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| Texas pool party incident: teen in video says officer was provoked by 'rudeness' | Texas pool party incident: teen in video says officer was provoked by 'rudeness' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The teenager who was wrestled to the ground by a police officer who drew his gun as he tried to break up a pool party has said she thinks he reacted violently because he thought she was being rude to him. | The teenager who was wrestled to the ground by a police officer who drew his gun as he tried to break up a pool party has said she thinks he reacted violently because he thought she was being rude to him. |
| Related: Texas officer suspended after pool party video shows him pulling gun on teens | Related: Texas officer suspended after pool party video shows him pulling gun on teens |
| Eric Casebolt, a ten-year veteran with the police department in the Dallas suburb of McKinney, was placed on administrative leave on Sunday for his role in the incident, which followed a number of cases across the US in which white police officers have been caught on camera apparently using excessive force on minorities, with sometimes fatal results. | |
| In video of the Friday incident that was uploaded to YouTube, Casebolt shouts and gestures at 15-year-old Dajerria Becton, and grabs her head and pushes her face down into the ground, while she cries: “Call my momma.” He also briefly draws his gun at two young people who approach him and acts aggressively towards others who are standing quietly. | |
| “Don’t make me fucking run around here with 30lbs of goddam gear on in the sun because you want to screw around out here,” he says. | “Don’t make me fucking run around here with 30lbs of goddam gear on in the sun because you want to screw around out here,” he says. |
| “He told me to keep walking and I kept walking and then I’m guessing he thought we were saying rude stuff to him,” Becton told KDFW local news. “He grabbed me and he like twisted my arm on the back of my back and he shoved me in the grass, he started pulling the back of my braids and I was like telling him that he can get off me because my back was hurting really bad.” | “He told me to keep walking and I kept walking and then I’m guessing he thought we were saying rude stuff to him,” Becton told KDFW local news. “He grabbed me and he like twisted my arm on the back of my back and he shoved me in the grass, he started pulling the back of my braids and I was like telling him that he can get off me because my back was hurting really bad.” |
| Internet pages deleted in the wake of the video going viral indicate that Casebolt is a former highway patrol trooper and a US navy military police veteran, who is also an instructor at a private self-defence and fitness company. He was promoted to corporal last year and named McKinney’s patrolman of the year in 2008. | |
| His biography, now removed, claims he has “a strong working knowledge of human behaviour, indicators of deception, criminal behaviour, the development of situational awareness and experience in the use of all levels of force”. | His biography, now removed, claims he has “a strong working knowledge of human behaviour, indicators of deception, criminal behaviour, the development of situational awareness and experience in the use of all levels of force”. |
| Police said that they were called to the residents-only pool in an affluent and mainly white part of the city at about 7.15pm on Friday, after reports of a disturbance involving young people not from the local area who had crashed the party. Becton, who was wearing a bathing suit when Casebolt put her on the ground, said she was an invited guest. | Police said that they were called to the residents-only pool in an affluent and mainly white part of the city at about 7.15pm on Friday, after reports of a disturbance involving young people not from the local area who had crashed the party. Becton, who was wearing a bathing suit when Casebolt put her on the ground, said she was an invited guest. |
| “A fight between a mom and a girl broke out and when the cops showed up everyone ran, including the people who didn’t do anything,” Brandon Brooks, a teenager who took the video, wrote on YouTube. “So the cops just started putting everyone on the ground and in handcuffs for no reason. This kind of force is uncalled for especially on children and innocent bystanders.” | “A fight between a mom and a girl broke out and when the cops showed up everyone ran, including the people who didn’t do anything,” Brandon Brooks, a teenager who took the video, wrote on YouTube. “So the cops just started putting everyone on the ground and in handcuffs for no reason. This kind of force is uncalled for especially on children and innocent bystanders.” |
| Greg Conley, chief of McKinney police, said at a Sunday press conference that when officers arrived, “private security and homeowners were pointing out juveniles who were creating [a] disturbance, fighting and refusing to leave”. He said there were no injuries and one man was arrested for interfering with the duties of an officer and evading arrest. | Greg Conley, chief of McKinney police, said at a Sunday press conference that when officers arrived, “private security and homeowners were pointing out juveniles who were creating [a] disturbance, fighting and refusing to leave”. He said there were no injuries and one man was arrested for interfering with the duties of an officer and evading arrest. |
| McKinney’s mayor, Brian Loughmiller, said in a statement he was “disturbed and concerned” by the video. | McKinney’s mayor, Brian Loughmiller, said in a statement he was “disturbed and concerned” by the video. |
| “Our expectation as a city council is that our police department and other departments will act professionally and with appropriate restraint relative to the situation they are faced with,” he said. | “Our expectation as a city council is that our police department and other departments will act professionally and with appropriate restraint relative to the situation they are faced with,” he said. |
| A Texas civil rights activist group, the Next Generation Action Network, said it planned a “march against police brutality” from a local elementary school to the pool on Monday evening. | A Texas civil rights activist group, the Next Generation Action Network, said it planned a “march against police brutality” from a local elementary school to the pool on Monday evening. |
| A sign placed at the entrance to the Craig Ranch North Community Pool read: “Thank you McKinney PD for keeping us safe.” | A sign placed at the entrance to the Craig Ranch North Community Pool read: “Thank you McKinney PD for keeping us safe.” |
| Also in Texas over the weekend, Austin police said they were investigating a confrontation captured on video in which a downtown crowd is watching an arrest, before a mounted officer appears to grab a bystander’s cellphone and throw it to the ground and another officer pepper-sprays the man. | Also in Texas over the weekend, Austin police said they were investigating a confrontation captured on video in which a downtown crowd is watching an arrest, before a mounted officer appears to grab a bystander’s cellphone and throw it to the ground and another officer pepper-sprays the man. |