The Pennsylvania state troopers were arresting Preston Weakland because he had run away from home.
But one cop ended up punching the 14-year-old boy after he was handcuffed, claiming the boy had head butted him.
However, video recorded by Weakland’s friends show the bill of his baseball cap may have touched the officer’s forehead, but only after the cop spun him around, demanding to know what the kid had just said, which was apparently some type of backtalk that is not audible on the video.
“What did you say?” the cops says like a playground bully throwing his weight around.
The cop uses his flashlight to knock the bill of the kid’s cap upwards and the kid lowers his head, possibly to keep the cap from coming off, which is when it may have touched the officer’s forehead.
“Congratulations, you just got a felony,” the cop says.
The video was uploaded to Facebook Wednesday by Weakland’s father, Joseph Weakland, who was not happy with the way the cop punched his son.
“This is how the state police treat my son…now he was mouthy but that doesn’t call for them to assault him,” he wrote on the Facebook post accompanying the video.
He is correct except the cop didn’t just assault him, he battered him. And he will probably get away with it as cops always do.
But the kid, who was cooperating with the cops by placing his hands behind his back and allowing himself to be handcuffed, does not deserve a felony just because the cop is unable to control his emotions.
We have slowed the video down in certain segments to capture what really took place before the cop punched the teen.
