Justice to investigate Spring Valley incident

[Steelgrave]

Well at least he didn't shoot her.  ::)

There is that.......

[Swatter]

Its obvious there was more to the story than the short video showed. I think we should reserve judgement a little longer, perhaps we will see a clearer video later on or hear confirmed eye witness testimony.

[LongBlade]

+1

[bbmike]

The "if they did what the cop said" argument is old and tired, considering the numerous videos online where they were doing exactly what the officer said but still ended up being brutalized.

Maybe it's just me because I haven't watched all of the videos, but in every one I have seen no one is doing what the cop asks them to do.

[Greybriar]

It looks to me like it's just another incident that is being blown out of proportion.

[Steelgrave]

The "if they did what the cop said" argument is old and tired, considering the numerous videos online where they were doing exactly what the officer said but still ended up being brutalized.

Maybe it's just me because I haven't watched all of the videos, but in every one I have seen no one is doing what the cop asks them to do.

I really don't want to come off as anti-cop here, because I'm far from it. I simply expect proportional force and reasonably good judgement from those we entrust with such authority. As for the videos, frankly I could post 15 or 20 which are far worse than this incident, including cops over-reacting to people videotaping them (which the Supreme Court has ruled to be legal).

Breaking news reports the Sheriff is terminating the officer for using excessive force. The officer has prior complaints, including a combat vet who sued after having an entire can of pepper spray used on him because he was playing his car radio too loudly.

[mirth]

She allegedly hit him in the face, when he approached her, after she refused to leave the classroom and was verbally disrespectful to the teacher and officer.

If you're dumb enough to take a swing at a cop, you're going to end up in a world of hurt.

[bayonetbrant]

The officer has prior complaints, including a combat vet who sued after having an entire can of pepper spray used on him because he was playing his car radio too loudly.

Yep.  That'll do it.  Unfortunately, some people will see this as vindication of the victim's behavior instead of a pattern of trouble with the officer.

[Steelgrave]

The officer has prior complaints, including a combat vet who sued after having an entire can of pepper spray used on him because he was playing his car radio too loudly.

Yep.  That'll do it.  Unfortunately, some people will see this as vindication of the victim's behavior instead of a pattern of trouble with the officer.

Agreed.

[bbmike]

+1
I do see a lot of over-reacting cops in these videos.

[Swatter]

I'm not seeing mainstream opinion vindicating the student's behavior. Sure, the wackos will see whatever they want, so why bother with them. As stated before, I think the biggest problem is the average young person not knowing what their rights and responsibilities are (compounded by a cultural disrespect/hatred for police in the case of African Americans). The second biggest problem is that people have unrealistic expectations of police officers (especially in the case of white America). Most people don't realize how freaking terrible that job can be and how much it can bring you down. I have seen it change people completely.

For example, one of the worst memories of my life was a day when my neighbor called me for help because her boyfriend was beating the living crap out of her. I went over to their residence and there was blood everywhere, smeared over the walls, pooled on the carpet, all over both individuals. I broke things up with calm and compassion (was a trusted mediator). Of course I called the police right away. It was an event I would care to forget and never have to revisit. For police officers, stuff like this is just 9 am, or whatever. Both people were ok after brief visits to the hospital, btw.

I think we need to realize, as a society that police work is tough and officers are human beings just like everyone else. They don't have super powers to filter out all the human sewage they deal with on a daily basis. They are human beings and will react and be affected over time by what they experience. This isn't to justify bad behavior, but simply to point out that we can all have bad days. A bad day for a police officer could be a split second lapse of judgement that could end their career or end their freedom (or these days end up in front of a digital lynch mob and a media all to willing to profit off of it).

I think in this case, the officer should have been fired, but I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. I gave him the benefit of the doubt because the media has no idea that proper use of force can include jarring violence. I think more media scrutiny is a good thing and people should take out their phones (and stay the hell out of the way) when they see an altercation develop. What we also need is intelligent media analysis of individual cases, not lazy narrative driven journalism.

[bayonetbrant]

some more info on the officer

The officer in the classroom video, Richland County Senior Deputy Ben Fields, was fired Wednesday and is now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation. His history shows he has been particularly hard to reach. Before tipping the desk, he already was the subject of excessive force complaints outside of school settings. In school, students reportedly referred to him as "Officer Slam." He's also a defendant in a federal lawsuit accusing him of targeting African-American students with false allegations of gang membership that is set for trial in January.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article41734509.html

[Swatter]

To be fair, complaints are lodged against police all the time and the vast majority of them never pan out. This goes back to my earlier point that people need to have a better understanding of how police operate. As I said, police are trained to go to a level of force greater than the perpetrator. This is why people think the police are using excessive force, because in essence they are. Obeying lawful police commands is the surest way to avoid an officer kicking you butt. They aren't going to fight an even battle against someone resisting arrest, they are going to inflict pain until you surrender. It sounds harsh, but if you really think about it, its the only way to handle violent suspects.

What I hate about this story is that it wasn't worthy of national focus to begin with. Once he was fired, there was nothing left to say. That's how shallow the story was.

[mirth]

What I hate about this story is that it wasn't worthy of national focus to begin with. Once he was fired, there was nothing left to say. That's how shallow the story was.

The national focus was there already and incidents like this are now going to receive more attention than they might have a year or two ago.

Whether or not this one incident was excessive, it's fair to debate police use of force and also the placement and role of police officers in public schools.

That said, I completely agree with you about how police are trained and can be expected to respond to resistance or opposition. Like I posted before, if that girl struck the officer then I am not surprised at all by the response. Was it warranted or excessive? Those questions are part of the larger debate we, as a society, are now having.

Certainly the video didn't look good and the officer's own history doesn't help the assertion that his response was not excessive.

[Steelgrave]

What I hate about this story is that it wasn't worthy of national focus to begin with. Once he was fired, there was nothing left to say. That's how shallow the story was.

The national focus was there already and incidents like this are now going to receive more attention than they might have a year or two ago.

Whether or not this one incident was excessive, it's fair to debate police use of force and also the placement and role of police officers in public schools.

That said, I completely agree with you about how police are trained and can be expected to respond to resistance or opposition. Like I posted before, if that girl struck the officer then I am not surprised at all by the response. Was it warranted or excessive? Those questions are part of the larger debate we, as a society, are now having.

Certainly the video didn't look good and the officer's own history doesn't help the assertion that his response was not excessive.

What Mirth said.

Camera's vindicate more police incidents than not by a wide margin. So false complaints tend to disappear when the video evidence supports the officer. All this is very good. But the other shoe to drop is that police brutality, bad shootings and the bad apples are being exposed. This incident, like the girl at the pool party in Dallas, was fairly minor but made major by the gross overreaction of a responding officer and a camera being nearby. Neither had to happen. When you give a man a badge, a gun and the amount of authority a policeman has, integrity and sound judgement is everything.

The other extreme is this  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/13/1431428/-Bloody-strapped-to-chair-video-shows-police-tasering-Matthew-Ajibade-in-the-testicles-before-death

It's not pretty and it's not fit for small eyes or the workplace. But it's an example of things that happen that shouldn't by those we trust most.