http://www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/b1tv3qsr053.html
PEORIA - Army Spc. DeMarcus McNeil called the profanities he lobbed at a man demanding he turn over his camcorder during a fight at a high school basketball game Friday night a reaction.
He didn't realize he had just cussed out Peoria Police Chief John Stenson.
...
Stenson, dressed in plain clothes, was watching the game when he received a call from a sergeant who said there was concern from District 150 officials that a fight was going to break out.
...
During his two-week furlough from the conflict in Iraq, McNeil's camcorder had been glued to his hand. McNeil, a specialist in the HHC-11-37 AR Support Platoon, planned to show fellow soldiers highlights of his visit home.
"He takes that video camera everywhere," said his mother, Dionne Causey.
During the melee, McNeil kept his camera rolling.
"Some students at the school began to fight and I stood there a distance away videotaping it," he said. "As I was leaving, a man grabbed me by the arm and said, 'Give me that camera.'
"I said, 'Hell no, I'm not going to give you my camera.' I cussed him out because I didn't know who he was."
When a uniformed officer approached
McNeil and the man who had grabbed him and asked, "What's the problem, chief?" McNeil knew he was in trouble, he said.
Stenson said he had "grabbed him from the front. The police told him to move. Did he think I was making a citizen's arrest?"
Two officers handcuffed McNeil and took him to a wall where arrested students were sitting.
...
Stenson said soldier or not, McNeil was in the middle of the fight, was told to move by uniformed police and did not.
"When you tell everybody to get away so that officers can make the arrests, we want them to leave," Stenson said. "It doesn't have anything to do with being in the Army. We wanted the place cleared out."
...
McNeil's mother said if Stenson had identified himself, her son's arrest could have been avoided.
"Not everybody knows Chief Stenson," Causey said. "I really feel like he owes my son an apology."
Stenson was not quick to offer one.
"Look, I give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I just charged him with disorderly conduct," he said. "I didn't charge him with a greater charge of resisting police. We gave the guy a break."
So he doesn't comply with a request to leave, but is only arrested for that after he refuses to give his videocam to an ununiformed, unidentified person? And when he's allegedly on his way out the door? How disorderly could he have been if he was carrying an unbroken camera?
"...didn't charge him with... resisting police. We gave the guy a break." Doesn't resisting police require some physical resistance?
PEORIA - Army Spc. DeMarcus McNeil called the profanities he lobbed at a man demanding he turn over his camcorder during a fight at a high school basketball game Friday night a reaction.
He didn't realize he had just cussed out Peoria Police Chief John Stenson.
...
Stenson, dressed in plain clothes, was watching the game when he received a call from a sergeant who said there was concern from District 150 officials that a fight was going to break out.
...
During his two-week furlough from the conflict in Iraq, McNeil's camcorder had been glued to his hand. McNeil, a specialist in the HHC-11-37 AR Support Platoon, planned to show fellow soldiers highlights of his visit home.
"He takes that video camera everywhere," said his mother, Dionne Causey.
During the melee, McNeil kept his camera rolling.
"Some students at the school began to fight and I stood there a distance away videotaping it," he said. "As I was leaving, a man grabbed me by the arm and said, 'Give me that camera.'
"I said, 'Hell no, I'm not going to give you my camera.' I cussed him out because I didn't know who he was."
When a uniformed officer approached
McNeil and the man who had grabbed him and asked, "What's the problem, chief?" McNeil knew he was in trouble, he said.
Stenson said he had "grabbed him from the front. The police told him to move. Did he think I was making a citizen's arrest?"
Two officers handcuffed McNeil and took him to a wall where arrested students were sitting.
...
Stenson said soldier or not, McNeil was in the middle of the fight, was told to move by uniformed police and did not.
"When you tell everybody to get away so that officers can make the arrests, we want them to leave," Stenson said. "It doesn't have anything to do with being in the Army. We wanted the place cleared out."
...
McNeil's mother said if Stenson had identified himself, her son's arrest could have been avoided.
"Not everybody knows Chief Stenson," Causey said. "I really feel like he owes my son an apology."
Stenson was not quick to offer one.
"Look, I give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I just charged him with disorderly conduct," he said. "I didn't charge him with a greater charge of resisting police. We gave the guy a break."
So he doesn't comply with a request to leave, but is only arrested for that after he refuses to give his videocam to an ununiformed, unidentified person? And when he's allegedly on his way out the door? How disorderly could he have been if he was carrying an unbroken camera?
"...didn't charge him with... resisting police. We gave the guy a break." Doesn't resisting police require some physical resistance?
