In a very affluent neighborhood, school children waiting for the bus is still profiled and arrested… if they are black. That is apparently what happened to three members of the Edison Technical High School basket ball team in Rochester New York, as they stood waiting for a bus.
Main Street merchants have long been clamoring for the police to keep young blacks off of the street and this appears to be part of that campaign.
Police, acting on a complaint from a merchant who has a history of these kinds of complaints, charge that they were obstructing the street and loitering at a location where there is a bus shelter and bus stop. The boys maintain that they were doing nothing wrong and were only waiting for the bus as instructed.
Their coach, Jacob Scott who is also the guidance counselor, says that they are all good students who have never been in any trouble. He says that he informed the officer that he was supervising them and they were waiting for a bus — at which time the officer told him that if he didn’t leave he too would be arrested.
Scott said, “He goes on to say, ‘If you don’t disperse, you’re going to get booked as well.’ I said, ‘Sir, I’m the adult. I’m their varsity basketball coach. How can you book me? What am I doing wrong? Matter of fact, what are these guys doing wrong?’”
The officer, backed up by his sergeant, said that if he had a big enough vehicle he would arrest them all.
School board member Mary Adams appeared at the arraignment and said, “I think the charges should be immediately dropped and I think the district attorney’s office should be stepping in an looking at these kinds of matters.”
The parents of the three arrested had to post $200 bail in order to have their sons home for Thanksgiving dinner and they will appear in court again on December 11.
Watch the video below from WHEC 10.
