Two Baltimore city police officers have been charged with second-degree assault and misconduct in office for assaulting a tenth grade student. The assault—several slaps and a kick—was caught on another student’s cell phone and went viral last week. Anthony Spence and Saverna Bias turned themselves in on the charges on March 8 and have since posted bond. Spence has an additional charge of child abuse in the second degree.
In a statement of charges released Wednesday, police allege that a witness said Bias told Spence, "You need to smack him because he's got too much mouth," and Spence then hit and kicked the teen. Police note that Spence was not trying to arrest the teen and wasn't acting in reasonable self-defense. [...]
Spence acknowledged in a telephone conversation with The Associated Press on Friday that he was the subject of a criminal investigation into the actions captured on cellphone video last week at the REACH Partnership School. Spence said last week that he wouldn't discuss the matter because the news media would "twist" the story.
"Right now, I'm the bad guy," he said. He referred questions to his lawyer, Michael Davey, who didn't immediately respond to a phone call Wednesday morning.
Both officers, as well as the Baltimore City Schools Police Chief Marshall Goodwin, had been on leave since the video surfaced last week. You can view the clip of Spence’s assault, as Bias stands by and does nothing, below.
Baltimore schools have their own police force, separate from the city police. Spence and Bias were assigned to the REACH Partnership School. The question of whether or not to have police officers in schools—euphemistically labeled as “school resource officers” or truthfully known as cops—has been written about before; obviously, the question remains unanswered.
Spence and Bias now join South Carolina’s Ben Fields and Oklahoma City’s Master Sergeant Thomas Jaha as obvious threats to children’s safety.