A dispicable act of police brutality was committed on Go Skateboarding Day by the Hot Springs, Arkansas Police Department. Video of the incident is below. After you watch it, we ask ALL of you to flood their phonelines and email address (below) with complaints regarding the main policeman involved, Officer Joey Williams. You should also contact your local news organizations to help spread the word. The more attention this officer gets, the better for us.
Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department
Phone: (501) 321-6789
Fax: (501) 321-6708
Chief of Police, Bobby Southard
Email: bsouthard@cityhs.net
641 Malvern Avenue
UPDATE
Transworld Skateboarding has a discussion going on about this same incident.
UPDATE: Dfiant made some PDFs that can be easily downloaded, printed, faxed, and emailed to them, check them here, here, here, and here.
EVEN MORE UPDATES:
Coverage on WLTX 19 TV
im callin tommorow tht is crazy gotta love his high socks though
A cop beating up little kids…AGAIN! WTF! That is unacceptable. That cop should be kicked off the force. People like that should not be in authority…FOR REAL!
The Arkansas Police Department should be ashamed of this behaviour. Why did Officer Joey Williams think that he needed to play super cop and ‘set some examples’ with these kids. I bet this is one of those cops that says to kids ‘I used to skateboard’. I bet he wasn’t any good at it, either. Just like he isn’t any good at being a cop. Please, everyone, do your part to make sure the Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department knows that the public feels that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable. I encourage you to be as professional as possible in stating your opinions to them, as well. To be taken seriously, one must act seriously.
a big fat assed grown man getting paid to put 13 year old girls in headlocks! everyday im more asshamed to be an american.
The Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department should suspend Joe Williams immediately. If this is how he treats a 14 year old kid, imagine how he is treating adults. Protecting a city ordinance my ass — this guy is outrageous. holla.
Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department beats up little kids for having fun.
It’s unbelievable that a so called enforcer of the law is allowed to act like this. The Hot Springs Police Department in Arkansas should be ashamed of themselves. This is a grown man using unnecessary force on adolescent youths. Absolutely despicable. One can only hope that Hot Springs Chief of Police Bobby Southard does the right thing and hold Officer Williams accountable for his use of unnecessary force.
I am no fun in Hot Springs Arkansas, as my police department lieks to abuse its authority when dealing with kids and skateboards. They were just skateboarding.
If I order food, and my order gets messed up, is it acceptable for me to become infuriated with the staff and be verbally and/or physically abusive? No. These were kids, and this dude abused his power and used excessive force. And you WONDER why people run from the cops?
I made some PDFs that you can print and fax to them, attach them in an email, snail mail them. I don’t care how you get in contact with these people, just do it. The Hot Springs Police Department in Arkansas apparently has no shame. Well when the internet is through with them they’ll have plenty. Let them know that people are watching them! http://www.dfiant.com/pdfs/despicable.pdf http://www.dfiant.com/pdfs/despicable.pdf http://www.dfiant.com/pdfs/unnecessary.pdf http://www.dfiant.com/pdfs/enforcement.pdf They’re all the same with just a different “Header” word. Print one or print them all.
You can replace the words ” Hot Springs Police Department ” in the above comment with ” All Police Departments “. Not just in Arkansas, but everywhere in America.
All the pigs are all lined up. I give you all that you want. Take the skin and peel it back. Now doesn’t it make you feel better?
ridic. hot springs arkansas police department = bad.
The Hot Springs Police Department in Arkansas needs to start looking at its priorities. I think someone skating on the sidewalk does not by any means require that type of force… so sad.
Something tells me that we are going to see more of this every year.
Getting the girl in a headlock was pretty fucked up. But otherwise this shit is business as usual. I’ve seen friends get tackled to the ground by cops while skating love, cops coming after me and my friends with their batons out. I’ve been taken to jail for skating. My roommates have been taken in on separate occasions. It’s always been fucked and it looks like it ain’t gonna stop. This must be what black people feel like all the time.
It’s whatever. Get over it. Every city and town has some overzealous cops who are definitely gonna treat you like shit. Thats the name of the game. Hell, about a year ago, I had 15 cops pull out guns on me…and i have it on film. I got accused of having a gun, when all i was holding was a VX. That’s life. When you play the skate game, you gotta take a loss or two. That sucks what happened to that kid, but do you think Arkansas gives one hootin’ shit about what happened? Nope. We should have a vandalize a cop car day….haha..That would be some shit I would celebrate!!!!
Acceptance is a great way to hinder progression. Your points are valid, but not with the bitter “get over it” attitude.
People at my work are forwarding this Youtube video and story to me, so it is creating some awareness, which is good. When non-skateboarders speak up and voice their concern with this type of behavior, I think we are making progress. Youtube is changing the way we live.
I can offer more than just teenage girls dancing slutty to bad rap music.
All youtube is doing is giving me a reason NOT to watch another dumb reality show on television. Why do that, when you know you can see the REAL shit there? Oh, and I DO like watching all the slutty chicks dancing to bad rap music….Who doesn’t?
ha had guns on him and he bitches out..no wonder hes scared
Babylon at its worst right here my friends. I was at a skateshop last week in a small little southern town and there were a handfull of teenaged skateboarders skating in the parking lot of the shop. PIGS pull up in force and threaten all of them and come inside the shop, where im talking with the owner, and threaten to arrest the owner if he doesnt make the kids stop skating. (on his own property i might add). He said “arrest me then, this is my shop, and i pay taxes and support commerce in this town”
I wound up arguing with the cops for a good 20 minutes or so and all the one PIG keeps saying is that these kids need to be doing something contructive, like team sports. These youth are good kids, just trying to skate. In the SkATESHOP parking lot. The cop told me they are building a skatepark in two years and that they are gonna have to wait til then to skate in HIS town. I even brought up the point that if they were throwning a fucking football, they would NOT be getting harrased, and the cop says, your right, id probably toss it around with them. This all happened on private property owned by a SKATEBOARD SHOP.
This shit happens all the time, and not just to skateboarders. I think its pointless to try to make skating acceptable. Keep skateboarding OUTLAW, like it should be. At least we would still have our souls. The outlaw movement is true. We need a skateboard jihad to reign hellfire down on these pigs and all the pigs in suits and uniforms that think they can control us on a planet that belongs to US just as much as it belongs to the next person. FIREBURN! If we all followed GODS (whatever one you want to beleive in, its all the same) natural laws as opposed to mans corrupt laws we would all be living in a much better place. Ive learned this lesson the hard way.
I suck.
I am in shock!!!!! I live here in Hot Springs, I have never seen such an abuse of power. not to mention that this was directed at a group of MINORS and even if he felt that he needed to do this COME ON JOEY you are not on COPS and they did just knock over to corner store all they were doing is just trying to have a good time so Shame on you Joey Shome on you and if I am not mistaken it is also against the rules to ride bikes on Bath house row but I think you were on one too sorry guys just wanted to vent if that was my child I would be owning half of Hot Springs………….
My chick actually asked me about this video last night. That shit has gotten around all right.
Do a search on google for “hot springs police” Should be the 4th link, or the 5th, 6th, 7th and 10th link (currently). Click on one of them. Eventually if enough people click on it the link will be moved up to the #1 spot which would just be awesome. The goal here is so that eventually when people look for Hot Springs Arkansas they’ll get a police brutality story as their first result. Sweet! The power of the internet is sometimes amazing.
I found some more contact info: Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department Phone: (501) 321-6789 Fax: (501) 321-6708 Chief of Police, Bobby Southard Email: bsouthard@cityhs.net 641 Malvern Avenue The Chief of Police’s email has been shut off.. you can email the cities elected officials at the following addresses these are the District Directors Peggy Brunner- Maruthur (term expires 12/31/2008) E-mail: pege1947@aol.com Elaine Jones (term expires 12/31/2010) E-mail: direlainejon1@sbcglobal.net Steve Smith (term expires 12/31/2008) E-mail: srsmith12003@yahoo.com Carroll Weatherford (term expires 12/31/2010) E-mail: sable@hsnp.com Tom Daniel (term expires 12/31/2008) Home:623-0682 Cell:627-8641 E-mail:
Hi all! Best rates! G’night