The McKinney police officer that was shown on video forcibly detaining teenagers at a pool party has resigned from his position following outrage on social media and protests that followed.
Here is some excerpts from Buzzfeed News:
The McKinney, Texas, police officer shown pointing his gun at teens as he broke up a pool party resigned on Tuesday, his attorney told BuzzFeed News.
Cpl. Eric Casebolt was also shown handcuffing a black teenage girl in a bikini and pushing her into the ground in a video that went viral. Hundreds of protesters gathered Monday evening, calling for his firing and justice.
Police in McKinney, a suburb of Dallas, planned to hold a news conference Tuesday evening.
Casebolt had been placed on administrative leave as the department investigated his actions and what led up to events shown in the video.
The party on Friday drew about 100 teens, according to some bystanders. Some had guest passes to use the pool, and others jumped the fence, teens told BuzzFeed News.
A fight began after white adults at the pool made racist remarks, one of the teens said, and police were called.
This was inevitable once the video of Casebolt went viral. No how people will try to spin this, Casebolt’s actions on that video were reprehensible.
While I understand the officers needed to get control of the situation, I will never understand the need to be that excessive with TEENAGERS. These were kids who were out on summer break attending a friend’s pool party…. These weren’t rioters. They were in swimsuits and flip flops, yet you are pulling guns out on them? None of that was necessary.
What makes this whole thing worse is that the entire situation stems from GROWN woman making inflammatory remarks in the direction of the kids. So if the grown ups present at the party would have acted their age, this probably would have never happened.
I knew once the video started with him doing a random barrel roll that it was all going to go downhill. It is going to be interesting to hear the police department’s take on the situation and how they handle it going forward.