A teen violinist who was severely beaten by Pittsburgh police on January 12 and had his dreadlocks ripped out from his skull is recovering. 18 year-old Jordan Miles was approached by the police who thought he had a gun but what turned out to be a soda bottle under his coat.
His mother Terez Miles stated to The Associated Press,
“I feel that my son was racially profiled. It’s a rough neighborhood; it was after dark. … They assumed he was up to no good because he’s Black. My son, he knows nothing about the streets at all. He’s had a very sheltered life, he’s very quiet, he doesn’t know police officers sit in cars and stalk people like that.”
Jordan’s head is now shaved and his eye is still slightly swollen and bloodshot while the three white officers have been reassigned.
A judge continued the case until Feb. 18 after the officers failed to appear at a hearing Thursday, Miles’ attorney, Kerrington Lewis, said. The police department is saying little as it investigates, and isn’t releasing the officers’ names.
Imagine if it was the other way around and Miles didn’t show up.
The confrontation began around 11 p.m. Jan. 12, when the teenager walked out of his mother’s home and headed to his grandmother’s, where he spends most nights. His mother complimented him on the new jacket he had gotten for his birthday.
“It looks handsome,” she said, smiling as he walked down the front steps.
As Miles walked up the block, he noticed three men sitting in a white car, “but I thought nothing of it,” he said.
The criminal complaint says Miles was standing against a building “as if he was trying to avoid being seen.” But he says he was walking when the men jumped out of the car.Source
