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The beating of Chris Linton was sad to watch. A 16-year-old black male was beaten by Boston Police until his face was bloody. When I took a look at the video on YouTube, it had been viewed nearly 30,000 times, reminding us of the perils of doing your dirt in a world with cell phone cameras.
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The event in question took place at Roxbury Community College, where Linton was inside one of the buildings charging his cell phone. He is not a student at the university, but had stopped to get the cell charged so he could take pictures of his new daughter at the hospital.
While it is not clear why police were following him, the story is that Linton had just escaped from a local youth detention center and had been tracked to the university. That's when the beating began.
The commentary on the video comes in loud and clear, as the woman holding the camera curses at the officers and tells us she's going to put the video on YouTube. Linton is now facing a plethora of charges, including resisting arrest and possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute in a school zone. Other circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear.
The beating of Chris Linton is a shame. We have to feel empathy for anyone in that situation. The problem, however, is that the officers can certainly argue that they were justified in using force to apprehend a suspect who'd previously escaped from police custody.
Additionally, from what I saw on the video, I am not sure there is clear evidence that police used excessive force. In other words, the case of Chris Linton is not as clear-cut as the case of another teenager, Jordan Miles, who was beaten by police on his way to his grandmother's house. In that situation, Miles didn't appear to be doing anything wrong, and police have yet to present any reason for chasing him in the first place.
Without knowing what happened in the case of Chris Linton one way or the other, there are a few things that seem clear: The life of Chris Linton seems to be stereotypically sad and familiar. Here is a situation of a 16-year-old boy who allegedly broke out of juvenile detention to visit the new daughter who he likely isn't in a position to provide for.
He wasn't a student at the university, but was stopping through to charge his cell phone. Oh yeah, he also happened to have marijuana on him that he was allegedly attempting to distribute. I am certainly not one to write Chris Linton off one way or the other (there's always hope and I've seen people come back from worse), but my heart drops when I picture this young man's journey through life and the criminal justice system. My heart sinks even further when I think about the life of his new daughter. Yes, we need to stand up and cheer for the power of young black males, but we must also acknowledge when some of us have gone astray.
Either way, there should certainly be an investigation in to the Chris Linton beating to determine if there was any police misconduct. Based on what I've seen thus far, it appears that no one will be disciplined. There is, however, the question of just how much force police should be expected to use when apprehending a suspect.
I keep wondering why men shot in the back by police officers almost always happen to be black, and why those police beatings on YouTube tend to feature black suspects. It appears that black people are still under a police state, where our margin of error is far slimmer than everyone else's. I can say that as bad as Chris Linton's criminal activity might have been, there are plenty of white college students on every campus in America who carry around just as much marijuana. So, let's not pretend that black males are the only people with the capacity to engage in criminal activity.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
Comments: (27)
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By: Tee on 10/29/2010 12:18AM
I'm still waiting for Henry Louis Gate's video on racial profiling he said he was going to make after his arrest. Or maybe he entered back into master's house and forgot all about it.
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By: Tom on 10/29/2010 5:57AM
Dr Watkins, to me there is no question that the police used excessive force! How can anyone justify the actions of the officers who were punching and striking that young man with a knee. Is that in keeping with best practice according to the Boston Police training manuals? Why did it take so much force and so long for half a dozen armed men to subdue a 16 year old? Their actions appear to be malicious, vengeful and well over the top. Do you think all those police, with guns on their hips, were scared of him? From what I viewed there was no need for them to beat him like that. Unfortunately I doubt any significant disciplinary action will be taken against those cops and others will just dismiss any concerns regarding the police officers behavior. For the record I am a white male with over 15 years of military service and I am disgusted by what I saw in that video.
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By: bob on 10/29/2010 7:56AM
Tom you must be seeing another video. I say no white cops should enter a black area regardless if he is not supposed to be in the school, escaped from a detention center,had illegal drugs on him, resisting arrest on and on and on. This is a college and the students can't even speak proper english and do not have the brain power to realize that a criminal was in there school and the cops were there to protect them. Instead the blacks want to protect the criminal because he is black and the heros are white. Tom you should be ashamed! Maybe you feel comfortable with a drug dealing convict in your kids school I do not!
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By: G. on 11/03/2010 4:13PM
I concur Tom, until we are respected as humans we will never rise above this. The latter comment about a youth escaped from detention with drugs and that he should not be on campus. (not condoning criminal activity)It seems he may have brought harm to himself. Now since the latter person was so determinined to note "he may have gotten what was coming" sentiment. (not his words). I did not see them beat Madoff for raping numerous of people. HE brought NO harm to himself. He financially "raped" people, anybody that would listen to him,Gratified himself with a lavish lifestyle. Ok, now should we hold him down and beat him handcuffed, in the back? Just saying you see how twisted our perspective and perceptions can be? People find reasons to vocalize the true sentiments they feel and justify the ills because it fits their choice of thinking. I say, as the disrespectful Congressman said "YOU LIE". Until justice is for everyone there is NO justice. Racisism will never be eradicaterd because it just continues to breed and multiply but we as a people of justice must never and I repeat NEVER let not one little iota of injustice get away. We must continue to FIGHT BACK and the time is NOW. IF the incidence was reversed in racial tones, there would be no questions. Think so? Check the response from Bush's administration from the public outcry. (i.e. 911 & New Orleans,the War, just to name a few) Where was the TEA Party then? NOw check this response under this admininstration. AFter 200 years we are now finally going to hell. YEAH I say We better Fight before we get taken to HELL By the naysayers. !!!!!!!! It is ON!!!!!!
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By: bob on 10/29/2010 5:15PM
g for one think he is not madoff, a billionaire. I am sure that p diddy would not get a beat down either. Or colon powell. Or any black billionaire for that matter. Apples and oranges rich and poor you just dont get it and it seems that you never will break the law and there are consequences. Just because you are black you get no special treatment. If you think you are getting treated differently breaking the law than whites then why don't you try this (if yall are smart enough) DON'T BREAK THE LAW!
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By: staypositive on 10/29/2010 9:53AM
i hate seeing video's like this.. fof these cops to use so much force 4 one unarmed child is a shame.. it's almost like they hate blacks so much that they'll take out on anyone that they can catch.. i bet they wouldn't want a cop doing what they did to their own child..
i'm scared for my son when he reaches that age.. it's a shame.. i hope they lose their job and the boy sues the hell out of the police department..
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By: bob on 10/29/2010 1:05PM
Staypositive I don't think you will have a problem unless of course your son 1. is in a school that he doesn't belong in. 2. hasn't escaped from prison or a juvinile correction center. 3. Isnt carrying illegal drugs in a school. 4. dosen't resist arrest. If he just happens to be black and breaks all these laws, then gets a beat down, then you need a beat down too!
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By: David on 10/29/2010 2:11PM
@Bob
The problem with your logic or I should say illogic is that you are assuming that police treat blacks and whites the same. They don't. If a white kid did the same thing this kid did there would probably be NO "beat down". As someone else stated..why is it that highly trained armed police officers can't handle a 16 year old kid with out beating him up or in some cases shooting him in the back.
Boyce Watkins was correct stating when it comes to dealing with the police "our margin of error is far slimmer than everyone else's"
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By: rh on 10/29/2010 3:27PM
Sometimes we as blacks bring things upon ourselves,
escaping from police custody,not knowing what he did or who he hurt getting away.The police may have used to much force for the arrest,but one also loses his civil rights, when escaping from a jail detention facility. The sister verbally mouthing off, could have been arrested for trying to incite a riot. I use to get mad, when I saw cops manhandling blacks this way, until I found out what the Negro did to some man, woman and child and understood why the cops were so mad. I wanted to beat the fool myself. Once again I don't
condone police brutaility, but sometimes there is
more to this story thats being told.I have lived in the hood all my life in my mid fifties, never been arrested, not to say it won't happen, but I do belive your conduct is 50% and the officers intentions is another 50%.
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By: madmax on 10/29/2010 2:53PM
I'm divided on this issue. On one hand, we want the police to protect us from the people, like Linton, who have, through their voluntary poor choices and bad behavior, made our communities uninhabital, and at the same time, made all young black males suspects, and our unwittingly giving the police state the right to abuse any black suspect, as long as they can retrospectively state, that he was a criminal and deserved it. On the one hand, we are giving young black men permission to do whatever is necessary to avoid falling into police custody, which means resisting by any means necessary, thereby escalating police violence against them, and bringing the expectation that violent resistance is necessary for survival right into our own communities. We ignore the true action crime shoes and wild police chase videos that interupt news shows, that inevitably end with a suspect crashing his car (most often stolen) attempting to escape on foot, and captured in short order. When we don't see any sense of regret on the destruction and carnage these suspects left behind, we often feel that they deserve the rough treatment they are given incident to arrest. While I was not there, based on what you've written, Liton put himself in this position. If he were sitting in his high school math class, getting ready for a test, of wondering if he had a ride to his after school job, this probably would never have happened. On the other hand, we have to ask the police, if by mistreating a suspect, and a suspect has reason to believe he will be mistreated, isn't that likely to make them even more dangerous, not only to the public at large, but to the police themselves? The media has done a good job for the police, painting minorities as dangerous. Our fight, should be with the media, and police department training and procedures, rather than expressing any short-live outrage at the treatment of black suspects.
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