In treatment of Darrin Manning, Philadelphia police must answer tough questions about racial profiling and use of force

The teens were on their way to Frankford High on Jan. 7 in the record-breaking cold — 4° F — and as they emerged from the subway station at Broad Street and Girard Avenue, they wore hats, gloves and scarves to cover their faces. The fact that their faces were covered was enough, according to the police account, to prompt the cops to approach them.

The kids ran. The cops followed.

What happened next was recorded (sporadically) by a street cam, and what follows is its narrative in tweets by Helen Ubiñas, a Latina writer-columnist for the Daily News as she watched the video at the police department's press conference screening:

Video show kids running. See Mannjng briefly. Wagon crew turned when saw kids running.

— Helen Ubiñas (@NotesFromHeL) January 17, 2014

Video now shows Darrin on driver side of van. 1 officer checking him out. Ramsey: some contact as cop is trying to put him against vehicle.

— Helen Ubiñas (@NotesFromHeL) January 17, 2014

"

Can sort of see cop wrestling with Mannjngin the corner of the video. Not great coverage. Camera keeps moving. No consistent shop.

— Helen Ubiñas (@NotesFromHeL) January 17, 2014

There is a female officer in shot but Ramsey says he doesn't know if she is the one accused of rupturing Manning's genitals.

— Helen Ubiñas (@NotesFromHeL) January 17, 2014

Because that last is what happened to 16-year-old Darrin Manning, the honors student from Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School on his way to basketball practice that day. 

He was roughly handled by one cop, while another — a woman officer whose identification has not yet been released by the Philadelphia Police Department —  patted him down so brutally that one of Manning's testicles was ruptured and he had to have surgery at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to repair it. There is some question about whether he'll ever be able to father children as a consequence.

So, let's be blunt: this scenario would not be a scenario if Manning and his teammates were all white. 

Because white kids walking around, faces hidden by scarves on a wickedly cold day, are simply kids being smart about their outerwear. Young men of color doing the same in "Stop-and-Frisk Philadelphia," on the other hand, are automatically suspect. 

The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a report with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in March 2013 that stated: "By our analysis, pedestrian stops are being made without reasonable suspicion in approximately 43 to 47 percent of the cases ... Frisks are being conducted without reasonable suspicion in over 45 percent of the cases ... By race, 76 percent of the stops were of minorities (African-Americans and Latinos) and 85 percent of the frisks were of minorities."

While we Latinos rallied around Aida Guzman when she was punched by a police officer — and again when a judge made the Latino neighborhood she was in at the time of the incident one of the mitigating factors in his finding the police officer not guilty — we have been too narrow in the focus of what we will stand against.

We have not been vocal enough in demanding the abandonment of stop-and-frisk policies. We have not been vocal enough in demanding that young people — African American and Latino — stop being criminalized on sight by a police force that keeps saying it will do better. Next time.

There is no next time. There is this time. 

"Tens of thousands of persons in Philadelphia continue to be stopped each year (and a significant number frisked) without reasonable suspicion," says the aforementioned ACLU report. 

Manning's family and the African American community of Philadelphia are rallying to demand accountability from the Philadelphia Police Department on Thurs. Jan. 23 at 9 a.m. at Family Court, 1801 Vine St., Courtroom A. It would be fantastic if the Latino community turned out as well, in solidarity or even as an action of enlightened self-interest. 

The persistent and unacceptably high rates of improper action by Philadelphia police officers affect each and every one of us. And neither our children — nor our neighbors' children — should have to pay the price.