Cleveland.com is reporting on a new lawsuit filed by the mother of a girl who was assaulted by a police officer last November at the Madison Branch Lakewood Public Library in Lakewood, Ohio. According to the report, the 17-year-old girl’s jaw was broken when Lakewood officer Kevin Jones decided that he needed to use his hands to handle words.
Jones was moonlighting in uniform at the library, where the girl and her 11-year-old brother were regular visitors, the complaint says.
The girl was listening to music on her cellphone with her headphones and Jones told her to turn it down, the complaint says. She moved and sat with her brother in a seating area inside the library and started watching videos on a laptop, sharing a pair of headphones, the complaint says.
Jones approached them and told the girl to get her feet off a chair, the lawsuit says. The girl complied. The surveillance video showed Jones and the girl continued to trade words, until he walked back to her, stood over top of her and told the girl to leave the library, the lawsuit says. The girl stood up, and, when Jones didn't move, she said, "excuse me," the lawsuit says. Jones then grabbed her by the neck and shoved her toward the library's front door, the suit says.
The video below says it all. There is not a single thing that the young woman could have said to warrant the use of force Jones decided was necessary. It’s hard to not call him the piece of shit coward that he clearly is after seeing the video. On a personal note, after college I worked as an information assistant at the New York Public Library at a Bronx branch. We were the large branch right next to a 6,000-kid high school with all kinds of children from all kinds of rough areas and upbringings. Teenagers could be loud and obnoxious and confrontational and all-around jerks. They’re teenagers. It’s not like they’re running for the highest office in the land, amirite?
But more importantly, these kids, no matter how much of a “no angel” character they may or may not have seemed to be, were at the public library. They were staying at the public library for free internet, for shelter from a storm, because the adult in their lives told them to stay out of trouble and go to the public library. And these kids were doing just that. Nobody is an “angel” (except maybe my children) but some kids are trying harder than others and it is shameful that adults like Kevin Jones can’t even try a little.