US Park Police handcuff three black teens for selling water in the national park out of “fear for their safety.” OK I get it, the teens performed an illegal act of selling water but is not a bit extreme to use handcuffs – PB/TK
D.C. councilmember condemns police who handcuffed black teens for selling water – By Natasha Geiling / June 24 2017
On Thursday, several plainclothes U.S. Park Police officers handcuffed and detained three African American teenagers for selling water on the National Mall without a license. Photos of the detention quickly spread across social media, provoking outrage among some who viewed the move as inappropriate and racially-motivated.
On Friday, D.C. councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the council’s public safety committee, strongly condemned the Park Police’s action in a letter.
“While I understand the need to maintain consistency in permitted actions, I do not understand why the enforcement cannot take place with uniformed personnel and actions less severe than handcuffing individuals suspected of the sales,” Allen wrote. “I can’t help but think how the reaction by these same officers might have varied if different children had set up a quaint hand-painted lemonade stand in the same spot.”
According to the Washington Post, the teens were given a verbal warning and released without charges.
Continue to thinkprogress.org article: https://thinkprogress.org/black-teens-detained-selling-water-53ed27637d89
