“I was speechless,” said Baczek. “Like I wasn’t comprehending what he actually said for a minute.”
https://www.facebook.com/desi.baczek.9/videos/1943080772613925/
In a bizarre turn of events, a video recording has surfaced of a police officer telling a teen that he is detaining that he is doing so because she is white.
In this video first posted on Facebook by Dezi Baczek, a teen from Lake Villa, Ill., a group of teenagers are detained by police, and when asked why, are told “Because you’re white,” reported NBC Chicago.
Baczek has said that she and her friends were at a pawn shop, selling an item so that she could buy her little brother a book directly before the incident.
When she and her friends left the shop, they were immediately stopped by Detective Esteban Gomez of the Lake Villa Police department.
“I was yelled at to sit down,” Baczek said. “I said, ‘What’s the reason?’ And he said sit down or I could turn around and be arrested, so I sat down at that point.”
It was then that Baczek started secretly filming the encounter on her phone.
Gomez later reported that the group of teens was accompanying the suspect of a theft investigation. However, at the time of detaining the teens, he did not offer that explanation.
While the teens sat on a curb, Gomez began questioning one of them. At that point the teen started asking Gomez why she is being detained, asking “Because I’m a teen? Because I have baggy pants?”
Gomez merely replies “Because you’re white,” and walked away.
“I was speechless,” said Baczek. “Like I wasn’t comprehending what he actually said for a minute.”
One of the teens in the group was charged with obstructing police after giving a false name to the officer.
When Baczek showed this video to her mother, she instantly called Lake Villa Police Chief Craig Somerville to complain about the detective involved.
“I was outraged. I was very upset,” Missy Maczek said. “I felt like we were being outcasted because we’re white, which is just unheard of.”
In a statement released by the police chief, he said that “When the subject questioned Gomez about his arrest, Gomez reacted by answering the teen’s inquiry with an inappropriate response.”
“Det. Gomez admitted his words were poorly chosen and insensitive and he immediately regretted what he had said,” Somerville continued. “The Lake Villa Police Department does not condone this type of behavior of its officers.”
Detective Gomez has been disciplined “for behavior unbecoming an officer,” and will speak to the teens and their parents about his actions.
Next, read about the police officer who assured a woman, “we only shoot black people” during DUI stop. Then, watch the disturbing police body cam video showing a nurse being arrested for following the law.
