Cpl. Eric Boltcase pull his weapons on teens at a pool party.
By now you've probably seen the video of McKinney, Texas, Police Cpl. Eric Casebolt's outrageous and abusive behavior toward a group of black teens at a pool party celebrating the end of the school year, which included pulling a gun on obviously unarmed teens in their bikinis and swim trunks. It is truly must see to believe, so if you haven't viewed it yet, do so right now:
The party was hosted by Tatyana Rhodes and her sister. The young women live in the Craigs Ranch community and they say most of the guests are residents as well. The teens claim that a woman at the pool began cursing the teens and using racial epithets and telling them to "go back to Section 8 housing." Another 14-year-old (white) teen stepped in to tell the older white people they were wrong and shouldn't be talking to the black teens like that and according to Tatiana Rhodes, that is when one of the white women slapped her. Watch Tatiana and her mother (who was at the pool party) describe what happened:
Officer Eric Casebolt is on paid administrative leave after the video surfaced, but not before he apparently
viewed and added the video of his attack to his (now deleted) YouTube account, where it was listed amongst several other videos of officers "defending" themselves.
The McKinney Police Department responded to the video on their Facebook page:
McKinney Police later learned of a video that was taken at the scene by an unknown party. This video has raised concerns that are being investigated by the McKinney Police Department. At this time, one of the responding officers has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this investigation.
While the investigation is ongoing, even the normally conservative-leaning
Dallas Morning News is noting that culturally, we have a huge problem to address when it comes to
racial disparity:
But it’s impossible not to wonder how different a scene this would have been if these kids had been white instead of black. Would Casebolt have dared to drag a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl to the ground screaming “ON YOUR FACE!” at a pool in an affluent suburb?
If your answer is yes, let me know the next time that happens.