The story will play into the anti-stop/frisk narrative – Heck, it might even be pushed by them, I don’t care – this is a level of brutality and wrongful conduct – even if it happened “by accident”.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - He was the only one who didn’t run. Now Darrin Manning may never father children after his encounter with a police officer earlier this month.
While on his way to a basketball game after school, the straight-A student and his teammates had an encounter with officer Thomas Purcell. Apparently one of the teammates may have said a snide remark to the officer, who then approached them. The boys ran, but Manning stopped and stayed. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said toPhilly.com.
What happened next is hard to believe. Darrin was handcuffed, frisked, and his genitals were pulled and twisted with such force by the female officer that they literally tore off.
“I felt her reach, and she grabbed my butt. And then she grabbed and squeezed again and pulled down. And that’s when I heard something pop, like I felt it POP,” Manning said. (read more)
Another perspective - [...] Police records state that Manning, who is black, was stopped by Officer Thomas Purcell, who is white, after the 11-year veteran observed a group of males covering their faces with ski masks and running. The students say there were no ski masks, just the scarves given to them by Joyner, the founder of Mathematics, Civics & Sciences Charter School.
The report goes on to say that Manning began fighting with the officer, striking him three times and ripping off his radio. He was still fighting, the police report says, when the officer called for assistance. “No injuries sustained to police,” the report states.
Manning says he was roughed up, placed in handcuffs that the officer hit him with and that during a pat-down, a female officer pulled his genitals so hard one of his testicles ruptured.
“She patted me down and then she touched my butt and then my private parts,” he said. “And then she grabbed and squeezed and pulled my private parts and I felt something pop.”
Police say Manning didn’t complain of any pain while he was in custody, charged with assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and reckless endangerment. But Manning underwent emergency surgery the next day at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. His mother, Ikea Coney, said doctors told her that her son’s injury may prevent him from fathering children.
Coney believes her son’s story, but she says she also knows kids can exaggerate when they’re afraid of getting into trouble, so she went back to the street to ask people what they saw. Witnesses corroborated her son’s account. And when I canvassed the street this week, many did the same with me.
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