On Oct. 22, Boston police brutally arrested a 16-year-old at Roxbury
Community College. Caught on video by several witnesses who used their
cell phones to record the incident, at least one police officer is seen
punching and kicking the young man, while several other officers hold
him to the ground. In one video, you can hear the young man cry out in
pain as he is forcefully held down while being punched and kicked.
The videos, posted on YouTube and shown on many news outlets, have
been seen by tens of thousands of people. One of the videos was taken by
student Eusida Blidgen, who should be commended for her actions as she
continued to record despite being illegally told by an officer she must
stop. Despite the police’s attempts to claim otherwise, it is legal to
record the police in public.
Following protests and public
outcry, the police announced that Michael T. McManus, the officer seen
punching and kicking on the video, has been placed on paid
administrative duty pending an investigation from the district
attorney’s office.
The official police report greatly differs
from the accounts of students and other witnesses who say the young man
did not resist or attack police officers. Neither the district attorney
nor the Boston police should be trusted to investigate this or any other
incident of police misconduct, as they work hand-in-hand on a daily
basis. Instead, there must be community control over the police through
the creation of a civilian review board that is empowered to fire police
officers.
Several protests have been held since the video went
viral on YouTube. Several students at Roxbury Community College have
taken a lead in organizing. Kieashia Hartfield, a junior, called for all
of the officers involved to be fired, saying, “If they get to keep
their job then that’s just a slap in the face saying that they can do
whatever they want to our people and get away with it.”
Student
Government representative Tajudeen Akinbode pointed to the fact that
this happened on a campus and in a neighborhood that is predominantly
Black and Latino, noting, “This would not have happened at Boston
University.”
Future actions will be organized as the students and
others in the community have made it clear they will continue to raise
their voices and fight back against all acts of racist police brutality.
