No doubt you’ve seen the latest video clip chronicling seemingly irreconcilable conflicts between White cops and Black folks.
In the clip that went viral online on Monday, Student Resource Officer Ben Fields is seen violently flinging a female student out of her desk, dragging her to the front of the classroom, and forcefully restraining her as he puts her in handcuffs…
The student had refused to leave class before the school officer became involved, the sheriff’s office told the local TV station WIST.
(Huffington Post, October 27, 2015)
You’ve probably also seen commentators all over mainstream and social media hurling mob-like condemnation at this officer for the “extremely disturbing” and “horrific” way he “brutalized” this student. Never mind credible reports that she suffered no injuries during this incident, which occurred at the Spring Valley High School in South Carolina yesterday morning….
The clip shows the officer ordering her, rather politely, to obey the teacher’s instruction to leave the classroom. But she appeared to accord him no greater respect than she did her teacher or the administrator her teacher initially called for help. This left the officer no choice but to physically remove her … for the educational benefit of the other students.
Alas, that he acted pursuant to this prevailing benefit seems completely lost on most commentators, and will be lost, I fear, on her fellow students too – given the way this incident is playing out in the media.
It’s easy to say from our vantage point that this officer should have used less force to remove her. But I suspect we’d be able to accuse most cops of using excessive force if they were caught on tape dealing with a similar situation.
On the other hand, prevailing anti-cop bias is blinding commentators to the fact that she clearly provoked the force he used by resisting so frenetically – complete with punches and kicks to fend him off.
Perhaps more instructive, though, are reports that neither her teacher nor the administrator uttered a word of complaint about excessive force … before that video went viral. Not to mention the obvious fact that the teacher would not have called for help in the first place if this student had not shown a determination to resist as she did.
All of which raises a few critical questions. But first, please take a moment to consider what a disruptive presence she must have been to have compelled her beleaguered and frustrated teacher to call for help:
- What is a student resource officer supposed to do when a disruptive student refuses all entreaties to leave the classroom?
- Would it have been in the school’s or, more importantly, the other students’ interest to allow her to continue disrupting the class at her will and whim?
- If yes, what would this portend for the classroom order and discipline necessary to create an environment conducive to learning?
Truth be told, this student’s disruptive behavior did not surprise me in the least. It is entirely consistent with the cancerous disrespect far too many young Black kids are developing, not just for police officers but all authority figures.
Apropos of which, I cannot overstate this abiding fear:
The lesson most young Black men [and women, evidently] are learning from this tragedy is that they can resist arrest — so long as they shout the newfangled slogan, ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ while doing so. Clearly, this will only lead to more of them ending up like Michael…
Instead of doublespeak that would make him a saint, those eulogizing Michael would honor his death far more by admonishing young Black men [and women] against the deadly hazards of resisting arrest and defying authority … merely as a misguided badge of honor or rite of passage.
(“Why Chastise the Times for Describing Michael Brown as ‘No Angel’?” The iPINIONS Journal, August 26, 2014)
Indeed, what is most troubling about this trend is the way everyone from civic leaders to social commentators invariably treat these rebels without a cause like civil-rights martyrs and heroes. And, after coddling them, despite their misbehavior/crimes, these same people then wonder why Black kids continue to act out in such disruptive and criminal ways; or, of far greater concern, why they continue to perform in school way below their White counterparts – with the continuing cycle of plight and blight that portends.
To say nothing of the media portraying this student as a wholly innocent victim of “racist” police brutality. Only this explains the Huffington Post headlining its fairly balanced report on this incident: “When Black Kids Aren’t Allowed To Be Kids.” How’s that for confusing, condescending, coddling claptrap?! Talk about exhorting Blacks to be their own worst enemies….
Frankly, it’s a reflection on what dystopian places schools have become that student resource officers are now as commonplace at them as physical education teachers. And those officers are there as much to protect teachers from increasingly unruly and violent students as to protect students from each other.
For a little perspective, if I had disrupted class in this fashion when I was in school, my Mummy would have “brutalized” me more than that officer reportedly brutalized this girl. What’s more, my school, my classmates and I would have all been much the better for it.
And, lest you think I’m just old fashioned, the Black kid whose mother caught him on TV reveling in the Baltimore riots earlier this year might beg to differ. Remember the viral sensation she became when she marched through those riots, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and brutalized his ass all the way home?
He was clearly humiliated but, trust me, that kid would tell you today that he’s much the better for it.
Which raises one more critical question:
- Why aren’t more commentators questioning the parenting of this child who sees nothing wrong with not only refusing to participate in class, but making it impossible for other students to do so as well?
Then, of course, there’s the most cynical feature of these contrived civil-rights conflicts: the inevitable lawsuit, which unjustly enriches the lawyers filing them and the alleged victims in equal measure.
Nothing demonstrates this misguided folly quite like the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) sticking its brown nose into this provincial disciplinary matter. As if lying in wait for the video to “go viral,” it made quite a show just hours ago of announcing its intent to launch an investigation to determine if this cop violated this student’s civil rights.
Mind you, this is the same DOJ that made quite a show of launching an investigation to determine if another White cop violated Michael Brown’s civil rights when he shot Michael in Ferguson last year. Only it made far less of a show when it finally announced that his use of deadly force was justified – given clear and convincing evidence that Brown was violently resisting arrest.
Never mind that DOJ officials stood by in the interim as ignorant and misguided protesters convicted this cop in the court of public opinion and pressured local officials to fire him.
Therefore, I would bet my life savings that, after sufficient political pandering in this case, the DOJ will quietly announce that this cop’s use of force was also justified.
Never mind that DOJ officials will stand by in the interim as ignorant and misguided commentators convict this cop in the court of public opinion and pressure local officials to fire him.
Which brings me to the most important things to learn from this teachable incident:
- It only fuels these conflicts between White cops and Black folks when commentators of all stripes refuse to condemn the types of behavior that continually give rise to them.
- It only encourages more unruly behavior, thereby making learning even more challenging, when commentators of all stripes hail this student – who disrupted her own class – as a latterday Rosa Parks.
- It is always incumbent upon cops to diffuse conflicts, which in this case might have had him calling for backup to lift this kid, while still seated in her chair, and take her out of the classroom (as ridiculous as that seems), instead of dragging her from it and cuffing her the way he did.
Incidentally, what is probably most telling about this video is that none of her classmates can be seen raising a voice, let alone lifting a finger, in her defense against this White cop.
Related commentaries:
Baltimore apes Ferguson
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Tuesday, at 6:08 p.m.
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