Black Philly Cop terrorizes Black teen with threats of violence

A video surfaced on Facebook showing a Philadelphia uniformed police officer stalking and harassing a group of Black teens. The Philadelphia Police Department has a long history of terrorizing Black residents of the city and has not publicly identified the cop seen in the video stalking, cursing and threatening a black teenager with violence. The department has only stated that the officer will be disciplined. What that “discipline” may consist of has not been made public by the department.

“Big man, do we have a problem?” the officer asks. “Because I notice that you keep trying to make eye contact with me. Is there a problem?, “Okay, well keep f*****g walking,” the officer replies. “The next time you look me in my f*****g eye, I’m gonna beat the s**t out you!”.

In Pennsylvania, the officer could be charged with “Terroristic Threats” which is in violation of 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 2706. The “statute prohibits a person from communicating a threat to commit a crime of violence with the intent to terrorize another”. A reasonable person would conclude that the unnamed officer used the threat of violence (beat the s**t out you) to terrorize a teenager and intimidate the teen and all the other teens party to the incident, into never making eye contact with him again.

Philadelphia Police seem to believe that the public should trust them to handle the matter internally and portray it as a matter of professionalism. If any gang member other than the those who belong to the Philadelphia police department committed the same act of terrorism against this teen, they would surely be arrested and charged with the crime by the District Attorney. However, this is part of the culture of corruption and officers being held above the laws they are sworn to enforce is a systemic problem nationally.

It is particularly shameful behavior by a Black cop in the wake of Michael Brown being terrorized and then killed by Ferguson cop Darren Wilson who has yet to be charged. Then there is the historical context of the time period in the United States when a Black person was routinely terrorized if they looked a white person in the eye and now we have Black cops in 2014 practicing proxy racism against our children in the streets.