Here's is the initial video which led to the suspension, in it you can see Casebolt and other Officers chasing the kids, cursing at them, telling some (the girls) to leave, telling others (the boys) to sit, then when one girl clad only in a bikini doesn't leave quickly enough (she's apparently looking for something, perhaps her clothes or purse, I think she says "call my momma") he throws her to the ground and sits on her back before cuffing her, he even briefly unholsters his weapon and points it at the crowd of kids as he chases them.
Considering how and why they were called to the scene, this tableau becomes a perfect example of police becoming the enforcement arm of white privilege and presumption.
Far from being "unruly" you can actually see the (apparently white) kid filming this video pickup and return a flashflight to one Officer after Casebolt trips and falls while chasing some other kids. I see the cops doing a lot of shouting and screaming and threatening at the black kids while white kids walk about freely and film the video without police paying any attention to them at all. Black kids are being told to "leave", some do and some don't perhaps because they actually live in this area so they being told to go where exactly, away from their homes?
I honestly didn't know what to make of it when I first saw it. The confrontation with the girl in the bikini begins when the videographer is too far away to document how it initiates, and exactly what set Officer Casebolt off - but it's clear from his haughty and dismissive tone that he's not in a friendly or open-minded mood.
Shown without context, some people have rallied to the support of police while supporting the notion that any black kids is by definition a "dangerous armed suspect" and deserves this kind of physical and verbal abuse even if they're only wearing a bikini.
Conserva-Twitter was quick to pronounce the kids were at fault.
From what i see in the video the kids actually are all following instructions, the instruction are kinda psycho, but their following them until Officer Casebolt loses his cool that they aren't moving fast enough for him. The kids aren't foul-mouthed, not until Casebolt starts dragging the girl in the bikini, Dajerria Becton, around on the ground. ("What the fuck?!")
It apparently didn't occur to any to any of these people that the actual "thugs" in this situation wasn't the kids, it was the Cops who were called to the party by racists in the first place and then proceeded to act based on false information provided to them by those racists.
This is explained in this video which features Tatiana Rose the girl who hosted the party and her mother who was the onsite adult on the scene who witnessed the "fight" which prompted the police being called - by the people who started the fight - in the first place.
Tatiana Rose, who lives in the Craig Ranch neighborhood and hosted the party with her siblings, said a woman and man who live in the neighborhood showed up and called their friends “black f*ckers” and told them to return to their Section 8 housing.
The 19-year-old Rose said most of her friends who attended the party live in Craig Ranch — which sits along a golf course.
Rose said one of her younger brother’s friends — a white girl named Grace Stone — scolded the neighbors and told them it wasn’t right to use racial slurs.
“So then they started verbally abusing her, saying that she needs to do better for herself, cursing at her, and I’m saying, no that’s wrong – she’s 14, you should not say things like that to a 14-year-old,” Rose said.
She said the woman, who she identified as Kate, told her to go back to her government-assisted housing and smacked her in the face when she stuck up for the younger girl, and she said another woman also attacked her.
Tatiana goes on to explain that most of the kids at the party
lived in the area and that most of them were classmates and relatives so it wasn't really the case that a bunch of uninvited people were "trespassing" and starting trouble. That didn't happen.
And there were adults on the scene, specifically Rose's mother who couldn't understand why Kate had to come verbally abuse and assault them in the first place then call the cops on the kids they assaulted.
“I’m just upset that we couldn’t have a peaceful event, and if it was any issues that they truly had, they should have came to me, the adult that was here at the event, and said, ‘Hey, we don’t want the kids’ – whatever – then let me handle it, and not go to that extreme,” said LaShana Burks, who owns the home where the party was held.
No arrests were apparently made There was one arrest, the kid who Casebolt pulled his gun on, although I could think of making an arrest for
falsely reporting a crime in the first place.
Perhaps if the police had bothered to talk to the adult who was on the scene rather than automatically assuming and treating all the black kids like criminals and suspects as soon as they showed up, things might have gone quite differently.
Ironically Officer Casebolt was awarded "Officer of the Year" in 2008 by the McKinney Police Dept, and one of his specialities is supposedly "Community Policing". But apparently not in this community, and not this year.
Vyan
9:32 AM PT: The video has a link to an interview that the kid, Brandon, who shot the video did. He missed the fight, but does seem to confirm that it was an adult - a mom - who was fighting with a kid and that mom was egging the cops on against all the kids. I'm thinking that's probably "Kate".
He says most of the cops on the scene acted very appropriately and professionally. The problem was just one Officer, Casebolt, who he says "could have acted a lot better, a lot more professionally" - Uh, yeah.
Brandon, who as I surmised is white, also agrees that the situation was clearly racial, "I was standing in the middle of hordes of black people and I was the only one that the cops didn't look at.. and didn't put handcuffs on. I was basically invisible to the cops." Brandon also explains that the Security Guard at the Pool wouldn't even let him into the area until he proved he lived in that community, so everyone at that pool party had to get past that guard and show that proof.
9:41 AM PT: Here's partial video of the initial fight with "Kate". Perhaps, details of exactly when this occurred and who is involved here are sketchy at this point.
10:10 AM PT: The assault on Becton from another angle, which is even more creepy as a phalanx of white guys in shorts try to shoo away the girl shooting the video of Officer Casebolt with his knees on Becton's back (and neck) as she demands "I have freedom of speech!"
10:43 AM PT: Ok, I've watched several different videos from several angles and I see one guy in all of them. He's wearing dark khaki shorts, which a white sleeveless shirts that look like is has a black cloud design on the back, shaved head and dark sunglasses. In the initial fight video with "Kate" and the teenager he walks up and sounds like he's egging "Kate" on, he's in both of the subsequent videos of Becton being assaulted and you can see him, and about 4 of his buddies also in shorts, come up and literally shove back the girls who are approaching to help Becton and are filming things from the other side of where Brandon is filming. The guys all push and shove the girls away and stop them from filming Casebolt on Becton's back -meanwhile Brandon is standing 10 feet away in the other direction and they don't even react to him. These guys walk around like their part of the police, like their patrolling or something, it's real weird.
10:50 AM PT: Interview with Becton on Fox News, the neighbors say they disobeyed "police orders" that's actually not true - Becton was clearly walking away, as ordered, when he ran after her and grabbed her. The neighbors say she was "resisting" but that's horseshit, he's yanking her body around like a ragdoll. Apparently, the kid who tried to help Becton when Casebolt jumped on her was arrested for "interference".
Tue Jun 09, 2015 at 10:08 AM PT: Lawernce O'Donnell interviewed some of the witnesses including another girl who was struck by Cpl. Casebolt. She describes how the "2 guests per pool pass" rule was being enforced originally against only the black party goers but after they complained others began to be checked (like Brandon) as well. A few guys who they didn't know did show up at the gate but weren't let in, those guys apparently hopped the fence (so that's confirmed now) on their own but none of actual party guests had anything to do with them.
What we still don't know is exactly who called the police and what they said precisely. Some reports say that the Security guard called, he may have done that because of the fence jumpers or because of the fight with "Kate", and/or Kate and her friends may have called the police under the assumption that people like Tatiana - who lived there and was the technical host of the party - didn't belong ("Go back to your Section 8 Housing") right after Kate and her friends attacked them. We're not really going to know that story if or until 9-1-1 tapes are released.
Either way Casebolt was totally out of control.
Tue Jun 09, 2015 at 10:34 AM PT: Found a more comprehensive interview with Brandon who shot ther original video where he again points out how the officer was telling everyone to sit down - except him. He goes on to say that their really weren't any "unruly kids cussing at the adults" that he saw while he was there. As he describes it all the kids were having fun except for being occasionally hassled by the Security guard over having their pool passes and "rough-housing" in the pool.
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