Today in "What The . . .?!"

I mean, can black folks "do the Dew?" Is that okay? ~ No1KState

Police beat black teen after mistaking soda bottle for gun
Staff Reporter | Posted January 25, 2010 10:20 AM

Police in Pittsburgh are under fire after an unarmed black teenager was brutally beaten after officers mistook a soda bottle for a gun.

Jordan Miles was walking from his mother's home to his grandmother's house when three undercover white police officers jumped out of a car and approached him around 11 p.m. on January 12. Miles, 18, ran but the undercover officers caught him and punched him with closed fists, according to news reports.

The police say they suspected the shape underneath Miles's coat was a deadly weapon. It turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew soda.


Miles's mom suspects her son was assumed to be a criminal because of his race. "I feel that my son was racially profiled," Terez Miles said. "It's a rough neighborhood; it was after dark," she said. "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."

Miles's family told the media that the teen plays the viola for the orchestra at Pittsburgh's Creative and Performing Arts High School. His mother said there was no reason for the officers to hit him the way they did, describing her son as 5'6 and 150 pounds. He has no criminal record.