UPDATE: Tuesday December 3, 2013:

Charges against the three teens who were arrested while waiting on a bus will be dropped according to Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley:

Doorley told News 8 in a brief text message the charges would be dropped. She is in a meeting and we haven’t been able to get further comment. Yesterday, Police Chief James Sheppard said he would let the matter play out in court. He did not say he was concerned with the arrests.

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So this happened.

A police officer in Rochester, New York arrested three teens last week while they stood outside a store waiting for a school bus to take them to a basketball scrimmage.

The teens, who were standing with about a dozen of their basketball teammates, were charged with disorderly conduct. They pleaded not guilty in court. And their only apparent crime? Waiting while black.

Now, the coach of the basketball team and an angry community are standing behind Raliek Redd, 16, Deaquon Carelock, 16, and Wan’Tauhjs Weathers, 17, who are all star athletes at Edison Tech High School.

An officer asked the boys to disperse and they refused. The young men say they tried to explain to him they were waiting for a school bus. The officer arrested three of the players. “We didn’t do nothing,” said Raliek Redd. “We was just trying to go to our scrimmage.” “We was just waiting for our bus and he started arrested us,” said Wan’Tauhjs Weathers. “You just downtown, minding your own business, and next thing you know, anything can happen,” said Daequon Carelock.

But the officer involved didn’t see it that way. The police report says the students were obstructing pedestrian traffic because they were standing on a public sidewalk. And apparently, even though the report does not accuse the boys of using abusive or obscene language, assaulting anyone or committing any crimes, waiting on a sidewalk warranted an arrest.

Coach Jacob Scott, who was supervising the teens, pleaded with the officer to let the boys go.

“He goes on to say, ‘If you don’t disperse, you’re going to get booked as well,'” Scott said. “I said, ‘Sir, I’m the adult. I’m their varsity basketball coach. How can you book me? What am I doing wrong? Matter of fact, what are these guys doing wrong?'” Scott said a sergeant showed up and backed up his officer. “One of the police officers actually told me, if he had a big enough caravan, he would take all of us downtown,” Scott said. Scott said the incident was traumatic for the players who got arrested and the players who witnessed the arrests and such treatment of their coach. “It’s a catastrophe. These young men were doing nothing wrong, nothing wrong. They did exactly what they were supposed to do and still they get arrested,” said Scott. “I’m speaking to the officers with dignity…and still and yet – they see me get treated like nothing.”

The families of the teens had to post $200 bail to make sure they were home before Thanksgiving. Their trial has been set for December 11.

As of yet, the police officer involved is not being investigated.

SOURCE: Rochester | PHOTO CREDIT: Screengrab

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