Washingtonpost.com:
A police officer slams an unarmed 15-year-old girl in a bikini to the ground, pulls his gun and kneels on her as teens on either side of him shout and, of course, record the encounter. Within hours, millions watch the video: Some see a defenseless black teen being manhandled by an out-of-control white cop; others see a lone, scared officer in the crowded, chaotic aftermath of a fight he doesn’t yet understand.In theory, video sends a message of certainty: This is what happened, and we can all see it. Recorded snippets of an encounter between police and the public can reveal the crushing, life-or-death stress that officers face —
Cellphone video has become as much a part of policing as tickets and handcuffs. Video images of police shootings have sparked national turmoil. But Friday’s ugly, cacophonous scene in McKinney, Tex., at first seemed like something more routine — a call about misbehaving teens at a pool party on a hot Texas afternoon.
Then it went awry, at least in the seven-minute version of reality that a local teen posted on YouTube. The clip is the classic kind of video that can crush public trust in police. Yet paradoxically, police chiefs are pushing for more video, in the form of body cameras, to repair relations with those they serve.
In theory, video sends a message of certainty: This is what happened, and we can all see it. Recorded snippets of an encounter between police and the public can reveal the crushing, life-or-death stress that officers face — and the overwhelming power an officer can wield.
The first time I saw this video I thought that this was a cop in fear for his life. Kids, regardless of age, can kill you just as quick as a 30 year old.
We often make the mistake of referring to young people as “children” when we want to make a statement of innocence. Kids, especially in crowds, can wield their own tremendous force. Try breaking up a fight in a school cafeteria sometime to understand the full force of that statement. Kids also have no fear of their own mortality, making a violent situation with young people all the more potentially deadly.
Throw in race to this potentially dangerous situation. Because of the deeds of a few, cops must be doubly careful of their actions when minorities are involved. Already this video is being described as a white on black fracas. Race only tells part of the story.
This incident doesn’t really appear to be about race at all. That’s the reason those body cameras are essential. Even then, the camera will only tell a partial story. Police must be able to keep our communities safe regardless of the age or race of the person in question. Police chiefs and commissioners must make certain that they have well-intentioned, well-trained officers on the force. These qualities cost money. The tax payers had better be ready to pony up. Good cops will insist on being paid well. Municipalities are going to have to send out only America’s finest to repair the trust between the cop on the beat and America.
Not about race.? Try this- play the video again and imagine a big black police officer and a white blond girl in a bikini being thrown around and kneeled on. Might change your perspective…
What I want to know is- who is the weighty white guy in the tan shirt that appears everywhere the action is and the police just ignore? And why do they ignore the white guy with the camera taking video?
Oh you mean like Buck Carter used to do?
I don’t know who that guy is.
Absolutely I think it is a quantum leap to assume it is about race from the cop’s point of view.
I think people are way to fast to play the race card.
What you absolutely do not want is for kids to think they don’t have to obey authority because of their race.
Imagine what it is like to be a teacher these days in the public schools of St. Paul. Minnesota. Look it up. Same problem as the one faced by that cop in Texas.
You don’t have to go that far a way to have teaching a totally miserable experience, I expect.
I believe that this whole thing in Texas was a case of hundreds of local teenagers of all races showing up at a private pool reserved for the use of HOA families and their limited number of guests. A couple of HOA families seem to have set up an authorized private gathering at the pool. However, some idiot teenager (maybe actually living in the HOA community) put out on the social media that there was going to be a huge party at the pool. Y’all come!! So the outside teenagers came in large numbers. Some fool of a DJ even set up shop in a public park area near the pool and bombed the place with his music. I even hear that somebody may have been selling entrance tickets to the outside teens.
The outside teens were told by pool security that the pool was private and that they could not come in. The teens would not take “no” for an answer, so they started rushing the gate and climbing over the pool fence. That, I think, is when the cops were called. (The big guy with the jean shorts was probably pool security or an HOA official, I would guess.)
Looks to me like a case of teens not using the brains they were born with and thinking once again that the rules do not apply to them. Believe you me, if they tried that crap at our ultra-diverse HOA pool, the cops would be called just as fast and expected to restore order and move the intruders out. Too bad that Texas cop resigned. Looks to me like another phony rap by the professional racebaiters.
Interesting. Where did you read all the behind the scenes info?
The minute the guy drew a weapon on teenagers, it was over for him. Meanwhile, another bunch of bad asses now think they are invincible.
I expect that was a very scary situation for cops and security. Kids can kill and maim you just as easy as the next guy.
And some of the HOA residents interviewed by the media stated that their HOA community IS racially diverse.
The police chief said that the cop’s actions were unacceptable and the officer has resigned. That is good
Nah, I suspect that the police chief has been stampeded psychologically by the Ferguson and Baltimore syndrome. Sad to watch. Baltimore residents are paying a very heavy price for that.
Virginia’s top Republican holds off tea-party challenger in primary
Virginia’s top Republican easily withstood a tea-party primary challenge Tuesday, signaling that a deeply fractured state GOP may be finding its footing at a crucial time when national Republicans are preparing for the 2016 presidential race.
With all precincts reporting, House Speaker William J. Howell (Stafford) defeated challenger Susan Stimpson, a former Stafford County supervisor and onetime Howell protege, by a 2-to-1 ratio, according to unofficial returns.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginias-top-republican-prevails-in-tea-party-challenge/2015/06/09/b277dce8-0ecf-11e5-a0dc-2b6f404ff5cf_story.html?hpid=z2
Congratulations to Howell
The Tea Party in Virginia had their asses handed to them on Tuesday. Back to mainstream Republicans.
What I’d like to know is if that girl in Texas was ordered by the cop to leave that private pool area and refused to do so. And what language she used in refusing his order. And what those youths coming up behind the cop were saying before he chased them off.
St. Paul, Minnesota, fell for a California-based program in which minority school kids are no longer seriously punished for misbehavior. As one teacher described the result: A student in the class called the teacher a “bitch.” She told him to report to the front office. He replied that he didn’t have to under the new program and she couldn’t do anything about it. Lots of complaints from the teaching staff in St. Paul — and in other communities which are trying out the California program.
Now, take a cop , put him into a crowd of mouthy, misbehaving teen intruders at that pool, and that is what you are going to get. Except in Baltimore………………
If the officer feared for his life he needed to retreat and call for backup. However, No one was in danger until he arrived with a gun. Violence as punishment for mouthy teens is unlawful assault on the 1A freedom of speech. Kids have the right to complain (even using the word bitch) and the obligation to follow rules and suffer the consequences if they don’t. The consequences must not be corporal punishment, though, imposed by the police on children because they used the wrong vocabulary.
Some of those so called kids weren’t children. migt be on our way towa
At what point do we members of civilized society get to insist that people need to have respect for authority. When that stops, we might be on our way towards anarchy.
My parents would have throttled me and locked me in my room if I had been that disrespectful towards an authority figure.
From a person commenting on Yahoo:
ps 13 minutes ago 2 30
This is what one resident of the neighborhood posted on their Facebook page about this incident (and remember, it wasn’t public property but PRIVATE property) but the main stream media refuses to include within it’s reports:
“Facebook friends and family – PLEASE HELP! That (now viral) video of the officer in McKinney subduing a girl in a bathing suit was in OUR neighborhood. The situation was NOT what is being reported…
A DJ setup in a public space next to the private pool in our neighborhood on Friday and played loud explicit (F-bomb) music for multiple hours (it is unclear if he was invited by a resident as no one has claimed responsibility). The teenagers (both black and white) were being brought into our neighborhood by the carload because the DJ was tweeting out invites to a “pool party” for $15 (obviously unauthorized by our neighborhood). The teens began fighting with each other and pushing their way into our private pool. Some were jumping our fence. The security guard was accosted when he tried to stop the beginnings of this mob scene. Some residents who live around the park/pool area tried to come out and settle things down. The teens started yelling racial slurs at our neighbors and started assaulting people and property (throwing bottles at cars and attacking a mother at the pool with 3 young children). The first officer on the scene was by himself. At that time, the party had grown to a large, aggressive crowd. As the officer arrived, many teens started running through our neighborhood. Many of the teens were being very aggressive and yelling at the officers as more arrived.
This was a very dangerous situation for the officers AND the teens/residents not involved. The news media has refused to hear the neighborhood’s side of this story. The video being distributed is only a very small segment of what happened. This information being distributed by the media and others is extremely distorted and in some cases outright lies.
PLEASE HELP US STOP THE BROADCASTING OF THIS IGNORANCE. The media is trying to make it look like our neighborhood is a white’s only, racist area. Anyone who has spent even a few minutes in our area knows this is an outright LIE.
The unfortunate result is that our neighbors are now being threatened. We have also had cars and property in and around the park area vandalized this weekend. Unfortunately, the press and social media are trying to enflame the situation.”
It almost sounds like a wilding.
I thought the situation looked dangerous for the officer in the video. I know how aggressive kids can be.
@Ed Myers
“If the officer feared for his life he needed to retreat and call for backup.”
Have you even thought this through at all?
He calls for backup because he feared for his life and MORE cops with guns arrive, KNOWING that there is a danger to life.
They will arrive with SWAT.
Also what about those residents who might be fearing for their lives and property?
Cop drew a gun. Here’s why.
With pictures
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207219837359408&set=p.10207219837359408&type=1
He reacted to a viable threat. Another man acted as if he was drawing a weapon.
Unavailable. Is there another copy somewhere?
@Ed Myers
You missed something, Ed. Not just mouthy. The teens were trespassing and disrupting. The cops were called by the HOA people to help put a stop to that. It looks like the teens refused to comply with orders to cease and depart from that cop, who was the first to arrive on the scene, with backup following. The teen mouthiness was just part of a bigger violation.
The police chief did not defend the officer’s actions. That pretty much settles it.
Nah, I suspect that the police chief was stampeded mucho psychologically by the Ferguson and Baltimore syndrome. Sad to watch. Baltimore residents are paying a heavy price for that.
@Cargosquid
Tuesday in Houston, Texas. Cop shot in the back during routine traffic stop. Fortunately not life threatening.
What is unavailable? I click the link and the pics show up.
@Cargosquid
I am still getting the message that it is unavailable to me.
#BlackLivesMatter
What else needs to be said?
@Moon, Is respect for authority more important than authority’s respect for the citizens that give them that authority? It is that tension that is creating the unrest.
@cargo, you posted a non-public link. You can see it because you have permission based on your facebook login.
Both are important. We are missing the beginning of the video.
Video can be doctored to tell any story you want it to tell.
I hope Ed and Starry never serve on a jury. That would be warped justice indeed.
Something like this happened to a friend of mine a long time ago in Montgomery County, MD. One of her kids called 911 and hung up thinking it was funny. This was while they were getting ready for school. The cops came. They said they rang the doorbell but no one came to the door so they busted down the door. My friend was terrified. While grabbing my friend the cop got a scratch on his hand. This he considered an assault on a police officer. I’m not making this up. He detained my friend, brought her outside, slammed her up against the patrol car, cuffed her and arrested her. This was a forty-something single mom. The charges were dismissed. She eventually got an apology letter, but she didn’t pursue a lawsuit.
This incident reminded me of my friend’s encounter. That pig had no reason to slam that little girl into the ground or to talk to those bystanders as rudely as he did. The fact that other teenagers were trespassing doesn’t justify it. The fact that a DJ or someone else sent an open invitation without authority doesn’t justify the slam. The fact that she didn’t snap to attention and immediately obey his rudely given commands doesn’t justify it.
I’m all about forgiveness and rehabilitation. I would rather see him keep his job and be persuaded that his behavior is unacceptable anywhere outside of the Octagon than lose his job. He’d become a better person. But he’ll probably get a job offer as a consultant for Fox News and be surrounded by those who want him to believe that his behavior was commendable.
I am all for kids being respectful to authority. That video didn’t tell the whole story.
I think the cop needs to go. He has no career in law enforcement after that. But he has my sympathy.
I say the cop was tossed under the bus by his own chief. Anybody check out the calls he was on just before he was sent to the pool wilding? In one case, he unsuccessfully rpt unsuccessfully tried to stop a suicide. In another case he was able to participate in stopping a suicide from happening. Then he winds up having to deal with a bunch of out-of-control, brainless teens.
“The pig…” Anybody who uses that term ought to have their mouth washed out with lye soap.
Again, the fact that he was responding to a call for out of control, wilding teens does not justify slamming a bystander into the ground. It’s hard to believe there are actually people who don’t understand this.
Who was the innocent bystander? Sorry. Didn’t see any innocent by standers. When you have a situation that risks going out of control, the first thing you want to do is get rid of the lurkers.
I never said what the cop did was right. I said I sympathized with his frustration. He lost control. What I am saying is those kids were out of control and obnoxious and probably doing a lot of other things they shouldn’t have been doing. Kids, especially gangs of them, are more dangerous than adults. Adults for the most part do acknowledge their own mortality.
Police need to treat citizens the way they want to be treated. If yelling obscenities is a standard part of police procedure “to maintain control of a situation” then getting it in return from citizens is fair play. If slapping people around and pushing them is the way to communicate one’s demands, don’t call it assaulting a police officer when citizens do it. If police don’t like the attitude they get from citizens they might want to check their own attitude.
Earth to Ed. Earth to Ed.
You apparently prefer to live in a state of anarchy.
Don’t you think the simpler way to deal with the cop situation is to weed out the bad ones and still expect civilians to respect authority? Here’s the problem–you don’t get to choose who is going to not respect authority and who does. Therefore, everyone must.
We all accept there are some bad cops. Let’s weed those individuals out as best we can rather demanding a free for all.
@emma, so you think you need to cut the “judged by peers” concept out of the constitution to get “justice”? Only the government knows what is best for us, eh? And police never doctor their version of events? LOL. video has limitations but it is vastly superior to eye witness testimony.
@moon, good point except the police defenders are saying that this police behavior is OK and that officers who act like this are heroes that should not be weeded out….that we need more of them. I don’t want anarchy either but we don’t get a peaceful society in a police state.
@Ed Myers
No, I fully support that concept. I am just hoping that you are never called for jury duty yourself.
From a crowd of trespassing and out-of-control teens to raising the spectre of a “police state”? Bless my soul. After an incident when a cop cussed out a bunch of disobedient and mouthy perps and took one of them down who looks to have been a female perp, then made a quite natural defensive move when approached from his blind side by other possible perps, and now we are talking “police state” and “pigs”? Get real. What we have here is race baiting bullsh*t and a police chief who will regret having allowed himself to be stampeded by the media and racebaiter bs. Now he lost an experienced cop with ten years on the force . Ridiculous.
I haven’t been following this story, but last night a local police officer friend was over for dinner and showed me the long version video of the incident (I think he said it ran around 11 minutes) HIs point was that the more you see the less justifiable the police officer’s behavior becomes. His professional analysis was that the cop arrived on the scene in bad temper and was gratuitously belligerent, but had the situation pretty well under control for several minutes. The cop then allowed himself to get distracted toward the periphery of the situation, perhaps by provocative language from the girl and her friends and that all his actions from that point forward destroyed his control over the situation and caused the chaotic situation that ensued.
My friend’s analysis was that the cop more or less created the situation and that he either had no judgement, bad training or both. He said he couldn’t imagine anyone on the Arlington County Police force handling the situation that badly. He says that teenage kids, particularly in groups can get “lippy” with police officers, but the cops are trained to not react to that and be firm but calm.
Sort of like teachers…..
That’s yet another reaction to this incident.
I still think the kids should have been punished. How stupid. Their taunting and general stupidity could have gotten one of them killed–maybe even one that was just watching.
My family member who happens to be a police officer had an entirely different “professional analysis.” There is more to the story than just a potentially doctored video.
What a world. Our kids are allowed to act like arrogant, mouthy, untouchable, threatening, and potentially violent jackasses towards authority, and soon there will be very little anyone can do about it.
Emma – let’s assume for purposes of discussion that the kids were mouthy. Then what? If, as Moon says, the kids should be punished, their parents should ground them for a month or something along those lines. The punishment isn’t that they get beat up by cops.
The problem here is that the guy pulled and brandished a gun while running, grabbed a girl and roughed her up, and completely lost control of a situation that had been fairly stable initially. There’s no amount of “lip” that justifies what he was doing to that girl. It’s absolutely reckless to go running with a drawn weapon unless there’s reason to use it.
@Emma
Emma, that is my fear also. There are some severe warning signs here that are far more dire than one out of control cop.
You are right about the notion that there will be nothing anyone can do about it as kids become more and more emboldened.
We are creating an entire class of “untouchables.”
@Scout
I think he feared, rightly or wrongly , for his life. He panicked. I feel badly for him while recognizing that he lost control.
The kids need consequences. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will happen.
My sense is that the “kids” who crashed a private party are ultimately at fault. The police were called in to help an already bad and hyped-up situation, with a full array of disrespect for the adults present and those who had reserved the pool – knowing that they would get away with it. The police department itself is also at fault for not sending more officers from the on-set and – apparently – for not making any arrests, sending a very wrong signal to the community and to the kids themselves. I am surprised there was not more violence. If this had happened in my day, there would have been, long before the police arrived..
I am disgusted by the Police Chief’s handling of the situation and for his failure to support his officer. In all of that, three males charged at him from his back. What they were saying has not been reported, but he flinched – which is different that having panicked – and unless you want to stand in utter ignorance of what has been going on of late, I will bet you it was threatening and that threat would have and should have been taken seriously. It came quickly back under control when the other officers arrived and – yes they went after those males.
More importantly, for the rest of America, we have yet another video example of a bad racial narrative — for both sides; police abuse on the one side and re-emerging negative stereotypes on the other. Both reactions are going to haunt us for a long time to come, and serious damage is being done by publishing these videos, none of which have been proven accurate or reliable.
@Scout
May I restate something, Scout? This was not just a case of kids mouthing off to a cop and refusing to calm down and behave. These were kids who were trespassing and apparently refusing to leave the premises or to cease trying to enter or re-enter those premises. I strongly suspect that the young woman in the bikini was one of the more irritating and louder of those recalcitrants. If that was my private swimming people, I would want the cops to grab those trespassers and throw them out or arrest them. They certainly did not look to be of a mind to leave of their own accord.
Make that “swimming pool” in line 6. Aaargh!!