Three Rochester teens were arrested last week as they waited for a school bus to take them to a basketball game. According to officers, the three—Raliek Redd, 16, Deaquon Carelock, 16, and Wan'Tauhjs Weathers, 17—were cuffed on the basis that they were acting disorderly and obstructing the sidewalk.
"We tried to tell them that we were waiting for the bus," Weathers said of the cops. "We weren't catching a city bus, we were catching a yellow bus. He didn't care. He arrested us anyways."
Police were apparently dissatisfied to the teens' approach to waiting, alleging that they were "blocking the sidewalk and the entrance to a store," and were told to move several times. The boys' coach, Jacob Scott, who had arranged for the bus to collect the team from "a central meeting spot," expressed outrage that three of his best players were apprehended for no reason. Pleading with officers to release them only resulted in threats to arrest Scott as well.
"It's a catastrophe. These young men were doing nothing wrong. They did nothing wrong," he said. "They did what they were supposed to do and yet they still get arrested."
Members of the school board have stepped in as well, asserting that arresting anyone for waiting for the bus sets a dangerous precedent.
"I'm very concerned about a pattern of young people being abused by police authority," said Rochester City School Board Member Mary Adams. "To me, this seems like a really clear case, part of a pattern."
All three were released on $200 bail, and are expected to enter their plea on December 11.
