Black children are not even safe from police violence at a pool party
by Steven W Thrasher
by Steven W Thrasher
The Guardian (UK)
Watching a young black woman, vulnerable and almost naked in her bathing suit, being manhandled by a cop made me cry
@thrasherxy
Tuesday 9 June 2015
Over the weekend, a video surfaced that showed police in McKinney, Texas violently controlling kids on a suburban street and pulling a gun on a young black girl. After I heard about it, it took a few hours before I could screw up the courage to watch it, because I knew it would make me cry. And it did
To view the video click here: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/jun/08/texas-police-pool-party-gun-black-teeanger-video
The video made me cry because it showed me how black children are not allowed to play. How they’re not allowed to just be fucking kids. How their play becomes criminalized and how they’re socialized to become black adults who internalize that their very breathing selves are criminal.
The video (and the follow up interview with its shooter, Brandon Brooks) made me cry because they showed how a public space like a pool becomes the domain of a security guard with no accountability. Who calls the police. Who quickly assume guilt on every black child in sight.
It made me cry to see a gun pulled on these children. I only had a police officer begin to pull a gun on me once, but it scared the shit out of me and altered my interactions with police forever – and I was an adult. How scarred will these children be after such trauma?
It made me cry because, even though I knew before watching that no one was going to get shot, I couldn’t shake the terror that one of those kids was going to wind among the Guardian’s count of police killings. If my terror was palpable despite only viewing what happened on video, how much terror must those poor kids have endured?
It made me cry to see a young black woman, vulnerable and almost naked in her bathing suit, being manhandled by a cop. Who tossed her around like her body was his property. Who listened to her sobbing for her mother, yet pushed her face down into the grass, kept his knee in her back and handcuffed her.
It made me cry to think about how the black lives matter discourse (including my own) is often focused on men who are killed by police, at the expense of recognizing the many black women who face similar mortal injuries - or any number of violent, sexual and psychological assaults.
It made me cry to see how black life is simply illegal in the United States: driving, walking and now swimming while black (or even just being in a neighborhood where other black people are swimming) makes one suspect.
It made me cry because almost anything involving black people and swimming or water can make me cry, just as the scene of slaves being thrown overboard in the film Amistad made me burst out in tears in 1997. As did last month’s story about the sunken slave ship headed for the Smithsonian. One of the saddest (and proudest) stories my father shared with me was about how he learned to swim as a grown man. As a child in Ohio, he couldn’t learn to swim in the local segregated pool; and, even though he served in the United States Air Force on Johnston Island for a year, he couldn’t swim. I see these black kids terrorized around a pool, and I think of the child version of my father being told he couldn’t go to the pool, as well as the young adult Sergeant Thrasher on that dinky island in the South Pacific afraid because he couldn’t swim. I think of the terror of the black woman slave tied to a chair that the future US Senator James DeWolf tossed overboard when he was a slave runner, before he expressed regret – about losing the chair.
The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive
The Guardian is counting the people killed by US law enforcement agencies this year. Read their stories and contribute to our ongoing, crowdsourced project
It made me cry because I thought about how, in 2010, about 70% of black children couldn’t swim, while only 42% of white children couldn’t. According to US Masters Swimming: “Overall, nine people per day drown in the United States; six out of the nine are people of color.” This is racism equalling death right here and McKinney will perpetuate this.
It made me cry to see, yet again, how being black makes one guilty until proven innocent in the United States. Respectability politics fail when a polite young black man says: “Sir, we just came here,” is told what he’s doing is illegal, is treated as a suspect and is told he’s “a part of the mob.” At the same time, Brooks, the videographer, said he was “basically invisible” to the police and so could shoot what was happening without his body controlled as every black body in sight had to be.
None of this is new to anyone paying attention. Nor is the officer who pulled the gun, Eric Casebolt, a “bad apple”: he was named 2008 Patrolman of the Year. All of this is business as usual.
But each black life harmed by racism is not simply a number: it is its own precious, beautiful life. To watch these beautiful young lives grotesquely injured was heartbreaking. White supremacy in America won’t let our black young children be kids, swim or receive congratulations while graduating without having the breath, light and life smothered right out of them.
All,
JUST ANOTHER HEINOUS DAY IN THE UNITED HATES OF HYSTERIA, LAND OF THE SPREE HOME OF THE KNAVE, AND ETERNAL DOMAIN OF THE 3H CLUB: HATRED HUBRIS AND HYPOCRISY...
Kofi
http://www.nytimes.com/…/police-officer-in-mckinney-tex-res…
JUST ANOTHER HEINOUS DAY IN THE UNITED HATES OF HYSTERIA, LAND OF THE SPREE HOME OF THE KNAVE, AND ETERNAL DOMAIN OF THE 3H CLUB: HATRED HUBRIS AND HYPOCRISY...
Kofi
http://www.nytimes.com/…/police-officer-in-mckinney-tex-res…
U.S.
McKinney, Tex., Police Officer Resigns Over Incident Caught on Video
By ASHLEY SOUTHALL
JUNE 9, 2015
New York Times
A police officer in McKinney, Tex., who was seen on video pulling his gun on teenagers in swimsuits and shoving a young black girl’s face in the ground at a pool party has resigned, the police said Tuesday.
Cpl. David Eric Casebolt, who had been placed on administrative leave after the episode on Friday, remains under investigation, Chief Greg Conley said at a news conference. The corporal will keep his pension and benefits, the police chief said.
“Our policies, our training, our practice doesn’t support his actions,” Chief Conley said. “He came into the call out of control, and as the video shows was out of control during the incident.”
The video was taken on a cellphone and posted to YouTube, where it set off another in a recent series of debates involving race and police tactics. The police said Corporal Casebolt and other officers were responding to a call about a fight and a disturbance at a community pool in Craig Ranch, a racially diverse subdivision north of Dallas.
Related Coverage:
Protesters gathered Monday at a swimming pool in McKinney, Tex., where a police officer last week was recorded throwing a teenage girl to the ground.
Jarring Image of Police’s Use of Force at Texas Pool Party
JUNE 8, 2015
Corporal Casebolt can be heard shouting profanities at the teenagers, and officers handcuffed several who had followed his orders to sit on the ground. He appeared to grab the girl and pin her to the ground after she did not heed his orders to leave.
Related in Opinion:
Op-Ed Contributor: Who Gets to Go to the Pool?
JUNE 10, 2015
At the news conference, Mayor Brian Loughmiller said that officials recognized a need for better training for officers, but that there needed to be expectations for interactions with police.
Greg Willis, the district attorney for Collin County, said in a statement on Tuesday that his office had received numerous inquiries about the case.
“We share the public’s legitimate interest in a full and fair investigation of this matter,” he said. “We are currently awaiting the results of the McKinney Police Department’s investigation and ask for patience as their investigation continues.”
A video shows a police officer detaining a girl on Friday and pulling a gun on other teenagers after a disturbance at a neighborhood pool party in McKinney, Tex. By YouTube/Brandon Brooks on Publish Date June 8, 2015.
Greg Willis, the district attorney for Collin County, said in a statement on Tuesday that his office had received numerous inquiries about the case.
“We share the public’s legitimate interest in a full and fair investigation of this matter,” he said. “We are currently awaiting the results of the McKinney Police Department’s investigation and ask for patience as their investigation continues.”
A video shows a police officer detaining a girl on Friday and pulling a gun on other teenagers after a disturbance at a neighborhood pool party in McKinney, Tex. By YouTube/Brandon Brooks on Publish Date June 8, 2015.
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNpkyC65-C0
http://theroottv.theroot.com/…/Police-Cop-in-pool-party-vid…
The mayor and police chief of McKinney, Texas commented on Cpl. Eric Casebolt's resignation, calling his actions "out of control", referring to Casebolt throwing a black female teenager to the ground.
http://theroottv.theroot.com/…/Police-Cop-in-pool-party-vid…
The mayor and police chief of McKinney, Texas commented on Cpl. Eric Casebolt's resignation, calling his actions "out of control", referring to Casebolt throwing a black female teenager to the ground.
