Cops Get So Rough with Straight A Student That They Rupture His Testιcle
by Damon Bradley
When you’re a law-abiding citizen who hasn’t done anything wrong, you don’t expect that a run-in with police is going to lead to one of your testιcles being ruptured. But anything can happen when dealing with the cops, especially for young black men.
Veronica Joyner, founder of the Mathematics, Civics & Sciences Charter School, is standing with one of her students, Darrin Manning, who went through an ordeal that has made millions of people cringe in agony.
According to Philly.com, Manning was with his friends on their way to a basketball game, and ended up dealing with police instead of playing that night. Manning says that he believes one of his friends made a smart remark at an officer who was staring at them, and when the officer came at them, they ran.
Manning says that since he didn’t do anything wrong, he thought that stopping would be OK. That is a decision that will stay with him for the rest of his life.
Of course, the stories diverge at this point. The report filed by Officer Thomas Purcell says that the young men were running with ski masks on. But there were no ski masks, according to the students, just the scarves that had been given to them by the school.
He also says that the boy fought with him, hitting him three times and ripping off his radio. But there are no injuries to the officer.
But one injury is undeniable. Manning says that when the officer grabbed him, he was hit and a female officer did an overly aggressive pat down, grabbing his rear end and genιtalia. In fact, she grabbed so hard that she ruptured one of his testιcles.
“She patted me down and then she touched my b**t and then my private parts,” he said. “And then she grabbed and squeezed and pulled my private parts and I felt something pop.”
The boy was arrested for resisting arrest and reckless endangerment. But his injuries were so serious that he had to undergo emergency surgery the next day at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Doctors are saying that because of this incident, he may never be able to have children.
“There were all these cops and cops cars, and one kid,” one witness said.
Some people in the community wonder if officers reacted this way because it was a large group of black kids. According to the school, Manning is a straight-A student who has never gotten in trouble, even at school.
But Officer Purcell is hardly a model citizen. According to records in the Internal Affairs Office, he has had two citizen complaints filed for false arrest. But he was cleared in both cases.
“I blame myself,” the boy’s mother told Philly.com. “I taught my son to respect cops, not to fear them. Maybe if he was afraid, he would have run like the other boys and he would have been OK.”
The boy is still in a wheelchair days after the incident. It is currently under investigation.
Philadelphia community rallies around prep basketball player hospitalized by alleged police brutality
Darrin Manning, 16, and his mother, Ikea Coney, contend he was the subject of police brutality -- Philadelphia …
A case of alleged police brutality
has a West Philadelphia community rallying behind a 16-year-old
straight-A student and prep basketball player who underwent emergency
surgery to repair a ruptured testicle after a police stop on his way to a
game.
The details -- widely reported in Philadelphia, including accounts by the city's Daily News and the local FOX affiliate -- are now the center of an internal affairs investigation.
According to a police report obtained by the Daily News,
Officer Thomas Purcell stopped Darrin Manning on Jan. 7 (during the
height of the polar vortex) after witnessing the teen and roughly a
dozen of his Philadelphia Mathematics, Civics & Sciences Charter
School teammates wearing ski masks and running down the street.
The police report alleges Manning
struck Purcell three times, inflicting no injury but forcing a call for
backup. The report also claimed Manning "didn't complain of any pain"
while being charged with assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and
reckless endangerment.
That's the police's side of the story, according to the Daily News report.
Manning's own account of the afternoon's events paint a disturbing
picture that has many in the community outraged, organizing town
meetings and rallies in his defense.
Manning told multiple media
outlets that his team got off the subway while traveling from their
school to the gym at Philadelphia's Berean Institute for their game
against Philly's Frankfort High. A member of his group "may have said something smart" to a police officer they perceived to be "staring them down," according to Manning's own account.
When the officer approached, the
boys, including Manning, reportedly ran. They were wearing hats, gloves
and scarves -- not ski masks -- given to them by Mathematics, Civics
& Sciences Charter School founder Veronica Joyner to keep warm,
Manning said.
"She patted me down again, and then I felt her reach, and she grabbed my butt," Manning told myfoxphilly.com. "And then she grabbed and squeezed again and pulled down. And that's when I heard something pop, like I felt it pop."
An unnamed witness corroborated Manning's account of excessive force to the Daily News.
According to the reports, after
spending eight hours in jail, Manning underwent emergency surgery the
following day at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and remained in a
wheelchair at school a week later. His mother, Ikea Coney, told the
Daily News that doctors believe the injury could potentially prevent him
from fathering children.
"I'm just grateful that they didn't just kill him," Coney told the local FOX affiliate.
Meanwhile, Manning's family has
reportedly hired an attorney in hopes of clearing him of all charges.
Community organizations, including the Pennsylvania State Chapter of
Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, have also come to Manning's
defense, reports said.
The police did not comment to
local media, citing their investigation into the incident, but confirmed
the officers would face disciplinary action depending on the outcome.
