Peace Officers. That's how the law refers to them - Peace Officers.
Well, a thirteen year old boy has been charged with "felony aggravated battery to a “peace officer.” The weapon - a snowball.
The incident occurred last Wednesday afternoon as a group of boys were walking home from school in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. The CPD officer was sitting in his parked squad car, arm resting on the frame of his open window. Depending on who you talk to, the cop was hit in the arm with a snowball, or according to witnesses, the snowball hit the door near the cop's arm.
Surprisingly, "I didn't do it," claimed the boy.
The eighth grader was singled out of a group of fifteen students by the Leland Elementary School Dean. “He kept trying to tell the officer that he didn’t do it, but they didn’t believe him,” the boy’s mother said. “He was standing on the corner, there was a whole crowd of kids. It’s so crazy.”
“It made me mad,” the boy told the Chicago Tribune. “The officer said the snowball hit him but it hit the car, not him.”
The Dean told a Tribune reporter, “I have absolutely no comment.”
Chicago police confirmed it was the boy's first arrest. They added that the boy has no known gang affiliation. In addition to the charges, the school issued a five-day suspension against the boy.
Police refused to respond when asked if they intended to keep the evidence on ice.
His mother lamented, “It’s sad, he’s only 13. I’m so upset, he’s never been in trouble before. It’s his first case.”
Neighbors and onlookers decried the severity of the charges, citing the boy's age and what a felony arrest or conviction means for his future prospects.
An observer commented, "I hope this doesn't go on his permanent record."
One witness, a construction worker on a nearby job site, remarked, “I think that’s ridiculous – it’s such a big charge. It’s just going overboard. I can see if it were a weapon and harm was done, but it was just a snowball. This is a case of kids being kids.”
The boy is scheduled to appear in juvenile court on March 12, 2014 according to police.
In a similar case in New York, the city shelled out three hundred thousand dollars to five teens who were arrested for throwing a snowball at a cop in February 2010.
The cop pulled his gun on the boys, who were originally charged with a crime. Those charges were later dropped and the five sued for $10 million - settling for $60,000 each earlier this month.
When I asked my sister, a long-time Cook County defense attorney, for her opinion on the Chicago boy's story, she said, "The Cubs should sign him."
Preparing to return fire!
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