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?
OMG.
The girl was ‘rebellious’!
Wait a minute. Isn’t that a respected character trait in Texas – in the Tea Party crowd? Aren’t we all encouraged to be rebellious – to arm ourselves against Tyranny?
One has to be so careful when calling for Rebellion. Sometimes the Wrong people think the call for Freedom applies to them.
It is important to respect and obey lawful authority.
Rafflaw was raised in a single parent home and is one of the most decent, kind, principled weekend bloggers here. Some people here could stand to emulate him. I see now we devolve into personal insults again. Hopefully Professor Turley is still reading this thread.
The wise people of McKinney don’t deal with LIKELIHOODS of arson and mayhem destroying their town. Nauseating? The only nauseating thing about this is that a police officer, BEFORE A COMPLETE AND THOROUGH INVESTIGATION COULD POSSIBLY BE CONDUCTED, was offered up like a virgin, to the trembling volcano, to appease the gods. Screw justice. Screw a fair and complete investigation. Just do what is necessary to promote calm and peace, at any cost. Again, can’t say I blame them. The benefits outweigh the costs, or so they think. Yeah, nauseating, but true.
Squeek, I can’t tell you how impressed I am @ how you ignore the losers here. You’ve come a LONG WAY!
Yes and look what it’s done to you Squeeky.
Gigi, Don’t fret. It comes down to values. People who raise their kids right in two parent homes. People who work for a living, not live on the dole fraudulently. People who have friends and get out of their abode and engage w/ real people.. People who give back to their community. People who are honest and truthful. Those are the people who are happy, successful, and who will prevail.
@G de la pz
If I had been that little gal, my father would have tanned my hide when I got home for sassing a cop and a grown up, even if I was 13 or 14. But too many black kids are raised to be sassy mouthed and disrespectful, and too many stupid destructive white folks encourage it. Sooo, you end up with Trayvons, and Mike Browns, etc.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Again, I remind folks here that is a blog that has long advocated for CIVIL LIBERTIES, not an authoritarian, militarized Police State. Why the heck do you think Professor Turley posts one after another of these videos and stories on police abuse? For poops and giggles?
Inga – this will come as a surprise to you but, people are innocent until proven guilty. JT did not say let’s hang the guilty s.o.b. He said
“Do you consider this level of force to be justified?”
Well, in a word, no.
And apparently the police chief doesn’t either. He is being quoted with words to the effect that of 12 officers on the scene, 11 conducted themselves in accordance with their training. The other did not and resigned.
As a reality check we might review the video and consider the other officers. We can’t see all the other officers and we don’t see them all the time. But we do see several other officers.
The are confronted with the same mouthy, bratty teenagers. Does anyone see any other officers behaving remotely like Casebolt? I don’t think so. The video I see seems to correspond to the situation described by the chief of police. Other officers in control dealing reasonably (mostly) with teenagers. And one officer, inexplicably, out of control.
Gigi, sorry if the black teens at this sorry incident weren’t sufficiently trembling and humble under the boot of the POLIZEI. I guess they thought they deserved not to be abused, manhandled and had a gun pulled on them. Sheesh, no respect for the authorities!
Wade, DeNile is a river in Egypt. It would be best for them to not try to take back their words, all one has to do is scroll up on this thread.
I’m seeing a real lynch mob on this site, very disheartening. Videos don’t show or give the whole story. Whatever happened to listening and obeying your elders–especially law enforcement.
From what I could see, he was kneeling on her because she was a rebellious, out of control young woman with no respect for the law. I heard that he had run out of handcuffs and was waiting to get some from other officers.
Before cell phones and movie cameras, this would have been a small town incident with page two coverage, now we make everything a national crisis and when Sharpton is involved it lines his pockets and gets him more popularity votes from those who stamp everything as racist.
This country is becoming one of anarchy with no respect for the law.
Squeek, A few black people who live in this upper middle class neighborhood called out the “Prison Culture” thugs. They don’t want that ilk in their neighborhood, no people w/ values do.
bam bams ‘reasoned neutrality’ is most nauseating when coyly pointing out the likelihood of arson in McKinney.
Now do the google thing. Check out what happened last night in McKinney.
Shameful.
DBQ, it’s Ok, I’d be embarrassed too if I were you.
DBQ, OF COURSE you didn’t vociferously defend the cop. I don’t believe anyone has vociferously defended him, but I just skim some comments, and IGNORE others. That was just bait to get you to engage directly.
@bams
Well, McKinney is a basically white upscale place, and even the blacks there are pretty well off. But feral blacks from outside the city were already slobbering over the idea of free shoes and booze, sooo all that desire may still try come out in a nice little riot. But, this is Texas, and down here we can legally shoot people to protect our property, and some of those store owners are probably already locked and loaded. Sooo, if there is a riot, it ought to be interesting.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky – high props to the kids in the video who did what they were supposed to, sit down and stay there. They seemed very polite. The problem was the twit in the orange bikini.
bam, I have said the cop looked bad, but I was not willing to lynch him like the cop haters here. Your analysis shows wisdom. OF COURSE this was not investigated. OF COURSE this was to head off Al Sharpton before he got on a plane in NYC.
Here’s the travesty. The racial pimps like Sharpton and the white enablers we see here are feeding into the “Prison Culture.” Are there racist cops? YES. Are racist cops in the top 10 problems facing the black community. NO. But, as long as those good Negroes keep votin’ Dem well then the enablers and racial pimps will throw them a little bone once in awhile. No steak, just the picked over bone. Sharpton and these enablers don’t care about black people. The white liberals here don’t even have any black friends. It’s disgusting. A cop lost his job. Maybe it was righteous. Maybe it wasn’t. But, righteousness was not on the agenda. The people of McKinney, Texas wanted the remote TV trucks out of town. The Chief took the needed steps to make that happen. Sharpton got him a honky cop scalp.
Inga said: “, there were people vociferously defending him, DBQ and Karen ”
Where did “I” vociferously defend THIS officer? THIS particular officer.
I dare you to find where I mounted a defense. I did say that there was just a snippet of information and not enough to make any determination.
I have no opinion on whether the cop(s) overreacted or not since as pointed out we have only a snippet of the actual event. Relying on “eye witnesses” and narratives of those who are perpetually aggrieved…..is a fools game as we have found out in the Ferguson circus.
Making up lies about other posters is not becoming or civil, Inga.
Pathological Altruism http://www.amren.com/features/2012/07/pathological-altruism/
Dusty’s right.
Stupid people must be prepared to shoulder the consequences if they – how did she put it? – stick their penis in a light socket….or fiddle with their waistband.
And Dusty’s sage advice also applies to 12 year old children playing with a toy gun in a city park.
STUPID TWELVE YEAR OLD!
And BamBam,
I’m quite certain the investigation done by the McKinney PD had all the info we may have not have had here. Again, the Chief said Casebolts behavior was “indefensible”. It looks like our (the commenters who thought Casebolt was out of control) instincts about this cop based on the video were correct.