The Facebook poster was interviewed by CNN :
That’s fine, as I pretty much assume it was a clueless and baseless comment. Thanks for confirming it!
It’s hard to tell what was happening and how many cops were there when the officer pulled his gun, but it did look to me like the two kids ran up as if to tackle the cop and he drew his gun. The other two cops were immediately there, so maybe they were talking to the two boys, but it’s hard to tell.
The reports do say that the first cop to arrive was alone, and at least one report said there were 70 kids trying to get into the pool. One vs 70?
Only one cop seemed stressed out about anything. Picking on the one girl in a bikini is even more weird if there is near riot going on elsewhere in the vicinity.
There are two sides to every story and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
I don’t believe either side was “innocent” in the altercation between the residents and pool party guests.
The article I had posted here did give more details but, came across too biased. I deleted the link.
I do have family in McKinney. There are facts not being brought up in the news but, all over FB written by locals representing more than one race.
Aside from the gun and the girl being manhandled, I was really taken aback by the officer’s language. Is this the way professional law enforcement speak to the public? I thought his language increased the tension in the area greatly. I don’t expect my public servants to speak like that or act like that.
There is an adult woman who says it was a birthday party for her daughter and none of the officers approached her as the adult in charge. http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/06/racist-comments-prompted-mckinney-pool-party-fight-host-says.html/ Another video on this link purports to be of the fight between a middle aged white woman and black teens that sparked the events.
ETA: Slate has this, which I found interesting.
That Facebook post left me with a “Methinks the lady doth protestheth too much” feeling. The red flag for me is the ‘oh it’s the media’s fault’ rant. The poster blames a DJ for reputedly conning kids into thinking they could purchase access to the pool. Then he/she claims that there’s rampant vandalism going on in this subdivision (gated?) as a result of events that only occurred yesterday. Hey ma’am/fella, maybe your neighbors in the subdivision vandalized your cars? Do your neighbors have reason to be upset with you? Finally, at no point does the post address the fact that Casebolt drew his sidearm when apparently no other officer did. And by the number of adults meandering amidst the police, didn’t look to me like the adults in the video felt the situation was dangerous (chaotic, yes), until T.J. Hooker rolled up and drew his gun.
LW, the CNN story I linked above provides all sorts of views… including interview with the FB poster I guess.
The facebook defense doesn’t match the demeanor of the kids or crowd milling around. The cop is way out of control. There is nothing in the video to support a riot going on.
The kid who shot the main video is speaking out. http://cw33.com/2015/06/08/15-year-old-who-shot-mckinney-pool-party-video-speaks-out/
I think the young African-American girl here is telling the truth. I don’t think the kids were behaving correctly, but I thought the way the officer was talking to them really escalated things. http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/08/us/mckinney-texas-pool-video/
Don’t these police officers go into the schools and build relationships with these kids? Aren’t they supposed to be a part of the community? If cops showed up at a pool party around here, chances are they’d know at least a dozen of them, and probably be someones dad.
I once almost pulled the plug on a neighbors’ party. The nosise was unbelievable - dishes were falling off the shelves in my kitchen hundreds of yards away. I wish we called the cops to come and check out the suspected underage drinking, but the neighbor came out almost crawling on her knees begging not to. This was a small community, and the shame would have been a huge deal to this family. I told her that I would not if the noise stopped. It did - right away.
The problem with Facebook and Twitter ads for parties is that they tend to attract mobs from far outside of the community (which is what I suspect happened here)… Remember the mob that literally took apart someone’s house when a fake Facebook ad for a party was posted?
That said, I still think the cop who manhandled the bikini clad teen overstepped all boundaries. Poor kid!
I used to pastor a church in McKinney, TX (until about 2 years ago when I moved to London) so I’m following this story with interest and reading lots of friends’ facebook posts, etc. As one good friend, who lives in the Craig Ranch neighbourhood, said, “Out of control kids, out of control cop. One of them was old enough to know better.” Also, there were many kids and cops who were respectful and behaved correctly. This is not a community where this kind of thing happens all the time. While the west side of the town (where this incident occurred) is mostly white and upper middle class, there is not a history of racially motivated incidents or discrimination by the police. Very different from what happened in Ferguson (where coincidentally, I was born). Most McKinney residents have been shocked that this would occur in their town. I’m sure that the cops who behaved inappropriately will be dealt with.
The one positive in the video were the two officers. When the rogue cop pulled his gun on those 2 boys (one of whom was acting aggressively), they ran up and pulled him back and then gave chase to the one/two running.
I agree, stugace! Thank goodness for those two officers!
Good post, Megpmom. No fair person will condemn the entire neighborhood nor every police officer. Casebolt’s comrades seemingly were about to get the chaos under control until he got involved and created a SNAFU. Thus far, I haven’t seen many law enforcement experts supporting Casebolt. Notice that the Chief and the Mayor of McKinney didn’t offer any profound endorsements of Casebolt’s conduct either. And the McKinney Fraternal Order of Police issued one of the most sterile public statements I have ever read.
I think it’s great that this 13 year old (a friend of the girl who was assaulted) can parse things better than many adults.
An interview with a person involved in the original fight( adult and teen)