Pittsburgh authorities are investigating a case where an 18-year-old student, Jordan Miles, was struck repeatedly by undercover officers who saw a large object in his clothing. It turned out to be a Mountain Dew (“Get Vertical”).
Police say that they suspected “criminal activitity: when Miles got out of a car and that, when they identified themselves, he ran. They ultimately used “closed fist strikes” to subdue him, they claim. The boy’s mother, Terez Miles, says that the boy was frightened by the sight of three white men jumping out of a car on January 11th and ran.
She says that police not only beat him but used a taser and pulled out a chunk of his hair.
Miles is a viola player and student at the city’s Creative and Performing Arts High School. He was charged with aggravated assault, loitering, resisting arrest and escape. The loitering and escape charges are a bit suspicious. It does not appear credible that he “escaped” even if he was resisting arrest. Moreover, since they confronted him when he exited a vehicle, the loitering charge seems manufactured.
We have seen in other cases of alleged abuse where officers will pile on charges against the alleged victim, here and here.
The claims of the officers, in my view, are diminished by some of these charges. An investigation are ongoing. If it makes him feel any better, two men in the Bronx were jailed for five days until the lab confirmed they were in possession of coconut candy, here.
Eniobob and I briefly touched on this yesterday so I would like to repost are comments here.
eniobob
1, January 23, 2010 at 11:58 am
bdaman:
Looking at that video throws evrything out of the window,you tell your kids to stay in school,watch who you hangout with,set a goal in your life and try to reach it by studying hard and carry your self in a respectful manner.
It seems as if that is the path that this young man was on,and something like that happens to him.It is beyond words but it happens,but it shouldn’t.
bdaman
1, January 23, 2010 at 12:22 pm
eniobob
The old saying is
surround your self with good people and good things will happen to you.
surround your self with bad people and bad things will happen to you.
Of course there is always an exception to that when you grow up in a bad neighborhood.
Our
Miles is a a viola player and student at the city’s Creative and Performing Arts High School.
Dang, you know how dangerous these people are. The conditioning and exercise programs these folks tackle on a daily basis, makes them a threat to society at large. Depending on how well trained they are they could be bad enough that they are in possession of all sorts of objects that they have retrieved from the stage.
Possession of Mountain Dew should be enough to hit him with controlled substance charge.
The poor mommy is crying that they not only beat him but used a taser and pulled out a chunk of his hair.
She should be happy that they did not charge him with also misuse of police equipment and littering.
He was charged with aggravated assault, loitering, resisting arrest and escape.
Charged with Assault? What did he do, scrape an Officer with his pinky?
Loitering, well, when you are down you are down. How much money did he have in his pocket. They could have charged him with vagrancy.
Resisting Arrest, now we are talking. Do you blamed him. Unmarked Car, un-uniformed Cops hell I would not listen either.
Escape, what was he driving a Ford. It appears that the Cops have the Rams.
Bdaman:
“surround your self with good people and good things will happen to you.
surround your self with bad people and bad things will happen to you.”
*************
There’s an oft forgotten a corollary to that saying: “Surrounding yourself with cowboy cops and all hell breaks loose.”
mespo,
The famous words are hey ya’ll take a shot at this. It feels reel good. Just like your momma taught you, real good.
AY:
In Pittsburgh, it’s “‘yun’s’ take a shot at this.”
So the cops pile on the bargaining chips – I mean charges – and walk free.
Again.
Btw, the young man claims that the Mountain dew was planted (and I believe him).
“surround your self with bad people and bad things will happen to you.”
_______________________________
And yet we are surrounded on an hourly basis by Bda-man and seem to survive. (JK bda)
So their initial suspicion of criminal activity stems in no charges. All of the charges bought against the student come exclusively from the encounter with police.
When plainclothes officers say they identify themselves as police, what exactly does that mean? Does it mean “STOP! POLICE!” as they approach the suspect, or does it mean they calmly take out their badges and any other IDs they might have to prove they’re LEO?
Any random idiot could shot “POLICE!” and “identify” themselves as such.
Even if they shouted police and had badges (which I doubt they did), why would one believe they really were police. Anyone can shout police and whip out a badge. Is a member of the public expected to know whether the badge is real or not from a distance?
FF LEO,
Survival is the name of the key in the songs of life if we are to exist.
Sounds as if the LEOs should have identified themselves as “Stop! Mr. Tambourine Men.”
Seriously, people who mistake soda cans and pieces of candy for guns and drugs suggests heavy use of same. Those guys need to be tested before they leave the Station and as soon as they get back.
This headline should have read:
Young Man Wins Full Ride Scholarship From Police Dept.
It is even hard going to a football game nowadays also:
LOL I was just sitting at home when the cops came and started threatening me with charges of obstruction and illegally registered vehicles. All because some repo guy couldn’t find a car! It wasn’t even my car and I didn’t know where it was (see, obstruction). They ran the tags on my clunkers and found I hadn’t yet registered one in my name (see, I’m a dangerous criminal). Cops!
if i was the judge i would throw out the case and charge the police with tampering with evidence, lying and making false statements, unjust use of force and violating the civil rights of this young men. and make the officers pay a hefty restitution to this young man out of their own pocket even if they have to dip into their retirement fund. then give all of the officers some serious jail time like about 8-15 years in the state penitentiary should do it and also let the police dept know any more actions like this by the police will not be tolerated and future cases similar to this one will automatically be thrown out and the officers charged with the crimes. most police do a good job and protect our citizens but we have to get rid of the bad apples.