Anything Smart: Good Cops and Bad Cops: "My back was hurting bad"

This was originally posted on another blog on June 25, 2015. And now it's here.

On Friday, 5 June 2015, a pool party in Mckinney, Texas, got out of control. Uninvited guests showed up who climbed over a fence to get into the party and then refused to leave. A security guard called police who showed up about 7:15 PM.

The police response started out fine. Video shows a police officer speaking politely to young people at the scene. He advises them not to run when police show up and thanks them for returning a flashlight one of the officers had dropped. Then Corporal Eric Casebolt arrives - patrol supervisor, and 10-year veteran on the force – and the situation goes from calm and professional to violent and outrageous. As Police Chief Greg Conley later said of Casebolt, "He came into the call out of control, and as the video shows, was out of control during the incident."

Casebolt shouted, cursed, threw a teenage girl in a bikini down onto concrete, then threw her down again on a lawn and kneeled on her back. He pulled his gun when teenagers rushed forward to protest his abuse of the girl.

Her name was Dajerria Becton and she said, "He grabbed me, twisted my arm on my back and shoved me in the grass and started pulling the back of my braids." Adding: "I was telling him to get off me because my back was hurting bad."

Casebolt had to go quite far to get Becton and drag her back, since she was already leaving the scene as ordered. According to the teenager who took the video, Brandon Brooks, "I think she was 'running her mouth,' and she has freedom of speech, and that was very uncalled for him to throw her to the ground."

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Becton was detained briefly and then released to her parents with no charges against her. Only one person was ultimately arrested and the charges against him were later dropped. By Tuesday morning, four days after the incident, the video of Casebolt going berserk had been viewed 9,000,000 times on the internet. That same evening his resignation was announced.

Police Chief Greg Conley spoke on Tuesday. He made no effort to defend Casebolt, instead describing his actions as "indefensible." "Our policies, our training, our practice, do not support his actions," the Chief said, and, "I had 12 officers on the scene, and 11 of them performed according to their training. They did an excellent job."

Casebolt's lawyer, Jane Bishkin, spoke on Wednesday when she said Casebolt had been stressed by earlier calls that day, especially two suicide cases. She said Casebolt "allowed his emotions to get the better of him." On his behalf, she apologized to all involved. Casebolt has received death threats since the incident and has hidden in an undisclosed location.

We can all sympathize with Casebolt for having a stressful day. We cannot condone his later abuse and violence against innocent people as a result of that stress. We can all condemn the death threats against Casebolt. We can also say that, on that Friday night in Texas, at that pool party police were called to, at that time and place where professionalism was needed, Eric Casebolt was a bad cop!

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Friday, November 18, 2016

Good Cops and Bad Cops: "My back was hurting bad"

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