to get wealthy at all. Maybe you haven't heard of the First Amendment. It's a little thing that annoys authoritarians like the donut muncher.
I am a police officer in a small county in texas. Who ever wrote this is an idiot, fuck you and all your stupid donut jokes. You wern't there so you have no room to comment. You sound like a turd, i would put you in jail myself, you fucken prick.....
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