A McKinney, Texas police officer has been suspended pending review after the posting of a videotape where he draws his gun and manhandles a group of teenagers outside of a pool party. The officer has been identified as Cpl. Eric Casebolt and he is shown being verbally and physically abusive toward young people who are not clearly doing anything unlawful.
The pulling out of the gun is a rapid escalation in a call over a dispute between a mother and a girl at the party. The McKinney Police Department’s Facebook page states that officers responded to a “disturbance” at the Craig Ranch North community pool at 7:15 p.m. It added that the juveniles at the scene “do not live in the area or have permission to be there.” It further says that people failed to respond to orders and officers struggled to “gain control of the situation.”
Casebolt,40, is a 10-year-veteran and serves as a vice president of McKinney’s police union. He received an award for “Patrolman of the Year” in 2008. The Washington Post reports that he is an instructor at Executive Self-Defense and Fitness and has a website that heralds his “ strong working knowledge of human behavior” and “experience in the use of all levels of force.” As is often the case, people have collected various pictures of Casebolt though the one dressed as an Indian chief at a party seems to be the favorite. That is part of the reality of the world of social media today.
Do you consider this level of force to be justified?
@Nick Spinelli: the problem with the simulator is that what it shows is what the police PR machine would like us and the cops to believe, but this is not what takes place in real world. In real world, bad guys shooting at the police are very, very rare, which is why the job of police officer is not even in the ten most dangerous jobs, statistically. The jobs or taxi driver and bartender are more deadly, yet we don’t hear requests to let them to shoot anybody in their sight who put a hand in his pocket because that makes them afraid for their life – which is what the cops do now practically every day. In the simulator we see bad guys shooting at the cop. In real life we see cops shooting in the back of unarmed people running away, cops beating people handcuffed and on the ground face down, we see cops jumping on the hood of the car and firing point blank into the driver and passenger, both unarmed, we see them beating 70-year old for not following orders, and more. Show is one news report, from anywhere, where the police faced something even remotely resembling the situation in the simulator.
“There used to be a time when adolescents obeyed police instructions. Where are the parents of these fine, upstanding juveniles?”
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Since when do parents of teens need to be with their teens at a pool party? Did you accompany your teens to pool parties Olly? Why ask where their parents are?
Nick,
I don’t understand why you think most of your comment is responsive to mine. Psychologists are involved so we must accept the result? Cops don’t abuse authority in all circumstances so we have to accept whatever abuse does exist? Why don’t you address this circumstance?
Or, since pilots make bad decisions causing death do you think flight simulators are also “part of the problem.”
I am 100% sure plane crashes result in a review of how the training simulators handled the issues that led to the crash and changes are implemented if any can be identified. I am not at all sure that happens with police training, or that any changes made address the concerns of outsiders rather than insiders.
We have a community pool that is not supposed to be used by other communities but the kids sneak over all the time. It is a hassle. We have had to change locks, finally going to a super lock. I have thrown kids out of the pool before. Never had this problem though.
Part of this may have to do with how far your authority goes. Mine was just a home owner. This is a home owner/policeman with a gun. When kids mob together they can be feral. Or not.
The one thing that stands out here regardless of kids mouthing off, not leaving when asked, or simply talking back is that they are kids and are acting like kids. There was no threat here from the kids. They were not dressed in ‘banger’ attire and milling about waiting to get the jump on the cops. They were in bathing suits and some idiot called the cops.
If the officer had shown up with a pocket full of candies and handed them out, the kids would have melted like butter. This officer gave the kids a solid lesson in why it’s somehow appropriate to disrespect the police. How is one to respect an idiot like that. One can only fear an idiot like that. Perhaps the police are making choices, giving up on respect and going for fear.
Once again, we see how poor training causes problems. Who called the police, and why? If there was an argument between two people, why did the police need to be called? Was there any violence before the cops arrived? I’m not clear what that cop even thought he was supposed to do there? I’m guessing that the host lost control of his “party” and thought the police could fix the problem. If so, a poorly trained officer would feel confused and start strutting his “authority”.
There used to be a time when adolescents obeyed police instructions. Where are the parents of these fine, upstanding juveniles?
Rick, Cops go on MILLIONS calls a day. The overwhelming majority of times the incendiary situations are handled properly. Psychologists are involved in creating this scenarios on simulators. They are looking to detect bias, racism, etc. as well as how they react to various situations. Do you understand this BASIC fact? Or, since pilots make bad decisions causing death do you think flight simulators are also “part of the problem.” Or, is a closed mind “part of the problem?”
Nick Spinelli
Ms. Bello came away w/ a different perspective. She reports also on a black civil rights leader who also took the test and came away w/ more empathy.
This seems to take the existence and appropriateness of the simulator as a given. If a simulator trains cops to act in ways most people find objectionable maybe we should consider that the simulator and/or other training is part of the problem.
” If a simulator trains cops to act in ways most people find objectionable maybe we should consider that the simulator and/or other training is part of the problem.”
Some commentators in other articles have made it seem as though we have to choose between effective LE in our neighborhoods or criticizing the use of excessive force by some officers. This is a false dichotomy. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Abusive officers are not doing better police work. Abusive officers are not building respect for LE. Abusive officers do not build the conditions for effective cooperation between LE and citizens that is necessary for peaceful neighborhoods.
Whatever the frustrations associated with police work, there is anything anti-cop in posing the question ‘was the use of force reasonable and appropriate for the situation’.
Officers who have a history of using excessive force or abusing their authority ought to be held accountable. There is nothing anti-cop in requiring officers to do their job the right way.
Abusive officers make it worse for everyone – other officers, prosecutors, and citizens. We all have an interest in identifying abusive officers and retraining them, if possible, or removing them from the force if necessary.
Who are the thugs and who are the cops in this video, or are they one in the same? From his rambo roll to harass a couple kids that were talking to a cops to slamming a girl that was following instructions and leaving the scene and then pulling a gun on kids it’s clear who the thugs are in this video.
And why does this cop need to be kneeling on this girl clad only in a bikini? She wasn’t resisting, she was obviously scared out of her wits.
For those who have an open mind. Or, even if you don’t. There is a very good piece in this mornings USA Today by Marisol Bello, a reporter who took the police simulator test. These simulators are as important as flight simulators for pilots. Because the media and bloggers like JT are beating the anti-cop drum, the FBI has given an open invitation for civilians to experience what cops do. Marisol Bello is a woman of color and her beat for USA Today is urban affairs and poverty. I’ve read her previously. She’s a good reporter, leans left but is pretty much a straight shooter, pun intended. Ms. Bello came away w/ a different perspective. She reports also on a black civil rights leader who also took the test and came away w/ more empathy. I encourage people to read this piece. And, I encourage JT to take the simulator test.
So the police rioted. So what? This is commonplace now. Professor Turley, why do you keep posting police misconduct images and stories? We have changed in America, and it’s time we all recognize that.
And the big fat white guy is just watching the cop abusing this girl and steps in to keep the other kids from trying to help her. Disgusting. These cops were targeting every black kid there, leaving the white kids alone.
The girl he slammed to the ground, yanked by the hair, her face smashed into the ground was 14 years old. When the two boys saw the cop overreacting and manhandling this girl, they reacted appropriately with concern for the girl. Then this out of control cop pulls his gun and chases them. Wrong from beginning to end. The overly aggressive actions and foul language only escalated the situation. Shameful behavior from police, the kids actually appeared to act more normally in comparison.
We see several teenagers ordered to sit on the ground or handcuffed while sitting on the ground.
Why was the girl forced onto her stomach and her head pushed into the grass?
The difference in treatment suggests to me the officer is punishing the girl for some personal affront – not for some valid LE objective.
Cops are public servants – how long would you tolerate your cleaning lady behaving in this manner?
Are we all pretending this kind of thing doesn’t happen all the time? When I was in college cops broke up parties with similar levels of force all the time – with the full support of the campus administration. Cops aren’t “public” servants. They serve the government that pays them just like every other government employee.
The reaction by the police officer seems to stem from not having been taken seriously by a bunch of kids at a pool party. His over reaction caused the kids to start running away and mouthing off. The more he reacted the more the kids reacted until the kids were disobeying police instructions and then subject to detention.
The officer did not handle the situation appropriately and in of himself accelerated the chaos of the kids and within himself. The grabbing of the ‘mouthy’ girl, one of many mouthy girls, and his pulling his gun graphically illustrates that the officer was fueled by the kids not obeying him more than by containing the situation. The officer was primarily responsible for the melee.
The police officer reduced himself to the level of the adolescents thereby losing any adult effectiveness he might have had.
I keep hearing how difficult a cop’s job is, but what I see here is a bunch of thugs terrorizing a bunch of kids.
Don’t know the background, but from what we see on this video there is excessive force a lack of professionalism.
The police motivator seems to have changed very quickly from (the presumed) trespass to “disrespecting an officer”, a far more serious crime.
Cops are public servants – how long would you tolerate your cleaning lady behaving in this manner?
Seems to me that cops are our masters and don’t take lese majeste lightly.
The short answer is that pulling a gun was inappropriate. However, one story I read indicated that the police were responding to a complaint that the juveniles involved did not have permission to use the pool at which the so called “party” was being held. Of course that does not support the police officerr’s behavior but the kids should not have been there is this story is true.