In the last day or so, a cop who happens to be white, arrested a high school girl who happens to be black after she refused to comply with a number of commands. I say “happens to be” because the NAACP is already up-in-arms over this, despite there being absolutely zero evidence that race was a factor in the slightest.
This incident was caught on video and the officer was shown to be using force to arrest the female student. But what was not shown was what had happened just prior to the video – and any sane person should have immediately asked themselves why a police officer would do this. However, the Outrage Brigade on the Internet did not do this.
If you start with the premise that all cops are bad and that all black people are always innocent, then the facts go out the window. You will cherry pick the information, using only what supports your premature conclusions and/or making things up whole cloth (i.e. the bogus “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” narrative from the Michael Brown incident last year) until slapped in the face with cold, hard, incontrovertible facts. Then the excuse-making begins.
A timeline of what happened is here:
1.) Girl is disruptive in class. Teacher asks her to stop. Girl refuses.
2.) Teacher asks girl to leaves class. Girl refuses.
3.) Teacher calls down to the office, again asking girl to leave. Girl refuses.
4.) Office sends up “officer” who again asks girl to come with him. Girl refuses.
5.) Officer then tells girl that she needs to leave, or she will be forcefully removed. Girl refuses.
6.) Officer grabs girl to remove her from desk. She punches the officer and attempts to kick free, flipping her own desk.
7.) Officer drags her from the desk repeatedly asking her to put her hands behind her back. She continually refuses.
Numbers 1-3 occurred before the video even began. It didn’t matter. Within minutes, the Outrage Brigade, upset at the fact that they didn’t have anything to be offended over in the previous thirty minutes, immediately called for the badge of the evil, racist cop. Facts didn’t matter. Context didn’t matter. And the fact that there was absolutely zero evidence that race played any role whatsoever, clearly the cop was a racist.
This is just like the Michael Brown incident last year, except the chick isn’t dead. Cops don’t kill black people for no reason. Context matters.
Last year, as soon as I heard that ridiculous phrase, “Hands Up Don’t Shoot,” and that a white cop had killed a black teenager who had his hands up and was surrendering, the first thing I thought was: “Ok, so what actually happened?”
Why? Because cops don’t just arbitrarily shoot black people for no damn reason, especially in this age of cell phones and YouTube. Plus, they were in the middle of the street in a black neighborhood in broad frickin’ daylight.
The principle here is the same. The officer in South Carolina almost definitely knew that he was going to be recorded. After all, it was a classroom full of kids with cellphones, which is why he used the proper escalation of force procedures to deal with a mouthy, disobedient, disruptive, uncooperative student. He did not slam her on the floor. He did not put her in a chokehold. He held her by the shoulder and pant leg with the intent of removing her from the classroom, and she went beserk, upsetting the desk and creating a scene.
Prior to that, none of the other students had been defending the disruptive student when she was asked numerous times by the teacher, the principle, and then the “resource officer” (cop) to first turn off her cell phone, then turn it in, and finally, to leave the classroom. Maybe they thought she was a jerk for disrupting the class.
Context matters. The cop didn’t wake up that morning and say to himself, “I am going to body slam a black chick today to show the world how racist I am.” Get real.
The fact that the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP is involved and outraged is ridiculous. There is not a shred of evidence that race had anything to do with it. I am kind of surprised that NOW hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon with cries of, “The male cop abused the female student! He hates women!”
I guarantee you this: just like with Michael Brown, Freddy Gray, Eric Garner, et al., if she hadn’t be breaking the law (in the case, disobeying the lawful order of a police officer), there would have been no incident. It would also have helped for here to not be an insufferable brat, either.
But context matters. At least, it should. But to the Outrage Brigade on the Internet, once again, it does not.
