BATTLE CREEK, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Battle Creek families spent Saturday afternoon protesting at the Battle Creek Police Department after officers detained a second teenager who was walking around the Washington Heights neighborhood.
He has been identified as 14-year-old Ahmar Bennett and his mother, Camille Bennett, says police told her they stopped him for “wearing a hoodie and sweatpants” and because “it looked like he was holding a weapon in his waistline.”
Ahmar was not armed and she says police frisked him without his consent as he said he wanted a parent there.
She adds there has been “no accountability, no apology” since it happened.
The protest followed the detainments earlier this year of 16-year-old Jeremiah Spearman, who was tackled by police when he was also walking in the Washington Heights neighborhood in June without shoes. Police said that behavior was “unusual,” and that’s why they detained him.
Ten days later, Spearman was again detained by Battle Creek police, with officers saying that was for him clutching his waistband and not stopping when they ordered him to. Spearman was not armed either, and his family is still waiting for an apology and changes to the police department’s policies and procedures.
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