Chicago suburban cop beats teen for untucked shirt

Bob Hubbard

Bob Hubbard

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http://wcbstv.com/national/caught.on.tape.2.1232899.html

Dolton Illinois -- 15-year-old Marshawn Pitts was brutally beaten by a Dolton police officer, because his shirt wasnt tucked in. Pitts was a student at the Academy for Learning High School in Dolton, which claims to be a school for children with learning disabilities. In this video, the officer, whose name has not been released, is seen slamming Pitts into lockers, and then slamming him facedown on the floor. The officer then puts the 15-year-old boy into a dangerous chokehold. When all was said and done, Pitts had a busted lip and a broken nose. Pitts is now suing the school and the Dolton Police Department.
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This was obviously an emergency. You can tell by the way the disgrace puts down his coffee before tackling the kid he was in danger. /sarcasm
 
Are you sure that the un-tucked shirt was the cause of all this. When watching the video and the kid was on the ground the only one that had a tucked in shirt was the cop? Seems kinda weird to me!
 
I'm going off the news report. Watching the video, to me it seems like the cop went nuts.
 
Wow...the worst we got when I was in high school for violating dress code was after school suspension!

They're really cracking down on that sort of thing now I see. :rolleyes:
 
celtic_crippler said:
Wow...the worst we got when I was in high school for violating dress code was after school suspension!

They're really cracking down on that sort of thing now I see. :rolleyes:
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I hear ya. If that was for an untucked shirt, imagine the beat down cops would give the kids for smoking in the boys room.
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Can't see the video right now. Does it show how the student went about tucking his shirt in? The article has a quote saying that he started to tuck it in. I wonder if the action bore a resemblance to reaching for a weapon, and the officer cued off of that. There has to have been something that he, rightly or wrongly, picked up on. Nobody gets that worked up over a dress code. The image on the page showed the kid in a restraint, what did the officer think he was restraining him from?
 
CoryKS said:
Can't see the video right now. Does it show how the student went about tucking his shirt in? The article has a quote saying that he started to tuck it in. I wonder if the action bore a resemblance to reaching for a weapon, and the officer cued off of that. There has to have been something that he, rightly or wrongly, picked up on. Nobody gets that worked up over a dress code. The image on the page showed the kid in a restraint, what did the officer think he was restraining him from?
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Well...he did keep his back to the cop and was reaching in the front...

BUT... the cop stopped to put his coffee on the floor before way-laying the dude...

Personally...I think the cop was out of line.
 
Maybe he said something? You know, if he's a special education student then he must have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) - and he is protected by the ADA especially when it comes to behavior and the use of restraint. This could be really bad for the officers, even if he said "**** off" to them.
 
There's police in schools?
 
CoryKS said:
In some areas. Keeps the kids safe. ;)
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Good grief! I honestly don't know what to say. The police here only to go to schools either to do a road safety talk or something similiar. That's quite shocking!
 
Tez3 said:
Good grief! I honestly don't know what to say. The police here only to go to schools either to do a road safety talk or something similiar. That's quite shocking!
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It has been the same here; however, there has been discussion of creating an on-going police presence in some of Toronto's 575 public schools. Currently, many middle schools and above have hall monitors, essentially support staff -- not security per se, who keep the traffic flowing, trouble-shoot. They often carry radios.

Next level is board security officers -- these folks are typically well trained board staff. They might be called in to provide security for a major event like a track meet, with hundreds of people streaming in and out.

Uniformed police have been deployed to schools where there has been a recent violent episode. This allays the fears of parents and staff, and, I think, mitigates reprisals.

Untucked shirt. That's a pretty uptight rule. I'd be busted for sure, and I'm a teacher. Half my job is Phys Ed, so I've been wearing sweats and an untucked T to work for years.

I don't think it's in any way relevant that the boy is spec ed. There is no reconciling any physical force for this type of infraction. I also think we're a little too uptight about dress. As long as dress is not sexually provocative, suggestive of gang affiliation, and poses no safety problems for activities, like shop, or gym, or chem lab, I think the adults need to relax a bit.

Interesting that the officer is carrying a coffee. Some schools actively discourage or prohibit staff from carrying hot beverages through the hallways.
 
I feel like doing that when my morning coffee is interrupted.
 
When I see things like this, I can't help but, to remember how innocent Rodney King turned out to be.
 
Tez3 said:
There's police in schools?
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I went to high school in the Chicago suburbs in the 1980s and there were police on school grounds then. The school was large, and it was the high school for one of the wealthier Chicagoland suburbs as well as one of the poorer. The two together under one roof? Yah. It was fun. Not.

We had an older policeman that patrolled the grounds. I don't think he was full time, he may have been an aux or a retiree. He largely made sure the rich kid's cars didn't get vandalized (There were TWO DeLoreans in the lot at one point and to...um....strongly persuade any potential minor truants that sneaking off campus was not a good idea.
 
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