Throughout the summer we’ve kept readers dialed-in to the fates of Destini and DeAsia Bronaugh, the teen sisters who tangled with Cleveland Police at a protest outside of Collinwood High School in May. The girls were subject to a rough arrest, and the entire incident was caught on tape by Scene’s favorite Marx-toting community organizers, Caleb Maupin and Adam Gluntz. The clip, below, was shown on media outlets across the city, stirring up talk of police brutality. After some uncertainty, county prosecutors went ahead and charged the two with felonies, and the younger girl — 17-year-old DeAsia — went on trial this week in juvenile court.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2010.
Why didn’t these girls just stand still? They made things so much more difficult when they decided to hang onto each other. What was that going to solve? If someone asserts there is brutality, that is becuase the girls were just as brutal.
I am so happy for this family, I think the police were wrong in the first place and that they should be charged for assulting a minor, this is America where we do have the right to protest, or at least that is what I was taught in school, has things changed in the last 20 years??
The charges should NOT have been thrown out. Those girls knew exactly what they were doing when they were ASSAULTING the police. If we continue to let this kind of behavior go unpunished there will be no police officers left, they will be afraid to defend themselves against this type of behavior and get tired of being brutalized by ignorant trashy teens AND adults who never face consequences for their actions.
For too long cops in general and white cops in particular have used their power to victimize and terrorize at will. Sure the girls should have should stopped fighting (they risked being shot). However, somebody has to make a stand for what’s right. Melissa and Justme, with the overbearing power that cops wield in this area, do you really think the girls got off??? No, the judge saw the tape and made an honest decision. Having Scene tape the event didn’t hurt either!!