Three high school teens in Rochester, N.Y., were arrested while they waited for a bus, but authorities claimed the trio was obstructing the flow of other pedestrians on the sidewalk.Seriously... I... just....
On Wednesday morning, Raliek Redd, 16, Wan'Tauhjs Weathers 17, and Daequon Carelock, 16, said they were cuffed before they could board a school bus to a basketball game, according to WHEC.
"We tried to tell them that we were waiting for the bus," Weathers told the station. "We weren't catching a city bus, we were catching a yellow bus. He didn't care. He arrested us anyways."
The Rochester Police did not immediately return a call for comment from The Huffington Post. But a police report obtained by Rochester Homepage said the teens, who attend Edison Tech, were obstructing "pedestrian traffic while standing on a public sidewalk...preventing free passage of citizens walking by and attempting to enter and exit a store."
The report also said the officer who arrested the teens made "clear and concise orders for the group to disperse and leave the area without compliance."
The teens were apprehended in a part of downtown Rochester where business owners have complained about teens loitering and fighting near their stores.
The boys' coach, Jacob Scott unsuccessfully tried to convince the officers to let the players off the hook.
He said an officer told him, "If you don't disperse, you're going to get booked as well,'" Scott said. "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 teens face disorderly conduct charges, according to a previous report by Rochester Homepage.
Question: Is there any justification for the actions of the policemen in this story?!?
