Justice Served?
Resourceful skaters captured the following video on June 21, Go Skateboarding Day, in Hot Spring, Arkansas. Be warned that it contains some harsh language and it’s violent (but the level of violence apparently wasn’t a problem for police officials as you’ll read).
Ostensibly, Officer Joey Williams was enforcing laws prohibiting skating on downtown streets; some details were revealed after the video was posted online: “Officer Accused of Choking Skateboarder”. The video led to an investigation of the incident, “Cops vs. Skaters: Video of Skater Arrest Leads to Investigation”, but today it was reported that Officer Williams was cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident and the skaters are still set for trial: “Ark. Cop Cleared of Choking Skateboarder”.
Regardless of the skaters’ actions or attitudes, some have argued that their behavior didn’t merit the officer’s reaction. What do you think? Leave a comment above. Better yet, even though this is a local issue in Hot Springs, if you’d like to share your opinion of the incident and how it was handled with the Hot Springs Police Department, why you can find contact information on the department homepage, and you can share your opinion of the incident and how it was handled with the mayor and city officials with using the contact infomation on the elected officials’ homepage.