Thursday, June 28, 2007

Skateboaders and Police Scuffle, Staged?

Hot Springs downtown merchants are coming to the rescue of police officer Joey Williams. They are circulating a petition in support of him. The petition states that
"What was uploaded onto YouTube is edited and completely out of context with what happened," the letter states. "These officers were doing their jobs and thank goodness for that."

Mmmm, it would seem that those poor little skateboarders weren't as innocent as the video on YouTube portrayed. The fact that the video was edited would suggest that possibility that the skateboarders antics were deliberate.
Merchants, however, contend that McCormack rallied his friends and that the downtown skating that followed was an act of defiance. And why, they asked, did the skateboarders have cameras ? The fact that they had video equipment at the ready makes it look as though the kids were looking for publicity, business owners said. They also wonder about the motive behind posting the video on YouTube

I guess people are going to have to be careful about completely believing everything that gets put on YouTube. Kudos goes to the Arkansas Democrate-Gazette for pursuing the truth of the video and not playing up the "kids beaten by cops" story.

No comments: