Police said they wouldn’t “disperse.” “We tried to tell them that we were waiting for the bus. We weren’t catching a city bus, we were catching a yellow bus. He didn’t care. He arrested us anyways.”
Three teenagers in Rochester, N.Y., said their coach told them to wait for a school bus to go to a basketball scrimmage when a policeman approached and told them to "disperse."
Their parents had to pay $200 to bail them out. According to Rochester's WHEC, "Police say they were blocking the sidewalk and the entrance to a store and they say they told the teens to leave several times. But according to the officer, the teens did not move from the area. The three teens were then placed under arrest."
"We tried to tell them that we were waiting for the bus," says Weathers. "We weren't catching a city bus, we were catching a yellow bus. He didn't care. He arrested us anyways."
The kids' coach, Jacob Scott, who is also a guidance counselor, tried to defuse the situation and was told by police that if he didn't disperse he would be arrested too.
"[The officer] goes on to say, 'If you don't disperse, you're going to get booked as well,'" Scott told Rochester Homepage. "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?'"
