Police Excessive Force In School Cafeteria Caught On Tape (VIDEO)

Authorities are looking into a complaint of police brutality after video of 17-year-old Frank W. Harrington being lifted from his seat in the school cafeteria and slammed face-first into a table surfaced on the website CopBlock.org.

“Today I got assaulted by a cop,” Harrington says as he began telling his story on camera.

"I took my sister's purse, I was messing around," he continued.

"She said she didn't want it back, I was going to give it back after lunch. The teachers involved themselves, said I stole it. She said it's no big deal, I'll get it back later."

From there, according to Harrington, the principal tried to take the purse from him. After stating he'd give it back to his sister himself, the principal got school resource officer Darren Murphy involved. Murphy and the principal allegedly grabbed the purse from Harrington and told the student he was suspended. After protesting, as the video shows, Murphy then lifted Harrington off his seat, spun him around, forced him onto the table and arrested him.

The high schooler's parents have filed a complaint with the police about the incident, and Police Capt. Robert Kunha plans to lead an investigation into the complaint, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.

“We're going to be interviewing everyone who was a witness,” Kunha told the paper.

My Fox Boston reported that Harrington has been charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, as well as being suspended for 12 days -- one day for stealing the purse and 11 days for possession of a utility knife.

The arrest was filmed by Harrington's friend, Michael Proulx, 17, who resisted teachers' attempts to make him stop filming. Proulx said teachers approached him, demanding that he delete anything he had recorded. Proulx lied, saying he had only taken photos, and pretended to delete them.

CopBlock.org founder Ademo Freeman later posted a video of him requesting a comment from school principal Mary MGorry and a police captain, neither of whom gave one.

Freeman also neglected to inform both parties that they were being recorded which, according to the Union Leader, violates state wiretap law.

WATCH:

Comments

[simsum]

10:04 PM on 10/08/2011

This kind of treatment of children does not reflect the high standards for which the American people pride themselves.

It reflects a society unable to educate its children, to encourage and strengthen them.
It reflects a society quick to punish, quick to condemn, quick to criminalize.
It reflects a society that has given up on its youth.
It reflects not a loving and nurturing society but police state.

Frank Harrington was not the only child mistreated. This violence sent a chilling message to all students that they should expect not to be to be supported but rather suspected. With more energy being spent on their guard and fearing for their safety, these children will see their creative potential steadily decline.

In the past schools were well known to be modeled after factories. Now they are modeled after prisons.

New Hampshire is filled with upstanding citizens, and they should take action to regain control of their schools from a bureaucracy that clearly does not know what it is doing.

[bdunlap52]

12:24 AM on 10/08/2011

I love how all these people who don't know what use of force policies are thinking that this officer used "excessive force" with this situation. Once the kid got suspended, the officer obviously needed to remove him from the premises, and this kid wasn't going anywhere by his own volition. The officer stood him up and he began to struggle with the officer. At that point, he was put into a controlled position. They then found a weapon on the student. Pretty sure the police are in the right on this one. Can't believe the students think that they have the right to do whatever they want whenever they want.

[simsum]

12:29 AM on 10/08/2011

Police brutality is very easy to recognize - if you don't have blinders on.

By the way, the Nzi regime didn't make it. It's been about 66 years. We now have some newfangled things called human rights and democratic society.

[bdunlap52]

12:32 AM on 10/08/2011

Brutality would have been the police using strikes after the student was controlled. Getting the student controlled is not brutality. And nobody is saying anything about nazi's or anything like that. This students rights were not violated.

[Ariel Bonzai]

11:46 PM on 10/07/2011

My favorite part is the friend who lied about the film he had. Now that is revolutionary. Are these campus cops? This is one reason it escalates like it did and it sounds like the principal is another fascist who needs to learn a few classroom management tricks from teachers. There is absolutely no readso these adults could not not listen and be reasonable enough to hear this young man and his sister out. The boy should not have been goofing around perhaps, but this, dare I say, is what young people do. As educators we admonish them. We don't try to knock their teeth out.

[fortressfountain]

05:10 PM on 10/07/2011

Police are at schools? The schools must be very dangerous. All of the money in the world will not help these students.

[simsum]

10:31 PM on 10/07/2011

Wow, that makes sense.

[Ashley Knightschroder]

09:54 AM on 10/07/2011

suspension is not a punishment is a reward.

[Ariel Bonzai]

11:48 PM on 10/07/2011

he and his friend deserve one for documenting te truth about what is going on at schools today

[mddunnington]

11:33 PM on 10/10/2011

Maybe these youths should be documenting when drugs and weapons are being smuggled into school.

[dbrett480]

10:13 PM on 10/06/2011

Not excessive force based on the limited information (and the obvious Hpost anti-cop bias). The video shows a student struggling with a cop for several seconds and then being slammed into the table. Let's see the whole video to see how this situation actually transpired. Remember that the stupidest organism on the planet is a male teenager surrounded by friends.

[vtrob77]

08:42 PM on 10/07/2011

This was a sibling dispute. The girl said it was ok and she'd get it later. The force was excessive given the potential plantiff / victim said it was a non-issue. The officer should have never interjected himself into the situation.

I would agree with you if the girl had insisted she get the purse back or had been in duress. But since that wasn't the situation this is an obvious overreach. And the fact that teachers were trying to make the kid taking pictures and filming stop... What's there to hide?

[dbrett480]

02:06 PM on 10/08/2011

He said this afterwards. Is there any evidence that he informed the officer or even the principal? The principal was investigating a report of a purse theft. The kid refused to cooperate with both the principal and the officer. If this kid had gone with the principal it would have been avoided. However he most likely wanted to look like a tough guy in front of his friends.

[Hlynn]

10:06 PM on 10/06/2011

If the kid wants to tease his sister, he needs to do it at home. Schools staff have no way of knowing if the sister was afraid of her brother or not, so they try to head off trouble by making sure things are in the possessions of their owners. It keeps it simple and avoids trouble. How many girls would allow their brother to keep their purse for even a minute? That doesn't sound right at all; purses hold very private things and it's very unlikely a girl would be comfortable with her brother having access to its contents.

The student disobeyed the direct instructions of a principal and officer and he's surprised he was physically restrained? He's fortunate he was only suspended. Try mouthing off to police and being that defiant out in society and see what happens. If he's smart, he'll learn from his mistake and not be so foolish next time; if he isn't, he can look forward to more encounters with officers and arrests in the future.

[TookieWords]

08:46 AM on 10/07/2011

He "disobeyed" so he needs to be **physically restrained**? Are you out of your mind? Am I living in Nazi Germany or America? Institutions of higher learning... yeah. okay.

[Hlynn]

09:44 AM on 10/07/2011

Yes, disobeyed. It's not a dirty word.

No, I'm a very rational person.

If we were living back in Nazi Germany he would have been shot, so you make the call.

Colleges and universities are institutions of higher learning. This was a high school.

People--such as this student--who think they have rights without the attendant responsibilities will probably find themselves being physically restrained, and jailed, for a good part of their lives. He needs to wake up and grow up.

[Ashley Knightschroder]

09:43 AM on 10/07/2011

they could try asking. the kid wasn't in the so called cops face he was sitting until this thug picked him up and worried him like a dog worries a bone. bring in the parents not the guy they did for this. the more i see comments like yours and videos like this the more i consider home schooling :/

[supercharger72b]

05:25 PM on 10/06/2011

West High School is a pretty good school, not too many Incidents happens there, and once in a blue moon something happens, when my kid Graduated last year they had 2 student excepted to go to Harvard University.

If this was Lincoln Memorial High School, I would not have been Surprised about this Incident, It happens all the time there......I'm glad my Kids are in West High School.....

[thoughtsandshots]

05:11 PM on 10/06/2011

Making someone delete photos or videos on their camera is against the law. It would have been hilarious had they made him actually.

[silvester1]

03:49 PM on 10/06/2011

Hey, next time my 17 year old backtalks me, I'm going to body slam him into the ground. Then, when I find he has a utility knife in his pocket, I'll kick him in the face. And when he teases his sister, I'll cut him with the utility knife.

Like that scenario, all you posters who are in favor of the cop and the principal's behavior? 'Cause what you're saying is you like the whole idea of fixing insubordination with violence. Really, what difference does proportionality make? Just gives the damn kid the idea that he can get away with it, right? So next time your kid mouths off, just pull out a baseball bat and hit him in the head.

[bdunlap52]

12:12 AM on 10/08/2011

The slam to the ground I'm perfectly ok with. He didn't get kicked in the face, or cut with the knife, so those are faulty arguments.

[silvester1]

05:49 PM on 10/12/2011

The point was to indicate the degree of aggression and violence the posters defending the cops and principal are willing to tolerate. Your response just proves my point. Hope you don't have kids; I don't want to meet their messed-up butts in my classrooms.

[mddunnington]

11:37 PM on 10/10/2011

Stop making up a different story that never happend.

[Ayla87]

02:53 PM on 10/06/2011

Wow. For someone who didn't think the situation was that big of a deal he sure did more than his share to escalate the situation. All he needed to do was give the purse back to the principal and walk with him to the office. Instead he back talks, swears, resists the cop and at the end of it all is found with a concealed weapon. Not a pencil sharpener or nail clippers, or whatever else zero tolerance idiots may want to expel kids for, but a knife, a real weapon. That alone merits expulsion.

[Ashley Knightschroder]

09:45 AM on 10/07/2011

utility knife ie pocket knife. pretty hard to do any serious dmg with one of those. see the movie 127 hours ya he had to saw quite awhile to get his arm away with a utility knife. he said he'd give it back to his sister. did you even read the article?

[Ayla87]

11:10 AM on 10/07/2011

It's still a knife. You can still slash at someone with it, you can still slit their throat with it if you had a mind to. And yes I read the article. And frankly, I don't care if he said he'd give it back to his sister himself. It's not his purse to begin with, he doesn't get to decide when or to whom gives it back. And like I said before, if it wasn't that big of a deal to him why did he escalate the situation? Why did he mouth off and why did he fight back when the cop tried to take him to the office?

There is not a second of this video that shows police brutality. All it shows is a 17 year old freshmore (sophomore taking freshman classes), acting like a punk and receiving the consequences for his actions. I feel no sympathy for him.

[bdunlap52]

12:14 AM on 10/08/2011

It wasn't his purse, he had no right to take it. He should have followed directions of those posted in positions of authority over him. You know, like a job. And you don't have to cut someones arm off to cause damage with a knife. You have the ability to cut a throat or stab someone. You make a lot of excuses for this idiot don't you.

[ttigerlilyx2]

04:09 PM on 10/07/2011

Maybe there was something in her purse, and he was trying to protect her?
Maybe, being raised in a place that calles itself 'Land of the Free, Home of the Brave' he just objected to being treated like a criminal because he didnt stick his tail btwn his legs and cave in to men abusing their authority?

[Ayla87]

04:34 PM on 10/07/2011

If that were the case he could've easily taken it out the offending object, before the principal came and requested the purse back. So much for that theory.

Just because you live in the land of the free home of the brave doesn't mean you don't have to obey the law. Bringing a concealed weapon into a school is illegal, no matter what state your in.

You want to talk about sticking up for yourself? I used to get in trouble all the time at school. I skipped classes and drank like a fish. And when I got caught, I would get into further trouble because I refused to sign any disciplinary notice the teachers gave me. I used the 5th amendment as my argument. I'm not kidding. The principal laughed the first time I said that. But never during any incident did I get so belligerent that I needed to be slammed into a table and sent to the local jail for the rest of the day.

For every right comes a responsibility. He had a right to defend himself, but he also had a responsibility to do so tactful and with decency. He failed to do that. He faced the consequences.

[HL Davison]

01:36 PM on 10/06/2011

I've had my own disputes with "authority figures" when my kids where in school. There is very little room for disagreement with "policy." Blind unquestioned obedience is expected, and as for the kids ever being treated as individuals-HA! never happens. There were many ways to handle this situation and the resource officer and principal didn't bother with any of them except the physical violence. So wrong on so many levels. Who is the adult here? Educators? I think not.

[Hlynn]

10:09 PM on 10/06/2011

Two people--the principal and officer--told him to give back the purse. They didn't restrain him right away. He chose to disobey both times and there were consequences for it. He should have been expelled.

[Ashley Knightschroder]

09:46 AM on 10/07/2011

he said he'd give the purse back to his SISTER the parents should have been called not an "officer"

[Ariel Bonzai]

11:57 PM on 10/07/2011

no, they are EducRAT$--, white chalk criminal, grifters, parasites, sir, and as a hs teacher, i can tell you they tend to be fascists too. obedience is overrated. students are not the problem.

[simsum]

12:20 AM on 10/08/2011

Well said.

[BigMyk]

01:11 PM on 10/06/2011

Yay, here comes the irrational cop hate, never mind the 17 year old knife carrying FRESHMAN (tells you alot about the "kid") who escalated the encounter by resisting after not doing what he was told. I'll bet dollars to donuts crappy parenting is at fault here.

[Ashley Knightschroder]

09:48 AM on 10/07/2011

utility knife. see the movie 127 hours and tell me how much he would have to do to do lots of damage. the purse was his sisters and he said he's give it back. please read the whole article

[bdunlap52]

12:17 AM on 10/08/2011

See 9/11 and see the damage that any utility knife can do. Go to a prison and see the damage such a knife can do.

[Ariel Bonzai]

06:14 AM on 10/09/2011

Maybe it reveals a lot about the school, too....

[OD Williams]

11:03 AM on 10/06/2011

Disrespect for authority begins in the home. I can guarantee the vast majority of people writing in on the side of the kid have kids who behave the same way toward them. ZERO respect. They realize its just a matter of time before their own kids are in the same situation (if not already).

[simsum]

11:29 AM on 10/06/2011

So the American colonists began to disrespect the British because of their home life. I see...

[LazarusRises]

11:47 AM on 10/06/2011

Respect is EARNED. I have absolutely NO respect for corrupt, abusive, illegal contemptible authority because of any command that it should be respected. The Principal should have let the matter go when it was made clear to him they were brother & sister. He lacked probable cause to search through her purse. He abused his authority when he escalated a nothing into a possible riot scene & Bacon Boy has no proper grounds to stand on at all.

What person, let alone kid is going to respect that type of authority? A majority of kids learn respect without having some sadistic narrow minded thug as a parent.

[Ariel Bonzai]

06:15 AM on 10/09/2011

Bravo!

[AlternateReality]

10:38 AM on 10/06/2011

After school cop, in the alley....lol.....someone burn the school down, now!....lol. F_ _ K the school, f - - k the principal. Kids rule!!

[mddunnington]

11:38 PM on 10/10/2011

Yea,,you wish.