Authorities are looking into a complaint of police brutality after video of 17-year-old Frank W. Harrington being lifted from his seat in the school cafeteria and slammed face-first into a table surfaced on the website CopBlock.org.
“Today I got assaulted by a cop,” Harrington says as he began telling his story on camera.
"I took my sister's purse, I was messing around," he continued.
"She said she didn't want it back, I was going to give it back after lunch. The teachers involved themselves, said I stole it. She said it's no big deal, I'll get it back later."
From there, according to Harrington, the principal tried to take the purse from him. After stating he'd give it back to his sister himself, the principal got school resource officer Darren Murphy involved. Murphy and the principal allegedly grabbed the purse from Harrington and told the student he was suspended. After protesting, as the video shows, Murphy then lifted Harrington off his seat, spun him around, forced him onto the table and arrested him.
The high schooler's parents have filed a complaint with the police about the incident, and Police Capt. Robert Kunha plans to lead an investigation into the complaint, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.
“We're going to be interviewing everyone who was a witness,” Kunha told the paper.
My Fox Boston reported that Harrington has been charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, as well as being suspended for 12 days -- one day for stealing the purse and 11 days for possession of a utility knife.
The arrest was filmed by Harrington's friend, Michael Proulx, 17, who resisted teachers' attempts to make him stop filming. Proulx said teachers approached him, demanding that he delete anything he had recorded. Proulx lied, saying he had only taken photos, and pretended to delete them.
CopBlock.org founder Ademo Freeman later posted a video of him requesting a comment from school principal Mary MGorry and a police captain, neither of whom gave one.
Freeman also neglected to inform both parties that they were being recorded which, according to the Union Leader, violates state wiretap law.
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