The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
December 9, 2013

Charges Dropped for Black Teens Arrested While Waiting for School Bus 
----------------------------------------------------------------------


 
Prosecutors in upstate New York have dropped charges against three black
teenagers who were arrested for waiting for their school bus. The three
were standing on a sidewalk where they were to be picked up and taken to
their team's basketball game. When they refused a police order to
disperse, they were arrested for disorderly conduct. One of the students
and their coach spoke out last week.

Wan'Tauhjs Weathers: "We tried to tell them that we was waiting for the
bus, but we wasn't catching a city bus, we was catching a yellow bus.
And he didn't care. He arrested us anyways."

Jacob Scott: "These young men were doing nothing wrong, nothing wrong.
They did exactly what they were supposed to do, and still and yet they
get arrested."

After reviewing the case, the Monroe County district attorney said she
is dropping the charges. The Rochester Police Department has refused to
apologize for the teens' arrest, saying it was justified.

 

.