Angry Calumet City residents demonstrated outside City Hall Thursday and inside City Council chambers to protest police inaction in the face of allegations that an officer beat a 15-year-old student detained for jaywalking. Chanting "no justice, no peace, no racist police," the crowd called for the officer to be relieved of his duties and for officers who watched the alleged beating of Don Pennington Jr. to be reprimanded. After a number of demonstrators were allowed to speak for about an hour, the hundreds of protesters moved outside where they formed human chains, blocking traffic. The altercation with police started when Pennington was stopped by an off-duty police officer for allegedly jaywalking across 154th Avenue in front of Thornton High School after school, the boy said. He was rapping his fingers on a wall at the police station as he waited for a citation when a detective wearing badge number 0069 told him to stop and then punched him in the face, Pennington has said. [more
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