Yes, I, too, grab young children half my weight by their braids, fling them onto the ground, and dig my knees into their back when I am afraid of my life. It a justified response, even though I have training and certifications suggesting I know better.
It is very unfortunate that he had responded to two such disturbing calls already that day. I can understand why he was wrought up when he arrived. Sounds like he shouldn’t have responded to the call, especially when many other officers were available. He needed to bench himself. Since he did, and since this is how he responded to stress, some kids are probably traumatized and his career is wrecked. Sad all round.
And can I say that people who make death threats and threaten people’s families are despicable.
I so agree with you on all of what you wrote, Consolation.
I wish I could Like your post more than once, Consolation. It says exactly what I’d say, only better.
Kind of surprising that there would have been no policy in place to take an officer involved in such a traumatic situation off duty for the rest of the day. He really was not the best person to respond to that call on that particular day.
This incident has gotten NON STOP coverage on our local news.
They were talking about this on tv today, and someone commented that in a fairly small place, of 12 officers who responded to the pool party, there was probably more than one who also responded to the suicides. Yet none of the other officers lost control.
I’ll bet this officer has had some control issues in the past and this was just the last straw. Just my speculation though.
Hayden, I too thought it was peculiar that Casebolt’s lawyer refused to say if any other McKinney officers at the pool also responded to the suicide calls.
Same day this happened in McKinney, a child was killed here by a hit and run driver. They identified the driver and arrested him the next day. His crying relatives - again, his not the child’s - said “he didn’t mean to do it”. Well of course not: who aims to kill a child with their car? Same thing with this cop: of course he didn’t mean to lose control and act like that. But he did.
There are a few more details now. The report is that Casebolt handled one of the suicide calls by talking a girl off of her parents roof. The girl then was taken to the hospital. No mention of whether other officers were with him at the public pool where the Dad followed through in front of his family and other families. -just a mention that Casebolt was the one who consoled the widow.
the attire of the girl has no relevance… I’ve seen it mentioned in articles and it was mentioned in this thread.
The cop appears to have been out of line for how he dealt with the girl… but it has nothing to do with her attire. If you decide the right decision is to wrestle/force someone to the ground, then that is what you do. Bathing suit, body armor, naked, whatever. Doesn’t matter.
I think her attire is relevant. A lot of times police use the excuse that they thought the suspect was reaching for something in a waistband. Nowhere to hide anything on this girl.
Plus, she is just more vulnerable and easily hurt with all that skin exposed. Some boys were forced to sit down on the concrete path. Imagine that under your skin.
Ick… just ick. The guy who called 911 has served jail time for violent behavior and torturing animals.
Don’t read the whole article if you’re squeamish about animal abuse.
And his wife was the one fighting.
Well, I for one am just about speechless.
Thanks for the warning, Teri.
perhaps I should’ve been more clear. What you describe, is attire as relevance to the decision making process in terms of “what do I [the cop] do next?” I agree it is potentially relevant there.
I do not agree that it is relevant at the point after the cop decides the “correct” course of action is to take someone down and pin them to the ground. At the point where the action is being carried out, the attire is not relevant. As in “the girl was wearing a bathing suit so the cop should act in a different manner”… that is what I don’t agree with.
Yes he way over reacted. he’s resigned.
But what ever happened to kids learning to not mouth off to cops and show a tad of respect? Sit down and shut up were fairly easy instructions.
I’ve had my kids watch the YouTube videos of “Don’t Talk to the Cops” -
they stress acting respectfully no matter what. The last thing you want is to be arrested for is resisting arrest especially if you are innocent to begin with. Also a couple videos by ACLU with scenarios and how the outcomes can be so different depending on YOUR demeanor.
The first videos are done by law professor and a detective.
@gouf78 , I also had my kids watch the don’t talk to the cops videos, and have talked to them about being careful to de-escalate any situation they find themselves in. I started watching this video expecting to see that kids were contributing to the problem by being uncooperative.
What I saw was that most of the police were standing around peacefully discussing the situation with the adults and kids involved, and then one rogue cop started giving orders which seemed to be completely uncoordinated with the other officers, and the kids were, as much as anything, confused about who was in charge and what they were supposed to do and why this one guy was being belligerent when everyone else was pretty calm. It was certainly an eye-opener.
Post #98; BINGO!!! We can now officially cease with the attempts to defend this cop’s conduct.