On Jan. 12, three men jumped out of a car and assaulted Jordan Miles, an 18-year-old viola player and honor student at the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. The men yelled, “where’s the money” and “where’s the drugs” as they brutally beat Miles. (AP, Jan. 22)
 Jordan Miles, in a photo released by his mother afters Pittsburgh cops brutally assaulted him. |
Fifteen minutes later, Miles learned that the men were in fact plainclothes police officers.
The three officers—Richard Ewing, Michael Aldutte and David Sisak—saw Miles walk down an icy sidewalk. They claim that Miles appeared to be carrying something heavy in his pocket, which they later claimed turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew, and that the blows inflicted on him were in response to his attempts to escape and “resist arrest.”
But Miles denied that he had anything in his pocket at all. He had indeed tried to run away, confident that he was about to be robbed. The men never identified themselves as police.
The cops punched, kicked, and tasered Miles before handcuffing and throwing him into their unmarked white car. Miles says he has been suffering from nightmares and flashbacks. (AP, Jan. 22)
The city government has taken no meaningful action against the racial profiling and assault. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl simply stated that the attack was “troubling” (CNN, Jan. 22). The officers have not even been suspended. As “punishment” for their actions, they have been taken off plainclothes duty and put back in uniform. Miles is still facing two counts of aggravated assault, one count of loitering at night and one count of escape and resisting arrest.
“Internal investigations” have been promised by the police and FBI, but these are commonly used to exculpate officers of their crimes. Miles’ assailants must immediately be removed from the police force and face criminal charges.
The police’s callous brutality has sparked outrage. On Jan. 26, more than 50 of Miles’ classmates, joined by community members and activists, marched from outside Miles’ school to Ravenstahls’ office.
The Pittsburgh Police Department has a notorious reputation for terrorizing the oppressed Black community. High-profile victims of such racist brutality by the hands of Pittsburgh area police include Dion Hall, Charles Dixon, Bernard Rogers, Michael Hunter, Damian Jordan, and Michael Ellerbe, who was shot through the heart when he was only 12 years of age).
Police brutality is not the work of a few rotten apples, but rather a common practice that oppressed communities, particularly working-class African American and Latino neighborhoods, are quite familiar with. The police terrorize working-class and poor communities by playing the role of judge, jury and, all too often, executioner.
