I just watched the video of a Texas police officer violently detaining a teenage girl and I'm a ball of emotions. While it was tough to watch, unfortunately, I can't say that I am surprised. Situations like this will continue to happen as long as a large portion of our society refuse to acknowledge just how problematic the negative perceptions of the black community is. I am bracing myself as I know very soon we will start to hear justifications for the officer's actions. Social media will undoubtedly be filled with people explaining that the way the teenage girl was treated was somehow justified because she didn't "obey the officer." While I hope that videos like this would show that we have a huge problem with law enforcements approach to the black community, I won't be surprised to hear people point the to the teenagers. Every teenager told to "sit their asses down" were black. The crowd of teenagers appeared mixed, but somehow, the black teens were the ones to get caught. The toughest part of the video was watching the officer slang the teenage girl around and force her face to the ground. As if his force wasn't enough, The officer proceeded to put his knee in the teenage girls back and tell her that her reaction to his treatment would make him arrest her. The entire time this is happening, men are standing around watching and doing absolutely nothing. None of the other officers or men not in uniform seemed to be alarmed by the officers treatment. This video is sickening. Check it out for yourself and let me know your thoughts.
If this doesn't prove that we have a huge problem and that our law enforcement is in need of some serious tracking, I don't know what will.
Randall Keith