PAPER TRAILS: Officer cuffs teens, lands on YouTube

LITTLE ROCK — It's not the kind of publicity a city that lives on tourism wants.

By late yesterday afternoon, more than 29,000 people had watched a video on the Internet of a Hot Springs policeman arresting - excitedly - six young skateboarders. The video had evoked nearly 1,000 viewer comments.

Hot Springs has a park for skateboarding, but the six skaters took to the sidewalks of downtown Hot Springs on June 21. One of them told Paper Trails:

"We used to have a nice park, but they tore that one down and they gave us one in a really bad neighborhood instead."

And, it was Go Skateboarding Day, designated in 2004 by the International Association of Skateboard Companies as a day for skaters to "celebrate and reclaim our cultureand to define skateboarding as the rebellious, creative celebration of independence it continues to be."

Hot Springs police spokesman Corp. McCrary Means says police hadn't known before the incident about Go Skateboarding Day.

If they had, they might have worried, he said. Gatherings in bigger cities drew hundreds of skateboarders to the streets.

But those six skaters in Hot Springs?

"These are all really good kids," says Staci Canterbury, mother of the lone girl arrested, 16-year-old Casie Canterbury. "They'd never been in trouble before."

A description on YouTube identifies the skaters as Jarad Graham, 13; Drew Irwin, 16; Skylar Nalls, 19; Matt McCormack, 21; Robbie Brindley, 16; and Casie Canterbury.

The video, taken by one of the teens, can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6AYVn2yw4.

It begins with Patrolman Joey Williams on top of Jarad in the 200 block of Central Avenue before handcuffing him. Scenes include Williams chasing down Nalls, who tried to flee, and restraining Robbie and Casie in simultaneous headlocks.

At one point Williams warns Drew: "Don't take your hands from behind your back, or I'll spray you."

What prompted the confrontation?

"We were just rolling down the street, and we saw the officer come out and grab Jarad from the back around the neck," says McCormack.

So why did they resist and try to flee?

McCormack says they were driven by fear.

The police department reaction to theYoutube.com video?

"We are very concerned about this, and the officer has been placed on paid administrative leave," said Jeff Fields, assistant public information officer with the City of Hot Springs.

The department also issued a brief statement:

"On 6-21-2007, approximately 3:40 p.m., officers from the Hot Springs Police Department arrested several subjects for violation of Hot Springs City Ordinance 4-7-6. (skate boarding on city sidewalks).

Subjects were also arrested for resisting arrest, Battery 3rd, and fleeing. Those subjects are scheduled to appear in Hot Springs District Court." Paper Trails appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact Linda Caillouet at (501) 399-3636 or at lcaillouet@arkansasonline.com