The lawyer for a McKinney, Texas, police officer who has
become the country’s latest exemplification of bad cop behavior on Wednesday
blamed her client’s aggressive actions on emotional stress.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few of these loose cannons in
the police force. They lie, they steal,
they file false charges, and they violate people’s civil rights all the
time. The majority of the police are
made of people of Irish and Italian decent;
many of them are known as white trash or the high school bully. The Italians are known to lie and steal all
the time.
It is therefore not surprising to see them also killing
people by shooting them at their back or to beat people senseless, hoping that
will get away with it. And in the past,
they have been able to get away with it, as there was no recording of the
incident. Only in the last years with
the widespread availability of cell phones and other video recording devices
have we been able to see the illegal or reckless behavior of these people.
Also, many trained killers that returned from military wars
become cops. Most of them are aggressive
thugs who would shoot to kill and would lie about it later. They would blame their PTSD, or bad marriage
or lack thereof, pretty much the same way this Texas cop is doing. So many people have been killed by former
soldiers that should be raising red-red-red flags; nothing is being done, though, as these are “our
heros”. Pretty pathetic and very
dangerous behavior.
Cameras worn by these cops will help protect the public, as
we now know that they are afraid of the recordings. The other day we were testifying in court about
a case and we took a video and picture of the courtroom. Immediately the sheriff’s deputies came
towards us and start asking questions as to what we were taking pictures
of. They were nervous, as most of the
time these people do nothing but talk to each other about sports and food and
other stuff. Times are changing.
Cpl. Eric Casebolt was captured on video Friday evening
wrestling a teenage girl to the ground and pointing his gun at two other teens
while answering a disturbance call at an unruly party at a neighborhood pool in
suburban Dallas.
“He never intended to mistreat anyone,” his attorney, Jane
Bishkin, said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference. “He apologizes to all
who were offended.”
Bishkin said Casebolt had worked one suicide and one
attempted suicide in the hour prior to being dispatched to the pool party that
reportedly involved teens fighting.
“The nature of these two suicide calls took an emotional
toll on Eric Casebolt,” Bishkin said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
Cellphone
video of Casebolt responding to the pool incident was published Saturday
and immediately went viral. By Sunday, Casebolt, a 10-year veteran, was
suspended and put under investigation. On the video, teens are seen scrambling
as police arrive on the scene in the upper-middle-class neighborhood.
Casebolt, who resigned Tuesday, did not attend the news
conference.
Daniel Malenfant, president of the McKinney Fraternal Order
of Police, said Casebolt has been receiving daily telephone and email death
threats.
“He's worried for his family,” Bishkin said. “He's worried
that he may be followed.”
On the video, Casebolt, who is white, curses at mainly black
youths and shouts for them to sit on the ground. As an argument with a
bikini-clad girl escalates, the officer can be heard yelling, “On your face,”
as he pushes the girl to the ground. When two teenage boys rush up to where
Casebolt has the girl pinned to the ground, the officer draws his gun and
briefly chases them.
“He was only reacting to the situation and the challenges
that it presented,” Bishkin said.
Casebolt, the city’s patrolman of the year in 2008, was
reluctant to even go to the pool disturbance, but “felt it was his duty to
respond” once the call escalated to reports of violence.
“He believed that those who fled were possible suspects,”
Bishkin said. “He was not targeting minorities. In fact, he also detained a
white female.”
But in hindsight, Bishkin said, Casebolt acknowledges that
he let his emotions get the better of him.
Bishkin said Casebolt was working the evening shift and
started work at 6 p.m., about 1 hour and 15 minutes before officers were called
to the Craig Ranch subdivision neighborhood pool.
His first call of the night was to a suicide where a father
had shot and killed himself poolside at an apartment complex in front of his
family and others, Bishkin said.
“Eric assisted them in securing the scene, photographing the
body and collecting statements,” said Bishkin, noting that the deceased was
black.
“Eric also spent a considerable amount of time consoling the
man’s grieving widow.” (yeah, we all know what he is up to).
On his next call, Bishkin said Casebolt helped successfully
talk a suicidal teenage girl down from her parents’ roof.
“Eric’s compassion during these two incidents are a
testament to his character,” Bishkin said. “While police work is often
dangerous, it is fraught with emotions and family tragedy.” But if this is the case, why then he is on
call? He should have taken the day or
week off, or find some other work to do.
Asked by a reporter if any other officers had been on the
suicide calls and at the pool melee like Casebolt, Bishkin declined to answer. Of course he will refuse to answer, as other
officers cope with these events as well – they just simply do not go and attack
other people.
“Because there's still an active investigation by the
McKinney Police Department, we think it's inappropriate to comment as much as
we'd like to,” she said.
Social media has been a hot spot of debate regarding the
case, with a number of people saying Casebolt’s resignation isn’t enough.
City of McKinney spokeswoman Anna Clark said late Wednesday
that the case remains under investigation.
“We won’t have details on charges until it’s complete,”
Clark wrote in an email to Yahoo News. “We are investigating all allegations of
criminal activity involving this incident.”
Bishkin said Casebolt has received little information about
the investigation.
“It is his hope that by his resignation the community may
start to heal,” Bishkin said.
In a nutshell, having trained killers on the streets is very
dangerous and unfortunately has cost the life of many people over the years. We need to de-militarize the police. Just ship them back to Iraq to finish what
they started.
Source:associatedpress.com