Police Gone Wild: 15-year-old catches a bad one at the hands of Indianapolis police

I read the story of 15yr old Brandon Johnson's encounter with a few police officers in my old college stomping grounds of Indianapolis, IN. My first reaction to the story was that of disappointment.

Sorry, no disappointment in hearing about police giving a ginormous beatdown to a 15yr old kid - it happens all the time. Instead, my disappointment comes in the fact that it took a month for it to make national headlines! I swear, racism chasing has it's challenges, but anyway...

A few other things bothered me upon reading the story; I'll get to that in a bit:

INDIANAPOLIS — The city's police chief called Thursday for the firing of a white officer who he said repeatedly struck a 15-year-old biracial boy in the face during an arrest after the teen had been subdued by other officers.

Chief Paul Ciesielski said Officer Jerry Piland needlessly struck Brandon Johnson several times during the May 16 arrest near the boy's home. Johnson was left with gaping wounds on his swollen face and a black eye.

"It was a difficult decision, but I know it was the right decision to terminate his employment because that certainly serves as an example that we have a zero-tolerance policy," Ciesielski said at a news conference.

[...] The teen's family and black community leaders have called for a federal investigation into whether Johnson's civil rights were violated. Piland, 36, and the other three officers directly involved in the arrest are white, while Johnson's mother is black and his father is white.

"I'm grateful to have one bad cop off the streets, but there was a lot of wrongdoing here that day," Johnson's mother, Chantay Chandler, said at a news conference Thursday at the family's home. Family representatives called on the department to fire the four officers directly involved in the arrest, but not a fifth officer who stood on the periphery.

[...] A police report said witnesses saw Johnson's brother try to kick in the door of an abandoned building near their home and officers who responded went to arrest him for breaking and entering. Police say Johnson and others protested the arrest, and that when an officer tried to arrest Johnson he resisted, squaring up as if to strike the officer and breaking the officer's grip when he was nearly handcuffed.

Piland, who was off duty and lived in the neighborhood, showed up in plain clothes and tried to help the other officers, the chief said. He smacked Johnson in the face with his open hand and used his knee to apply pain when the teen fell to the ground until a third officer interceded, he said.

At that point, Piland should have helped control Johnson, but instead struck him more times with his open hand, Ciesielski said. - (Source)

OK, so maybe I'm nitpicking when I say I have a problem with him being referenced s biracial. Yep, I'm having a hard time understanding the need to mention that his father is white. What, did the cops beat his ass treat him less inhumane because of that fact?


Shit, am I supposed to assume that this kid is lucky because if he were black he'd probably be dead at the hands of the police? Or if they politely asked the race of his dad before introducing him their style of mixed martial arts otherwise known as law enforcement.

Now I'm forced to ponder on the complicated issue of which side of his biracial makeup was abused more than the other. Surely the equal opportunity laws are set up for this very reason, no? Bullshit aside, the way I see it, this kid is yet another young brother who fell victim to the injustice that is police brutality.

I'm sorry, but I didn't feel the need for clarification on whether his father was black or white. But then again, maybe this info is pertinent to the decision as to whether this cop gets fired or not; and like I said before, this racism chasing stuff is getting tougher, folks. Last year cops slammed an 80yr old black woman to the pavement, what makes a biracial 15yr old exempt?

 Thanks a lot Barack!