Bad "Fresh Prince" rap triggers Pa. lockdown
AMBRIDGE, Pa. Now this is a story all about how a high school student's life got turned upside down. But it was all just a bad rap.
The teen's voicemail greeting triggered a lockdown at his Pennsylvania school after a receptionist misheard his rendition of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" theme song.
While trying to confirm an appointment with 19-year-old Travis Clawson the receptionist thought the message said "shooting people outside of the school." The line is actually "shooting some b-ball," a reference to basketball.
The receptionist called 911 and Economy police arrested Clawson a short time later at Ambridge Area High School, but released him once he explained the message.
Acting police Chief James Mann says police acted "appropriately" out of concern for students' welfare.
Clawson's family has contacted an attorney.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Port Authority releases photo of One WTC workers at dizzying heights
- Washington state bridge collapses 20 Photos
- Best U.S. beaches 2013 10 Photos
- Bridge collapse blamed on tractor-trailer 304 Comments
- Frantic 911 calls reveal chaos in Okla., following tornado
- Judge: Ariz. sheriff's office profiles Latinos 102 Comments
- Clean-up efforts underway in Okla. 29 Photos
- No fatalities in I-5 bridge collapse in NW Wash.
I have never heard "people" pronounced "peepall".
As for the cause of crime, it is due to the fact that people need money to survive, but due to right-wing politics, large areas don't have opportunities to legally earn such monies, and also due to the racist nature of right-wing baggers and their predecessors, such opportunities didn't exist for "minorities" even during better times.
More crime in cities? Son, even baggers are crime ridden in their suburban an rural areas, you must either not be keeping up with news, or are intentionally ignorant.
Yes she is ignorant, and so are you, if you posit that her ignorance is justification for ruining the lives of others.
@"truthis", what ruins the lives of young African Americans is the fact that their parents and grandparents were systematically excluded from equal participation in the US economy, denied jobs, paid less when they do get them, and shown such hatred by baggers, their sucker sycophants, the police, and even by the Uncle Toms who sucked their way up from poverty.
"Ho's" have been with all cultures since time immemorial, the Irish, Italian, and Jewish mafias were all street gangs, Bush ordered idiot murder in Afghanistan and Iraq for reasons that were known lies, they are the most deadly gangs on all the streets of the earth, yet I don't read your condemnation of all Irish or Italians due to those gangs, nor do I see your umbrage at Bush's genocidal thug tactics.
Both of you baggers are the problem, and, typical of your ilk, try to point the finger at others for the by-product of your own ASPD-afflicted culture.
Alright, I admit you got me with that one. If I made a similar mistake while testifying in court the prosecutor would have read me the riot act once we were behind closed doors. And upon considering the matter further I'll also admit, given recent events, it was not outlandish for the school employee to react as she did. And yes, we did routinely tell people they should never hesitate in calling 911, even if they were unsure about what they saw or heard. In my defense, I am retired so I plead senility.
"B-ball" is a long-known term for basketball, and has been for at least half a century. What she may have thought she heard was no cause for ruining the police record of someone who before her ignorance had a clean arrest record.
The police were ignorant, if they did not request to hear the actual message themselves, to determine if they should ruin the life of a young man.
His parents might well seek compensation, and well they should, because now every job application their son fills out will have a tick in the box about ever having been arrested, potential employers won't wait to hear the explanation.
Sue them until they bleed, and if you happen to live in the city that has to pay, then pay up, your support of ignorance should cost you some extra tax dollars.
No matter how it turns out, the young man's job prospects have been diminished from "less probable" to "not possible" due to such ignorance, those who made it happen should now become the income for that young man throughout his lifetime.
-Receptionist believes she hears a student singing about shooting people at school.
-Receptionist says, "What did you just say?"
-Student says, "Shooting some b-ball outside the school"
-Receptionist says, "Oh, I thought you said something else"
Problem averted.
-Receptionist asks other people in her office to listen to the message.
-Someone who hears it says, "That's the theme song from 'Fresh Prince of Belair, he's talking about basketball.
Once again, problem averted.
It's doubly pathetic, because NOT EVERYBODY WATCHES TELEVISION.
Are school admins now supposed to be consciously aware of every TV show - and if someone parodies it not to be bothered? (And WHAT IF the miscreants are using codewords?)
I'll side with the lockdown. There's enough reasonable plausibility.
It's better to have a false positive... than a false negative.
Quite simple, really...
But I know some will whine and complain and whinny regardless of the situation.
That may sound great, but here's the kick-in-the-ass-part; for the remainder of that person's life, whenever they fill out an application or legal form that asks the question, "Have you ever been arrested?", they are obligated to answer, "Yes", and explain the situation. If they choose to spend several thousand dollars and hire an attorney they can have the case expunged from the record, in which case they will legally be able to answer, "No" in most situations UNLESS they are applying for any job in law enforcement or a government security clearance, in which case they are still required to divulge the information.
If a cop really did place the kid under arrest he should lose his or her job. There are things like an "investigative detention" or even a simple, "stop and hold" that exist solely so the officer can keep someone in their custody until such time as the relevent facts of the matter become known.
A !School! administrator/employee to stupid to listen.
Parents ready to sue.
The kid's outgoing message to start with..
....and on and on.
Free entertainment I guess,
You get what you paid for ! Zero !