A protest of the city's reinstatement of a police officer involved in a fracas with skateboarders drew more than two dozen people to the scene where the boarders were arrested. About 25 protesters kept their rides in their hands Sunday as they marched down a Central Avenue sidewalk. They were abiding by a city ordinance that bars skateboarding on downtown sidewalks.
The rule helped sparked the arrests of six boarders on June 21 by Officer Joey Williams. The incident attracted national attention after a video of Williams and his actions involving the boarders was posted on YouTube. The video, made by skateboarders involved in the incident, showed Williams on top of one of the skaters, apparently choking him.
It also showed Williams putting two other skateboarders in a headlock. Williams was suspended, but was reinstated last week after an internal report concluded that he used a proper amount of force when making his arrests. Waite of Paris, Texas, who said he organized the protest Sunday, said Williams' treatment of the skateboarders was an "atrocity" in which the officer used excessive force.
"Police brutality is bad for business!" the boarders chanted. Hot Springs City Manager Kent Myers watched as the protesters walked along the sidewalk in a single-file line, chanting.
He said they were not interfering with local businesses. "It's been a very peaceful and orderly protest," he said. "There are a lot of emotions down here.
" McCrary Means, a spokesman for the Hot Springs Police Department, had no comment on the protest except to say that the skateboarders "have a right to exercise their freedom of speech." A protest of the city's reinstatement of a police officer involved in a fracas with skateboarders drew more than two dozen people to the scene where the boarders were arrested.
News RSS