McKinney Officer in Brawl Video Resigns
Officer Eric Casebolt’s attorney to elaborate tomorrow on reasons for resignation
Not many details on this yet but it appears that McKinney police officer Eric Casebolt has resigned from the police department, as reported by ABC news and others sources.
Casebolt’s resignation was confirmed Tuesday by attorney Jane Bishkin, who told WFAA that the decision was made after a meeting with the department’s internal affairs unit to review possible charges he could face.
Officer Casebolt came to public attention, of course, through his efforts to lawfully control a violent mob that invaded the quiet Texas community of McKinney this past Friday. While controlling a non-compliant suspect Casebolt was charged by two males, at which point he drew his service pistol. His assaulters fled upon seeing the drawn weapon and no shots were fired.
For a detailed analysis of those events, see “Video Analysis: McKinney Brawl Another Rush to Misjudgment?”
The same ABC news source also reports that:
Casebolt has not made any public statements since Friday’s incident. His lawyer said he has been in hiding with his wife and family at an undisclosed location after they allegedly received death threats. (emphasis added)
Fox4News.com | Dallas-Fort Worth News, Weather, Sports
Casebolt’s attorney has indicated that that they will release more information about his resignation at a news conference tomorrow afternoon. Maybe we’ll learn more then.
Things should get interesting when we’ve finally discouraged everybody from a being a police officer.
–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
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Comments
Here come the Federal Civil Rights lawsuits!
Why would anyone want to be a policeman? The thugs lie and the media repeat the lies.
LEOs stay on the job for the same reasons military personnel haven’t resigned even in the case of a leftist America-Hating SOB in the White House.
This too shall pass and, in 591 days as of today, Obama will be obligated to step down (in disgrace) making Jimmy Carter the 2nd worst president in living memory.
Thank G_d we have a two term limit for the office of president.
Don’t thank divine intervention, give credit where it’s due—to the Republicans who controlled the 80th Congress, and the 37 states which ratified their 22nd Amendment over the next four years.
You said: “This too shall pass and, in 591 days as of today, Obama will be obligated to step down”
Don’t count on it. The way things are going, he could declare martial law, crown himself dictator, and the Congressional leadership will be right there cheering him on.
“How dare the hoi polloi think that they could speak against their betters!”
The TCTH ios an interestiong place. Lot’s of good stuff happens there. But there is also a segments that starts buying into their nastiest tinfoil hat theories. you would fit in that group.
Oh, rubbish. You can’t possibly actually believe that. This is exactly the same paranoid nonsense that people were saying about Bush 8 years ago. There aren’t a lot of certainties in this world, but one is that as of 12:01pm on 20-Jan-2017, Barack 0bama will not be president.
Nah. Putting aside the question of whether Obama is that far gone, him and what army? He’s done a good job of crippling ours, not of getting it to support him.
Though it would be fun to watch him be frog marched out by his own Marine Guard, that was actually armed with more than an umbrella for once.
Oh, please. Obama will pass up the opportunity to make 100’s of millions while traveling around the world and being treated like an elder statesman? All the golf he wants too?
Obama has watched the Bill Clinton and Al Gore do very well in retirement. He isn’t going to pass that up just to try to stay in the White House.
More likely than not, he will step down. But if he chooses to declare a state of emergency and suspend both the election and the constitution, there will likely be little consequence. The media and the rest of the clerisy will side with him. Courts may rule otherwise, but judges can be arrested. The tragedy is that the clerisy no longer believes in either the American idea or in the rule of law. To them, it’s just a question of winning.
LOL, for that he would actually need the support of the military below the level of guys with stars on their collars, which he decidedly doesn’t have. He would be frog marched out of the white house by the Marines. So I invite him to try it.
He can’t cancel the election, or suspend the constitution. These things simply aren’t in his physical capacity. Suppose he were to announce that he was doing these things? Who would pay any attention? At most, D-controlled states and counties wouldn’t hold elections, and D voters would stay home; if so, wonderful! R-controlled states and counties would hold elections as usual, R voters would turn out, the Electors would meet and send their votes to Congress, which would open them and declare the winner by a landslide, and at noon on 20-Jan-2017 there would be a new R president. If for no other reason, that is why he won’t try such a stupid stunt.
Though it does make an interesting thought exercise to wonder if the R President would actually have the intestinal fortitude to actually have him charged with treason if he did try it.
How sad. And how dangerous for the nation.
Although he did the right thing he did it at the wrong time. He should have waited until this was settled and then resigned. Now the onus will be on every white cop to immediately resign after any future incidents with unruly black teens. I think this will send a wake up call to more white cops that their actions against blacks will get them indicted even if lawful. It is obvious that they are in a no win situation.
I would leave to, after the way the national news and leftist freaks have treated him. There is no way he can have peace of mind that his family is safe from harm.
He should sue the people who published his address for invasion of privacy and solicitation for murder.
There were eleven other police officers there. None of them were swearing at the kids, going off their heads screaming at them to “SIT! STAY!” as though they were dogs, or manhandling half-naked 15-year-old girls.
Those eleven, are fine.
Losing this one hot head jerk, might not actually be that much of a loss.
You were there? or are you just repeating what you heard on CNN or saw on edited video?
“If you watch the video, you will see a group of kids being told by a cop, politely, not to run when the police tell them to stop, and behave. The kid taking the video felt comfortable enough to return the officer’s dropped flashlight.
“Then Sarge comes on camera. Sarge is pulling people to the ground and walks over to the kids having the polite conversation and orders them to the ground, cursing at them. Sarge is aggressive, shouting at people and ordering randomly selected people to the ground and cursing at people.
“But it’s not quite random – the white boy with the video is flatly ignored, and everyone Sarge orders to the ground is black and almost all of them are male. He doesn’t attempt to confirm where they live, telling residents to go home. He doesn’t order the white kids in the mob to leave. He only orders the black boys to the ground.”
http://jasonboisvert.blogspot.com/2015/06/mckinney-pool-party.html
“Casebolt was seen pulling Dajerria Becton to the ground and pinning her with his knees while she cried out. He also pulled out his gun and pointed it at other teens and briefly ran after them before being stopped by two fellow McKinney police officers. Throughout the video Casebolt is heard repeatedly cursing.”
Ya know, it’s fascinating that anyone could insert so many lies and smears in such a short paragraph. And THAT is from a FOX outlet.
I must have missed the part where the other 2 cops stopped him. They ran by him and told him he could stay with the girl on the ground.
In other words, McKinney PD is run by a bunch of cowardly, politically correct chickenshits. Casebolt may as well have been working for di Blasio or that Batts bastard in Baltimore.
Casebolt shouldn’t have caved. He should have made them work for it.
McKinney PD just declared open season on the homeowners in that development.
Goddamn fucking cowards.
The Chief of Police couldn’t wait to pile on. I have to wonder how the other officers in his department feel about his leadership abilities after caving so fast to the perpetually aggrieved.
You nailed it!
The cops now know who’s side the Police Chief is on and you will soon see a exodus of offices who will seek out a department that will support them or move on to more lucrative security jobs!
I hope the entire department bails on that sonofabitch faster than rats fleeing a sinking ship and the entire population descends on him/her at the police department and drags him out of there by his neck and throws him out the door head first.
They should all refuse to answer calls in black areas. I’d keep drawing a paycheck as long as possible, but refuse to do any work I could get away with not doing.
They should quit answering all calls. That’ll wake the town up to this miserable excuse for a chief and their IA department. Get rid of them by the end of the week.
How they feel about it is that those who aren’t on shift right now are online looking for openings in better departments and looking at real estate ads to get an idea of how much they can sell their homes for when they move to another job.
And maybe he quit, before he could be tested for drugs. like roids.
Little man. Needs to take steroids to feel bigger. Roid rage. Seen it before.
Frothing asshole. Needs to smear others with unsupportable BS to feel bigger. Ronulan nutball. Seen it before. From this same idiot.
Isn’t this your normal time for kicking your dog? Yet you are here.
so you were there?
the people that actually live there negate your lies.
Hit the road, jackass.
I’m guessing the higher-ups in his department / town / county are leftists loonies and did NOT have his back. Perhaps he’s just being smart and getting the F outta dodge.
If YOU were DOING YOUR JOB as a police officer and had to put up with these LUNATIC lying #BlackLivesMatter PAID ACTIVISTS… and YOUR boss did not support your efforts….why would you stay?
Betcha there’s more to the story.
#PoliceLivesMatter
the media spin and LIES on this story is ABSOLUTELY maddening
And how about that Danger Roll he did. Whoooooo boy! Hes been practicing that one for MONTHS. Two of the kids he treated like dogs, and tried the SIT! STAY! on, were kids who were returning the gear off his belt, that he lost doing that fancy dancy rooooolllllll, to one of his fellow officers. Who didnt feel the nead to beat up ANYone.
Maybe Casebutt, was feeling ssssmmmmmaaaaaaallll, thats why he had to do that to that little girl. Feel like a Big Man again! Knees in that little girls naked back, pullin her hair, feel BIG!
When having trouble adjusting to medications, one should not drive, operate heavy machinery, or post Internet comments.
Miller may well be an example of posting while drunk and stupid.
Just stupid, no alcohol required!
I’d like to see YOU do a Danger Roll. I bet you can’t.
I am much better at Jelly rolls, lol.
“He tells the girl to leave, so she leaves and he walks away. But for some reason, the way she’s leaving is unsatisfactory to him, so he runs after her, grabs her and throws her to the ground. I’m not going to say he went out of his way to make sure she made contact with the sidewalk instead of the grass, but he sure didn’t seem to go out of his way to prevent it. Then, after forcing her to sit, there’s apparently something about the way she’s sitting that is unsatisfactory, so first he screams “sit your ass down!” at her despite her having made no attempt not to continue sitting, and then, her failure to comply with his command to sit in a sufficiently submissive manner causes him to see an urgent need, perceptible apparently only to him, to lay hands on her some more–a lot more-wrestle with her, exert dominance and control over her.
“It’s clear that there was some reason the asshole had picked her out of the crowd as someone to pay attention to, such that her continuing to talk got his attention from a distance the way no one else’s talking had. And it’s clear that there was some reason he felt the need to lay hands on her over and over again, pull her hair and force her into submission despite the fact that she was complying with his orders.
“And it is perfectly goddamn clear to anyone who watches the video what that reason was and what it was about her that caused him to at least subconciously tag her for special attention!
“That’s what makes those of us who feel ill watching it feel so ill. And yet, none of us want to discuss it because, gosh, it just seems over the line and over the top to suggest it, or accuse this guy of . . . um . . . gulp . . .”
http://forums.talkingpointsmemo.com/t/discussion-a-tale-of-two-mckinney-cops-from-a-former-police-officer/22432/30
Breaking news: Officer Eric Casebolt is reported to have just resigned.
After his family received death threats.
I can’t say as I blame him for it in this liberal shark feeding frenzy.
They may have been alleged threats, still if that were true, could you blame this guy for protecting his family? Who knows what is going on behind the scenes? We are certainly not seeing the images of residents supporting the police. Things should get interesting when we’ve finally discouraged everybody from a being a police officer. Indeed.
I’ve read the tweets. There are definitely threats against him and his family.
How much do you want to bet that the Department of Justice investigates those people? I’d put it somewhere between slim and none. Then you realize the people threatening his family are black. The chance the DOJ investigates the threats now? None.
Threats against Casebolt are being FB’d and tweeted all over. A commie website posted his address and the place of employment of the woman the blacks girls attacked.
They’re not “alleged.” They’re real. Remember the threats against George Zimmerman? You know there’s a guy in jail awaiting trial for assaulting him with a gun, right? You know there’s a bounty out for Darren Wilson, right?
“Alleged”?
Doesn’t seem to be alleged anymore…
The headline here, is “McKinney Officer in Brawl Video Resigns.” How is YOUR news, “breaking” ?
Hey, I recognize the Miller:
“The pilgrims applaud the Knight’s Tale, and the pleased Host asks the Monk to match it. Before the Monk can utter a word, however, the Miller interrupts. Drunk and belligerent, he promises that he has a “noble” tale that will repay the Knight’s. The Host tries to persuade the Miller to let some “bettre” man tell the next tale. When the Miller threatens to leave, however, the Host acquiesces. After, the Miller reminds everyone that he is drunk and therefore shouldn’t be held accountable for anything he says.”
Yeah. Our “Miller.” Drunk and belligerent.
T’were no rednecks of Canterbury, but, aye, drunks aplenty.
Chicago comes to CraigsRanch, TX. Race riots, race hustling, race pimping ensues.
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/06/09/the-facts-behind-the-mckinney-pool-fiasco-part-ii/#more-102081
Imagine the poor people trying to sell their homes in Craigs Ranch. The value of their property just went down 20%
That “death threats” excuse is turning into the modern version of “has resigned in order to spend more time with his family”.
By some accounts, people in the neighborhood have also been threatened and more.
So “excuse” seems like the wrong term.
Take a turn in the hot seat, then you can shoot your mouth off.
“Things should get interesting when we’ve finally discouraged everybody from a being a police officer.”
This is the most important line in the post, IMO. Law enforcement agencies are already finding it EXTREMELY difficult to attract qualified applicants. It’s certainly not getting any better. I would not want to be living in any major metropolitan area in the near future.
Correct. Some municipalities are actually hiring NON-citizens.
Um, when have they ever not hired qualified aliens? And why would they not hire them? Since when has citizenship been a requirement for being a policeman, anywhere in America? If aliens are good enough for the army (which they always have been), why not the police?
Casebolt was running around like the energizer bunny with lithium in his batteries instead of his medications.
I’ll bet a donut to your nickel that this guy was already on somebody’s short list for termination.
MSO: Guess what? Mr. “I’ll bet a donut to your nickel that this guy was already on somebody’s short list for termination.”?
You are probably right, but for the wrong reason. He probably displayed those awful traits of competency and integrity at the wrong time. His craven chief noting this, marked him for termination because incompetent authority figures dispise competent subordinates. The lowest level of Hell is reserved for mutineers and cowards. He was loyal to his duty, to his community, and his job. The cowards above him have probably indicated that they will hang him out to dry. Resigning releases him from being under their orders to submit to that indignity.
“Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post.” Colonel Jessup screwed up in the matter of Private Santiago. Police officers have a dangerous job. Those teens were not interested in reason or behaving properly. Officer Casebolt was right to worry that either the pack of girls and the approaching men could have initiated actions which would have left him dead.
You are quoting from a fictional movie, about armed military forces, in a war against the enemy.
Maybe that is the problem with some of our out of control cops. They fancy that they are military men, in a war, with the private citizens of this country as their enemies, instead of as their bosses, as the people they are meant to PROTECT and SERVE. NOT DEFEAT.
Gawd, I hope assholes like you need a cop someday to save you or your kid and there are either none available or else none willing to help. You’ll be crying for an officer Casebolt about then, finally realizing the fullness of your gross stupidity.
The other 11 officers were just fine. It was only Casebutt who is a bad unit.
I was unable to form any opinion on the racial motivation or lack thereof as a basis for the officer’s actions.
What I did see is an officer who appeared to physically manhandle a young female without evident reason, and the subsequently draw his service weapon and then point it in the direction of three unarmed and fleeing youths.
At no time did there appear to be any threat to the officer’s life or well-being (even from disparity of force). I believe his resort to his weapon was an excessive and potentially dangerous escalation, and could easily have had a tragic outcome.
Would non-compliance and physical resistance to a lawful order be a good reason?
You must be new here. Go back to the other articles posted about this situation, then try again.
You are taking a snapshot of the event (a snapshot that has been tainted by the main stream media, no less), and you are basing your judgement on that. There is so much more to this incident than a piece of the video.
“subsequently draw his service weapon and then point it in the direction of three unarmed and fleeing youths.”
Correction: Drew his firearm and pointed it at youths who were charging him, who upon seeing the weapon pointed at them suddenly backed off.
Also of note: He holstered his weapon once it was clear that they were fleeing and no longer a threat, the complete opposite of what topnife claims here. Do you work for MSNBC by any chance?
He never actually pointed it at the young men. He drew his weapon but the muzzle was never pointed at a single person in that crowd. Not one life was ever threatened by his actions.
I have a bad feeling, a very 1968 feeling, that America is going to burn soon.
And I have a feeling it’s not going to go well for those doing the burning.
Woah – lots of trolling going on here……
I keep going back to the thought of what happened to Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson……..where is he now? What is he able to do to make a living now?
Anarchy will reign if we can’t get this trend stopped.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Casebolt resigned for the same reason that Darren Wilson did – out of fear for his family.
Andrew, your final sentence is where we’re headed. The quantity and q
continuing… quality of police officers and policing will decline. The quality of our citizenry, if there is such a thing, seems to be a leading indicator.
I rather expect that much of the country will find it’s no pleasure to have a police department manned by people of the same dubious quality as the police officers of, say, New Orleans, the District of Columbia, or Detroit (the last of which had two uniformed officers picked up for daylight ARMED ROBBERY while WEARING THEIR UNIFORMS). 🙂
Once prospective LEO candidates realize they’ll be reduced to human land mines, disposable the moment they come into contact with a non-compliant suspect, I imagine they’ll find other vocations to pursue.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
11 cops didn’t see a need to throw people to ground, curse at them, or detain large numbers of them. 1 cop decided to do all that.
How is that 1 cop *not* the kind of low-quality cop you’re talking about?
It’s also disturbing that so many people here seem to ignore that the other 11 cops did not see his actions as necessary. Everyone just assumes that the mayor and the police chief made an unjustified decision, without regard to the fact that not only did the other 11 officers not feel it necessary, but that Casebolt felt justified in interrupting other cops to arrest the people they were dealing with.
Casebolt not only aggressed the crowd, but he even indirectly aggressed the other officers.
You are simply lying. But you’ve done that here before.
Guardian versus Warrior: A Former Cop On What Went Wrong In McKinney
“A short video of officers in McKinney, Texas, shows us the avoidable results of an unnecessarily aggressive approach to policing. But in the same video, we can see a few seconds of policing the way the way it should be done.”
Casebutt was the only bad unit there.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/two-mckinney-cops-former-police-officer-guardian-warrior
After the speeches that Nutless wonder 1 and 2 (read mayor and police chief) gave, no wonder he resigned. Now they can’t scapegoat him further.
Those Black kids will be back! The Homeowner’s Association will need to put up better fences.
I say, make it a gated community – with security guards and electric fences, to prevent thugs from climbing in. It’s the least the HOA can do for its residents.
Believe me, this they had to do in Puerto Rico, where I’m from. Drug-related violence escalated in such a way that people at many residential developments felt unsafe in their own homes. (When you have to put bars on your windows and make your front door like an iron gate, you know things are that bad.) Many of these residents began to hire security and building walls, gates and fences around their developments to keep the rabble out. Anyone who moves into houses inside those gated communities can breathe easier than those who don’t. That is, if you can afford it.
That has not happened without controversy, though. A few groups have gone to court to gain access to those places. The best known have been the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who want to go into any community, gated or not.
The residents of McKinney better start putting up walls, gates and fences around their communities. If you can’t trust the police, you can only trust yourselves. Get walled, get protected, and get armed. TX has the Castle Doctrine and Concealed and Open Carry, after all.
The subdivision where this incident occurred is nice and well kept but modest. I doubt if these people can afford gates and iron fences, and so on. But they can afford guns, ammo and range time. I urge them to do that. This chief and his administration will not lift a finger to help them. The invaders, emboldened by the media and race mongers, think they are in the right, and they will come back to that subdivision with nothing but violent intentions. Those folks should lock and load NOW.
Sadly, you are probably right in your vision of what is coming for them.
Raising kids w/o spanking their behinds with a yard stick when they dangerously rebel is one of main reasons we are in this mess. The cops now have to fill the role of disciplinarian and set the boundaries that should have been set at home by TWO parents.
I juist hope he is resigning for his own rreasons, and not because IA is threatening him.
He did the right thing in resigning. Not being there and not being a cop, but his actions were really bad optics. Looking at it I can see why he pulled his gun. The other two people looked like they were about to pull a weapon and Casebolt reacted as if he thought they did. But unfortunately the way it looks is bad. The chief said what he had to and he praised the other officers who were there. All in all this was not a case of bad cops attacking minorities so time for the race baiters to let it go.
With animals and barbarians threatening his family for doing his job, it’s no wonder he resigned. Why stay with a Department that rushes to please the mob by suspending you, making you look guilty of something, without even bothering to get the available evidence including the rest of the video footage?
– –
The worst thing is the number of self-described conservatives and libertarians, pundits, bloggers, and commenters alike, who rushed to accept the judgment of the criminal trespassers against the man who puts his life on the line for the public every freaking day.
Shame on you. Shame on you all who did that, and have not yet apologized for it. You are without honor.
I’d like to address the law abiding and civilized citizens of McKinney, TX and pose this question:
Your mayor and Chief of Police (who is selected and serves at the pleasure of the mayor) has just handed over the city to its lowest common denominator. What are YOU going to do about it?
The mayor stated in his press conference that he had heard from multiple residential sources regarding
the incident in one of your communities, an incident grossly misrepresented in the media and garnering
attention from the usual grievance mongers, and that he “listened”. Apparently his hearing is selective.
Perhaps he chose to listen to the demonstrator who threatened ISIS-like retaliation if the police officer was not adequately punished. Perhaps your mayor was alerted to an impending visit from Al Sharpten and his traveling wild simian rodeo. Maybe the mayor received a call from the DOJ/ Loretta Lynch.
American cities, professional law enforcement and social order are presently under assault by the racial anarchists. Like a plague of locusts, they have been swarming. Your elected leaders and their appointees who cower and cave to hordes of miscreants are not serving you or defending your right to safe and peaceful communities. So again I ask. What are YOU going to do about it?
That’s an excellent question. The first thing the citizens should do is quit paying these cowardly bastards. Then they’ll just leave, just as they forced Casebolt to do.
As a retired LEO, I’ve got sympathy, but he had to go. He was out of control after the fall/roll and ironically the only almost justifiable action was pulling his piece on those two guys. Everything else up to then, though, was him escalating the situation. Yeah, you’ve got non-compliant subjects, but they’re what we call “passive resistant,” just not following verbal commands. You’re ALLOWED to make them comply, but you don’t HAVE to and when you’re outnumbered 20 to 1, by definition you have no control so you might want to factor that into your decision. Once he grabs the girl, she she goes “active resistant,” not striking him, but requiring use of force to control and his full attention. Once somebody’s actively resisting like she is, the officer’s options narrow way down. He basically has to put her in cuffs.
Then he gets rushed and pulls his gun on the two guys. I’ve been there. I might have done the same. Probably would have. Especially if I just lost my pepper spray or baton falling down a minute ago. He holstered up as soon as they turned around. Before that though, he was trying to get control of an out of control situation and only made it worse with the swearing and the verbal commands directed everywhere. FWIW, he didn’t use excessive force to get the girl to comply with his verbal commands, so in a just world, a civil rights suit would go nowhere. Don’t know that we live in that world.
My thoughts almost to the letter:
http://jasonboisvert.blogspot.com/2015/06/mckinney-pool-party.html
LOL! First you condemn him by saying he had to go, then you go on to explain what you saw on video, which was a small portion of the encounter, with none of your take on the video justifying “he had to go.” I’m retired LE, too. I’m glad I didn’t have to work alongside your reasoning and loyalty skill set.
Wow, tough competition this year for the Kerlikowske Award, given to the police chief most likely to stand and watch citizens being murdered.
Current contenders are the Los Angeles Police Commission, McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley, and Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts. We have a long hot summer ahead of us and another 6 months for contenders to put that extra effort out to ensure that police stand down when citizens are under threat. I personally believe that Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole will step her game up and become a real contender soon.
Hey now lets not forget the whomever is the commanding general of the Chicago battle zon…….I mean whomever is the police chief of the fine city of Chicago.
To be a true contender, the commander must actually order the officers to stand down in the face of violence. So incompetence doesn’t really rise to the Kerlikowske level. I asked the judges, this was their decision.
Must add: “citizens *and police officers* being murdered”
Honors for that also include NYC Mayor DeBlasio, Baltimore Councilman Mosby, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and of course, Holder and Obama.
I had left out Gov. Nixon’s holding back the National Guard since he wasn’t really a police commander. However, Nixon’s appointment of Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson and Johnson’s approach to violence by the rioters (let them alone) would certainly qualify for the award.
An Officer’s conduct can be lawful and still violate a police department’s training standards or policy. That appears to be the reason why this man is now gone — at least according to his Chief.
In the video the Officer seems to be acting more aggressively than the other Officers. The Chief said the had 12 Officers respond and 11 acted appropriately.
I have heard this from another LEO. What I don’t understand is that one of the local resident witnesses, Bryan Gestner, emphatically defended the actions of Casebolt, and in fact commended him. Seems to be a really polarized story, even in the LEO community.
Was Gestner the grossly obese middle age white guy in the tan shirt who was standing by creepily, like he really really REALLY wished he TOO could put his hands on that half-naked 15 year old girl?
I suppose you could be right, although I doubt there’s any rule that says all police must act the same way. His experience was not the same as the others’.
Casebolt seemed to be trying to herd cats all on his own. Maybe more coordination with the other officers was needed. I’m not saying it was his fault, or the other officers’ fault, necessarily.
It did seem just that way. I wondered if it was because he was the senior officer at the scene. Now I wonder if it was because all the other officers had gotten the message from their Chief that such a disturbance was to be left alone.
The idea of having cameras strapped to police officers had me on the fence for a while. Now I seem very much in favor of having GoPro like cameras linked WiFi to municipal Cloud Farms.
The Police unions & municipalities should be able to preemptively release what police officers see during these violent and potentially violent episodes.
The public should see the idiots that the police deal with every day prior to an edited youtube video released by those that wish to incite violence and racial strife.
If a video were constantly playing of what Cpl. Officer Eric Casebolt saw as he looked up from his blind spot as he was rushed by two or more male teens from the near riot crowd people might be able to empathize with the hardship & danger of being a police officer.
Not only that, but then we would have had an idea what went on the entire time he responded to this event, not just 7 minutes and 20 seconds.
Why does it say 86 comments, but I only see 7?
Well, making that comment somehow brought me to page one of the comment section, but I still have no idea how else to get there.
Something about the current layout makes earlier comments unreachable unless you comment. Hopefully they will fix it soon.
For direct access to older comments, use /comment-page-nn after the main url for the article.
Here’s the link to the earlier comments.
Jumping up and down!
Jumping up and down!
Jumping up and down!
Over here over here
Over here over here
Over here over here
Sorry to interupt your Texas news with Baltimore news.
I wake up this morning and check the news before I make breakfast:
rather then tell you myself I’ll just point to the Baltimore Sun. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-mosby-email-20150609-story.html#page=1
Apparently the defense has found a game changing email Mosby sent out
The case doesn’t completely go away but it would seem to change a lot of things.
Well THAT certainly explains why she had her own office Keystone Cops investigating instead the Baltimore PD. She set up the cause and effect. She’s out now since she will be a witness in her own office’s case as will be her investigators.
Can they nail Mosby on not handing over that email immediately as exculpatory evidence, or have things not reached that stage?
That makes Mosby the seventh suspect.
I don’t see how the email changes anything. We already knew it was a high-crime area. All this shows is that Mosby’s office also knew it, and maybe (depending how you read it) that she personally knew it. But she hasn’t denied it, and it’s so easy to prove that there’s no way she was going to deny it, so how does proving that she knew it change anything?
Really it’s not clear what her case is, which is why I agree with buzzsawmonkey that she has no intention of getting a conviction.
The area is indeed a high crime area, but it turns out that it is not a higher crime area than most of Baltimore. What is different is that the other high crime areas aren’t the district that her husband represents. It may be just a coincidence that she issued an order for more aggressive police action in hubbie’s district, but no order of that sort had ever been issued before.
There are enough ethics and conflict of interest questions here that at the least she should recuse herself … provided she knows about that procedure. Prior to being given this job she had no experience outside law school.
I call this the “Lone Survivor Effect”. In the book and movie, “Lone Survivor” navy Seals capture some Taliban goat herders and they are faced with a dilemma. Do they kill them or set them free. It turns out they set the goat herders freebased o a fear. The fear was not of the Taliban, of death or anything you would normally expect, rather their fear was of the media and the circus that would ensue should their act of killing the goat herders become known. It seems that the “new” media of today relishes nothing more than destroying lives and families over sins, both real and imaginary. It seems that the press in no longer content to report the news, now they must also create the news and, worse yet, is that they have an agenda.
” It turns out they set the goat herders freebased o a fear”
Or, maybe, some of them were not up to murdering a bunch of goat herders, at the risk of their own safety. They had know way to know who these people were or what they would do upon release. They risked their own lives and ultimately gave their lives to protect the possibility the goat herders were innocents. I think you leave a bit out and sale the Seals a bit short.
If his fellow McKinney officers had any integrity, they’d resign with Casebolt. But they don’t.
Why should they? They managed to keep control of themselves, and do the right thing. Why resign just because they had an out of control hothead in their midst?
We don’t know enough to say that.
Civilized people do not create situations which require police intervention to maintain law and order.
Just sayin’~
11 officers did not see a need to act aggressively. In fact, Casebolt interrupts another officer’s handling of several kids to force a few of them to the ground.
Drawing his weapon may have been justified, but *no other officials* believe the rest of it was. Why are so many people lining up to defend this one cop, when to do so they would have to attack the other 11?
Not every encounter is Wilson v. Brown. Sometimes the cop *is* wrong.
http://jasonboisvert.blogspot.com/2015/06/mckinney-pool-party.html
With all respect due to Andrew Branca (and the caveat that I have zero legal or law enforcement experience), that (your comments here, and post at your own blog) is how I saw the situation as well.
The other officers we see in the videos treat everyone on scene with respect. (Hell, even the kid who was chased down and arrested says that the officers who took him into custody behaved professionally and goes out of his way to explain that they were not responsible for the minor injury he sustained.)
I saw another article from a former LEO that expresses the same law enforcement philosophy and critique of former officer Casebolt’s actions that day: A Former Cop On What Went Wrong In McKinney
That is far too broad of a statement for my liking as it implies that all laws are just and that people should just do whatever the cops and laws demand of them.
Thank goodness the founding fathers didn’t listen to your advice.
How does it imply all laws are just?
Let’s put it another way: if you consider a law “unjust,” does that give you the moral authority to engage in resistance that’s violent?
Are you seriously suggesting that violence should be the first response to unjust laws?
There may be a time and place for armed resistance, but not as a first resort. That way leads to madness.
I don’t think Cpl. Casebolt did anything unlawful, but it seemed like he was trying to herd cats. To put it another way, it was like he kept running his pattern during a broken play.
I just wish everyone who wants to go after Casebolt would take into account that he was the first on the scene and had already done the majority of the work to bring the situation under control. The other officers show up to a completely different circumstance than Casebolt.
I am tired of the arm chair, hindsight, quarter backing coming from people who know nothing about law enforcement. Is it possible that he had good reason to be frustrated and agitated, could those people that he forced down have already been told to sit down or disperse and the other officers were unaware of what had transpired prior to their arrival. This officer was called to the scene to control a violent crowd and he did it ALONE!
Some day you will need a cop and if this garbage keeps up you will be on your own. Good luck!
Surely you’ve read about Benet Embry, the (black) radio host who soon after the pool party posted a don’t-blame-the-police explanation on his Facebook page. Of course his job, if not his life, is now in danger.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/08/activists-want-black-host-who-blamed-teens-for-mckinney-pool-fight-fired/
Older stories have more detail about his original posts and interviews.
A Miami Dade county high school principal lost his job today. Seems he left a comment on the Miami Herald online comment section in support of the police officer. You see, by expressing support for law and order, the district school board determined that the school principal showed a lack of sensitivity. So he’s outta there.
Isn’t that a clear violation of Free Speech protection? The government (ie, the School Board) has no right to infringe upon the principal’s off-the-job speech.
Things should get interesting when we’ve finally discouraged everybody from a being a police officer.
–-Andrew
Living in Maryland and having 3 police officers in my immediate family, I’m watching them keenly to see how they are doing with the current anti-police ‘climate.’
In Baltimore it seems like the main reaction to the persecution of police is that now nobody is pro-active and they are all doing things “by the book.” When there’s a murder called in they proceed at all speed to go buy chalk, and then get to the scene just in time to draw the outline.