Here We Go Again

Quote: darkoz

Having grown up in the ghetto and knowing people who have spent time in prison, you definitely make eye contact with persons that may rip you to shreds. You have to let them think you may be ready for a scrap even if you know you are bluffing.

It's the ones who avoid eye contact who are usually victimized first.

I thought making eye contact or staring in someones face in the joint meant you planned on doing them harm or were going to have sex?

When I was in California, I couldn't get anyone to make eye contact? At the time I looked a bit like Charles Manson with 19" biceps?

I don't know the prison code, just making that part up from watching it on the discovery channel. I know it is no place for me.

I wasn't raised in a ghetto but have lived in some and worked for short stints there. [Ghetto as much as can happen in Washington state or Oregon] Went to a trade school on Union ave. in Portland if anyone knows where that is. I got along very well, unless others were doing hard drugs.

Quote: kewlj

His supervisor, the sheriff that fired him, stated that this was specifically NOT the duties of the school resource officer.

I did not see that statement. I did see this statement from the Sheriff:

"Deputy Fields did not follow proper training, proper procedure when he threw the student across the room," Lott said.

School resource officers should use physical force only in the most extreme situations or when the student is a danger to the officer, Lott explained. Officers are trained to speak with students in an effort to get them to comply. If verbal commands fail, officers can use pain compliance, such as pressure points. "When he threw her across the room...that's not acceptable. Ben Fields should not have thrown the student. He was not trained to throw the student. We've done the right thing in our actions in terminating him," Lott said.

Source of Direct Quote of the Sheriff from a News Conf

Quote: kewlj

The officer did not belong in the classroom or being involved in this type of situation. It is not his job. His job is to break up fights and protect the students against outside forces. Disciplinary matters are supposed to be handles the same way they have been for decades, by the school. If the teacher can't handle the student they call the principal, who may then call the parent.

We do not treat students talking on cell phones during class, even disrupting that class the same way we handle violent criminals.

That isn't the way things are run in many schools today. I went to a school that had some discipline issues--rednecks fighting hippies, racial fights. pot and other, drug use, smoking in the boys room, etc. The only time we saw the police was when the issue got out of hand (usually, for whatever reason, racial stuff boiled over one time a year pretty badly) and they needed to be called. They got on the scene and they were shown respect by all factions.

Fast forward to today and we now send kids who fight to see the Precinct Justice of the Peace in his courtroom. I know this only because fully half of the cases one day I was in traffic court for speeding were for fighting in school. These kids and their parents were in court on a school (and work!) day.

Everything up to a weapons issue was always handled by the school officials, now cops are involved way earlier.

The breakdown of respect--and you can blame officers with a complex for some of it, but not nearly all of it--is horrible. We're not talking about civil disobedience...we had a second grader crawl across the floor of his classroom to steal money out of the teacher's purse as a starter crime...we're talking about a whole group of people who have been taught to not respect authority. They are of all colors, so race isn't always the issue.

I don't have an answer. I think the force was excessive. I also think you get off the damned phone when you are told to. The first time.

Quote: Greasyjohn

The girl would not stop being disruptive. She would not leave the classroom. She was ordered to by an officer. She did not comply. She resisted arrest. The girl showed a lack of respect for authority while she was clearly in the wrong. Let's no leap to shooting jaywalkers just yet.

Good thing she was not chewing gum, or greasyjohn would think it was appropriate to shoot her. I mean what if she decided to spit the gum at that officer. Why wait for a crime to happen ? ? ?

The force was excessive. And the officer is rightfully out of a job now.

He had a reputation amongst the students for using excessive force and there have been lawsuits against him previously. This is why so many of them whipped out their phones and started filming when he showed up - THANK GOD.

Everyone has a camera in their pocket now. More and more of these stories will pop up as time goes on because it's easy to catch them in the act. While "not all cops are bad cops," there are plenty of really crappy ones. Thankfully this one is no longer employed.

Quote: ams288

The force was excessive.

I do acknowledge that I would be outraged if my daughter was treated that way.

If my daughter or granddaughter was treated that way, well, her Mom would have to take proper disciplinary action once the CHILD got home. Me, I would probably be in jail for seeing how tuff that cop was without a gun and badge to hide behind.

There are only a few situations in which throwing a 16 year old in school is necessary and this was not one of them. Recalling my time in high school, everyone had phones. Some individuals texted during class, but it was rare for someone to actually call. Making a call is disrespectful and should have been done at another time (unless it was an emergency), but that does not permit the officer to use excessive force.

Police intervention in our society has reached the point of intrusiveness. Schools are increasingly using police to deal with discipline and taking actions that are too strong against students like suspensions and expulsions. Rather than immediately jumping to severe consequences, schools should have clearly established rules and consequences that students can grasp that allow the students to make choices knowing the consequences.

At the age of 16, teens are dealing with hormonal changes and brain development that profoundly affect behavior. The frontal lobe that regulates decision-making, planning and judgement isn't fully able to do so. Teens should be supported, rather than punished as they go through this change. There's a reason our jails are filled to capacity and only part of it is the behavior of those sent there.

I saw the various angles on CNN, one of the more revealing aspects is the kid is still resisting after getting tossed. This was dead, cold fingers. The kid has issues I'm sure: the school enforcer would have done better to slap the cuffs on her, and maybe to the desk itself. Backup seems VERY appropriate here.

The enforcer gets fired and faces assault, the kid get juvy for resisting arrest and CPD (Creating a Public Disturbance). Neither one did the right ting, and no good is EVER gonna come out of it.

Two losers.

Quote: bloodoil

Good thing she was not chewing gum, or greasyjohn would think it was appropriate to shoot her. I mean what if she decided to spit the gum at that officer. Why wait for a crime to happen ? ? ?

Buzzard?