City public safety director put on leave after video shows him threatening teens for riding scooters
September 20, 2022
A Michigan public safety director has been placed on administrative leave after it was confirmed that he's the one in a video having a heated exchange with Bird Scooter riders, MLive reports.
Bay City Public Safety Director Michael J. Cecchini confronted three people, ages 18 and 19, who were riding Bird Scooters on Saturday, Sept. 17.
“They were riding Bird Scooters and went to leave the area,” the mother of one of the teens said. To avoid hitting one of his friends, a male teen applied his brakes, causing the tires to squeak. He then knocked over a traffic cone, which they immediately put back up.
Cecchini “started screaming over the balcony and threatening them,” she said. “Nothing they were doing was in need of that kind of reaction.”
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In the video recorded by one of the teens, Cecchini says, “I’m gonna beat your ass, and then I’m gonna take you to jail."
“Why? What’d I do? I didn’t even do nothing,” the teen responds.
Cecchini then approaches the teen and seemingly jabs him in his right side with a black flashlight.
“You hit me because I’m disturbing the peace?” the teen asks.
“Yeah, it’s a crime, you need to go,” Cecchini says. “You disturbed my peace."
When the teens threaten to call the police, Cecchini shows them some form of identification and tells them that he's the chief of police.
The mother said police responded and detained the teens for several hours, and Cecchini was allowed to leave. The teens were eventually released without charges.
“As a parent, I was appalled,” the mother said. “These kids are fresh out of high school. We raised our kids to trust the police and look up to them. This is how a leader in our community was behaving. It’s sickening.”
Watch video below or at this link.
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