Strongly Worded Letter Department – Volume 03
Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department
Chief of Police, Bobby Southard
bsouthard@cityhs.net
I haven’t ridden a skateboard seriously in about 10 years but I spent nearly every day from the ages of 8-18 on one and I dealt with varying degrees of Police harassment on a very regular basis. In my day we didn’t have cheap access to video cameras and didn’t have websites like youtube to show the world how well we were treated by the boys in blue – or white golf shirts as the case may be. I’m glad that these kids do have access to such things so that people can get a real feel for how Police interact with evildoers – or kids riding around on planks of wood, whichever term you prefer.
I can appreciate the stress of the job and know that Police Officers have to deal with things no average person should have to – but when children, and that’s what they are, are able to exercise reason and show better judgment than those you’ve appointed to uphold the law – you’ve got a real problem on your hands.
I think my favorite part of the video is when Officer Williams tells this kid that he can be charged with battery because this oaf cut himself while tackling a child. The fact that you ever perceive these children as a threat is an embarrassment in and of itself.
Officer Joey Williams should be ashamed of himself and anyone in your department who supports his actions should be removed from their post immediately. Unfortunately, we all know how it goes – you guys get slapped on the wrist when you shoot unarmed civilians – no one’s head is going to roll because one of your good old boys chokes out a couple of harmless teenagers.
I’m aware that this situation wasn’t particularly brutal (certainly not more so than many things I’ve witnessed) but the sheer absurdity of the situation warrants some sort of action on your part – if nothing else an apology to parents who had to watch their children manhandled by a grown man – a grown man with a tiny penis, but a grown man none the less.
Sincerely,
Matt Rennick
on June 27th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Apparently he’s on desk-leave while they investigate the video. Sucks that that one kid ran away though, it will most likely get thrown out and he’ll be back on donut-duty in no time.
on June 27th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I just wrote the chief of police. I hope many do the same and at least flood the shit out of his inbox and make him realize that in the digital era, EVERYONE sees everything.
Dear Mr. Southard,
After seeing a video of one of your fellow officers manhandling kids for skateboarding, I cannot help but feel utterly disgusted and have the upmost contempt towards the Hot Springs Police Department.
Provided that there is always two sides to the story, I cannot see any fault on the skateboarder’s part that would warrant such force. I hope Officer Williams feels that much more of a man for violently aphrending kids that are ostensibly a third his age and a third his weight.
Good on ya’ Officer Williams and good on ya’ Hot Springs PD for raising the finest crop that law enforcement has to offer. I’m very sure tax payers are content knowing that their hard earned money is going to beating up kids.
I’m quite sure you’ll be flooded (if not already) with emails far and wide preaching the absurdity and innapropriateness of Officer Williams’ actions. And I hope that both Officer Williams, yourself and the HSPD are comforted knowing that in this day and age, thanks to the digital era, this incident will be seen by virtually every media outlet across the globe.
God willing, I hope you take appropriate actions and Officer Joey Williams is reprimanded in some manner for what is clearly an abuse of authority and power.
Nicholas Chen-Yin
on June 28th, 2007 at 10:24 am
the kid running is definitely hilarious
the thing i hate about this, which is pretty much everywhere, is everyone saying “fuck the police” or whatever, when it should be “fuck that police officer”, i don’t know, cop hating, whatever. there’s a lot of meathead cops, there’s also a lot of guys who would put their lives at risk to save yours without thinking about it.
on June 28th, 2007 at 10:41 am
There are absolutely a lot of great cops – I’ve been lucky enough to have met a few but I’ve also met a lot of bad ones. My problem with the Police, as an institution and not as individuals, is that they stick together no matter what which means when the bad ones get out of line the good cops fall in line with them.
9/11/01 – 23 NYC cops unfortunately die & cops around the world rally to support their fallen brothers (& sisters?).
2/4/99 – 4 NYC cops shoot an unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo 41 times and are not charged – as far as I remember no cops around the world banded together to show disapproval of the decision.
The unfortunate truth is that the most well-intentioned cops are part of a corrupt institution and it’s hard to hold them personally accountable but until enough good cops stand together against the bad ones to change the system, the Police will still be a huge thorn in my side.
With that said, I’d still call them if I caught someone breaking into my house… but only to collect the body.
on June 28th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I am also going to write a strongly worded letter. However, I will also CC each elected official in the 6 disctricts that make up Hot Springs, Arkansas. They should know this is the Yahoo that is representing their town.
on July 2nd, 2007 at 11:42 am
[...] Strongly Worded Letter Department – Volume 03 [...]
on July 4th, 2007 at 11:44 am
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/03/national/a014925D22.DTL
fyi and whatnot. bummer, but I’m sure we could see this coming. Also, I’m nominating “Hot Springs Internal Affairs” as oxymoron of the month.