UNITED STATES—Unfortunately, it has happened once again, and frankly I’m quite tired of hearing about it. This time the attention has been placed on the community of McKinney, Texas. Never heard of the place, but the small town has become a staple in the news arena. Over the weekend, video surfaced of a police officer who some have argued used excessive force to detain a female teenager while she was in her bathing suit.
Something that needs to be addressed first and foremost is that some of the kids were apparently at a location where they had no permission to be at. That is still to be debated. That is beyond the fact in my opinion, especially if the juveniles weren’t resisting arrest from the authorities who arrived after an incident was reported between a White woman and a Black woman who got into a scuffle.
Those who have seen the video are well aware of the bluntness, the fear that was riddled across this teens face. This is an unarmed girl, who based on the video was not resisting arrest until the officer manhandled her, dragged her and nearly shoved her face into the ground. I’m trying to wrap my head around what would possess an officer to behave or act in such a manner? Yes, the video does show a group of teens who attempt to surround the officer in an attempt to assist the teenage girl, which prompts him to pull his gun out and point at the teens.
The bigger question I would like for someone to answer for me is with all these adults around, why didn’t anyone attempt to intervene and calm the teens down and attempt to explain to the authorities what happened. Of course with all stories you have two sides, and somewhere in the middle lies the truth. What has become increasingly apparent nowadays is the advancement of technology makes it far easier to capture with solid evidence injustices that are enacted by government officials, particularly those in law enforcement.
More and more police departments are adding body cameras to the regimen to ensure officers are held accountable for their actions. I mean look what happened in Inkster, Michigan, where an unarmed man was viciously beaten by an officer. To make matters worse it was all captured on the dash cam. The sad part about this tale is that the residents of Inkster will now be forced to pay more than $1 million for this settlement. Yes, the residents are being forced to tackle the bill. Now tell me where is the justice in that? Why isn’t the officer being held accountable for his actions? Make him pay for what he did, not the residents.
It is my fear that more of these incidents are becoming prevalent which means more citizens might take the law into their hands and decide to sue the city where this injustice took place. Ask yourself the question if you would like give out your hard earned cash simply because someone else abused the power that they have as a representative of the people, of the community.
It’s sad to even have to acknowledge that this happened at a pool party of all places and tons of young kids had to be exposed to such unthinkable behavior. Yes, the officer was wrong for using such excessive force on a teen, a female of all people who wasn’t armed. That girl is likely to be haunted the rest of her life, and the officer, well he’s been put on administrative leave because of his actions. I think the video may have been the nail in the coffin, had it not been for the video being released on social media, this isn’t even a discussion we would be having.
As much as I hate social media at times, I have to stop and ask myself the question, what would happen if we didn’t have social media to highlight such incidents or situations, which need to be discussed in the public sphere. Is this a case of racism or police brutality? That is a question unfortunately you have to ask yourself.
