Teen Arrested For Wearing Baseball Cap Sideways

[matcom]

<snip>

By most accounts, Marlon Morgan is a great kid. The soft-spoken junior plays basketball for Saguaro High School. He was nominated for Youth of the Year last year by a branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Scottsdale.

So why were his classmates wearing "Free Marlon" T-shirts last week?

The 17-year-old had just been arrested on campus during lunch for wearing his baseball cap sideways instead of to the front and refusing to turn it the other way.

Morgan, who is Black, believes he was singled out. Other teens in the same room were wearing their hats that way.

His family criticized both police and school officials' handling of the incident, which happened March 5, the day before spring break. The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Morgan's mother are meeting Wednesday with Scottsdale Police Chief Alan Rodbell and Scottsdale Unified School District officials.

Morgan was suspended from school for three days, beginning Monday when Saguaro returns from spring break. Though he was held in a jail cell at police headquarters for several hours, he wasn't charged. He was held on suspicion of disorderly conduct, failure to obey a police officer, trespassing and interfering or disrupting an educational institution.

School officials and police defended their actions.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0313marlon13.html

[Racenut20]

1. Gangs

I worked at a high school, suburb of KC, that did not allow hats, one glove, etc. But one Friday a month, they could pay fifty cents and wear a hat.

[BiggJawn]

2. It's all about conformity....

So the school ratioanlizes this by saying that in the movie "Boyz in da Hood" all the "Gangstas" wore their hats sideways, and that's what the "Officer Friendlies" from the Gang Task Force has told them (along with scaring parents with those urban legends about "LSD-laced Mickey Mouse temp tats" and cars approaching you w/o their headlights lit)

Yep, "Flashing Gang Signs"...And the fucking laundry klist of possible multiple charges they detained him on."Trespassing"? what is that? He was an enrolled STUDENT....Wonder they didn't charge him with having WMDPM....

[markses]

3. We couldn't wear baseball caps in my school

I did anyway, and had about 8 of them confiscated. The Dean used to reach over stairways and pull them right from my head. Aaaaah: good times!

[TXlib]

4. This story pisses me off.

Unless the cops went around asking ALL the students to face their hat forward, approaching this ONE student is clearly and unequivocally racist. I would love to see the school sued to shit, and each of the administrators sued into the poorhouse.

[NoPasaran]

5. Damn! I've heard of the Fashion Police

But I didn't realize they actually had power of arrest.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. You've got to be joking...

...what was he charged with? Somewhere the phrases "Bill of rights" and "Constitution" fit in, but I guess that's only for white guys.

[Endangered Specie]

7. Hell, I know someone who got 2 days for ...

taking his hat off in "a threatining manner"... he just took it off quickly, and probably couldnt hurt a fly

DOnt you know that schools are really prisions in disquise???