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South Carolina school officer fired, but more fallout possible
CNN ^ | 10/29/2015 | Holly Yan

Posted on 10/29/2015 11:08:53 AM PDT by ScottWalkerForPresident2016

Ben Fields' seven years as a school resource officer are over. But the fallout from his tossing a student across a classroom may be far from over.

The FBI is looking into whether the former South Carolina sheriff's deputy committed a crime. And the FBI and U.S. attorney's office are looking into whether the student's civil rights were violated.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he fired Fields because the deputy threw the student at Spring Valley High School.

"The fact that he picked the student up and he threw the student across the room -- that is not a proper technique, and should not be used in law enforcement," Lott said.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: benfields; education; police; southcarolina
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To: ROCKLOBSTER
Just get some black former Marines to patrol the school....problem solved.

Actually not a bad idea. I taught for a couple of years in a mainly black urban high school. Lots of problems there. At any rate, we had a junior ROTC program in the school.

Everyone respected the men who ran the program, an army colonel and an army master sergeant. Both were retired, but both wore the uniform due to the nature of their jobs. They didn't have to do anything physical (that I know of) to get that respect. They just got it.

41 posted on 10/29/2015 11:30:05 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Norm Lenhart
todays liberal feels no shame or remorse

Some, yes. They belong in a cage. Others, I think, may be educable. Certainly, anyone propounding liberalism of any sort, while displaying even the slightest speck of tar on his skin, should summarily be caged and suspended from a gibbet. Or a lamp-post.

42 posted on 10/29/2015 11:30:41 AM PDT by NorthMountain ("The time has come", the Walrus said, "to talk of many things")
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To: NorthMountain

Thats like saying you can educate an ISIS Muslim away from Allah. Not possible.


43 posted on 10/29/2015 11:31:51 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart (Embrace "Existential Cage Theory")
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To: ScottWalkerForPresident2016

So when is the pouty b!tch going to be charged with assaulting a police officer and refusing a lawful command?


44 posted on 10/29/2015 11:31:52 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("a shadow...draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.")
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To: XenaLee

I have several times stated there were many alternatives to handling this other than what the officer did, which I believe was way over the top. He could’ve used a tazer, called another officer and both of them could’ve picked up the entire desk, or slid it out into the hall with the kid in it, they could’ve used pepper spray, or just get everyone else out of the class into another area until the situation was de-escalated - not necessarily in any particular order. There WERE several non-violent ways to deal with this situation, the officer obviously snapped.

No, the officer needed to flip the kid over backwards in her school desk and drag her along the wall and floor to prove he was the ultimate authority. What a perfectly reasonable use of force on a teenage girl for talking on her phone in class. The horrors of a teenage girl being belligerent towards authority must be immediately met with severe action though right?

And of course all school children should have punishment meted out this way because merely dealing with the issue by using suspensions (in school suspension would be a fate far worse than sitting through normal class), or being expelled if necessary, well, those things should be off the table. We really need more police officers manhandling our children in schools when they act up or cause a minor disruption.

Yes, definitely replace all administrative functions with police force, that will solve all of our schools’ disciplinary woes.

Yeah, that’s the ticket.


45 posted on 10/29/2015 11:33:04 AM PDT by jurroppi1 (The only thing you "pass to see what's in it" is a stool sample. h/t MrB)
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To: XenaLee

Initially he was sent there to get her out of the classroom. I think he could have dragged the seat out of the classroom. And once she was in the hallway he wouldn’t have had 5 kids video taping his every move.

There is no one set way of handling the situation. But there are smart ways and not so smart ways.


46 posted on 10/29/2015 11:33:32 AM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: ScottWalkerForPresident2016
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott

Anyone got a picture of this guy?

47 posted on 10/29/2015 11:34:21 AM PDT by IC Ken
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To: ScottWalkerForPresident2016

How are gorillas in the wild captured? How was King Kong captured alive in the movie? The police should study capture techniques using nets. We don’t want to hurt the little thugs.


48 posted on 10/29/2015 11:34:52 AM PDT by forgotten man
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To: Norm Lenhart

If he had sang “I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No” she might have run right out of the room screaming.


49 posted on 10/29/2015 11:36:24 AM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: Cecily

And why the special treatment? This is a thug who has already disrupted the class for the day. Why should, just because she is black, the school administrators and police have to treat her with literal “kid gloves”?

Threats to taser won’t work if threats to arrest wouldn’t work. What the cop did was acceptable in my view, if what I saw on the video was the only physical encounter in the incident.

The student walking around with a “cast” and claiming to have a fracture is just more BS and BGI attempts to “”cash in”” on their defiance of authority.

Instead of unscrupulous attorneys and AAs going after the school, the school should be able to go after her legally for her disruption of the class. They won’t, of course. Blacks are, apparently, now a protected class in Obama’s America. To the point that they can get away with almost murder even (Think: OJ Simpson).

Something’s got to change here. This PC, race-baiting, BGI insanity can not be allowed to continue.


50 posted on 10/29/2015 11:36:27 AM PDT by XenaLee (The only good commie is a dead commie)
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To: Cecily

I think dragging/picking up the desk with the kid in it and taking her out of the room was the way to go—what if one or more kids refuse to leave in solidarity with the miscreant?

Hard to justify in my mind tasing a kid for for using a phone/being defiant. An overreaction by authorities is why this mess has blown up. I know that back in my day mild violence would have been used, but things are very different now.


51 posted on 10/29/2015 11:40:37 AM PDT by hanamizu
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To: ScottWalkerForPresident2016

If a school resource office cannot disipline a student, what is he doing at the school?


52 posted on 10/29/2015 11:40:49 AM PDT by Timpanagos1
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To: CaptainK

Then the diversity officer would have called the Justice department and they’d have machine gunned him for insulting the Blessed Transexuals.


53 posted on 10/29/2015 11:42:56 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart (Embrace "Existential Cage Theory")
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To: XenaLee

No special treatment - just using reasonable force in the situation. This is not a traffic stop with a lone officer in a stand off with an adult who may be armed or may be ready to try to overpower him. And the threat to Taser isn’t just a threat if you follow through and knock out the belligerent as I suggested. If said belligerent is too stupid or willful to comply with an order within one minute, she gets Tased.


54 posted on 10/29/2015 11:43:18 AM PDT by Cecily
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To: CaptainK

So now, just because a perp is black, police officers have to do things the “smart” way? And....dragging the entire desk out of the room would have been the “smart” way? Way to 2nd guess the police, as usual. And again, only...it seems, when the perp is black.

Sorry, but I just don’t see it that way. In my world and reality, if you resist authority and strike a police officer, your ass is grass and you deserve getting dragged out of your damned chair and across the room.


55 posted on 10/29/2015 11:45:18 AM PDT by XenaLee (The only good commie is a dead commie)
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To: XenaLee; fungoking

I’m SO glad I retired from law enforcement before the advent of readily available and easy to use video recorders.

What was seen in the 70’s and 80’s when I was wearing the uniform as acceptable use of force situations is now documented on video and in many cases sensationalized to the point where cops are increasingly becoming paralyzed by fear of losing their jobs or going to jail.

Want to know why vehicle pursuits happen so often nowadays?

Want to know why so many people are so openly defiant when interacting with the police?

Because back in the day, everyone knew there was going to be a good ass kicking administered at the end of the pursuit. The same goes with running away or resisting arrest or a lawful order. If I had to chase you down or lay hands upon you so we could conduct our business, you were going to pay for it and everyone back then knew it. There were no busybodies or eyes in the sky with high def video recorders capturing everything that happened. For whatever reason, people with poor impulse control understand bad behavior earns an immediate ass kicking much more readily than the long term ramifications of a court appearance somewhere in the future and they acted accordingly.

As harsh as that may sound, almost always, the bad guy ended up going to jail, even if we had to make a stop at the ER before booking. Now, with so much scrutiny, and so many people pointing at video to make a case for the suspect and against the cop, things have escalated to the point where the bad guy is as likely to end up going to the morgue instead of the hospital then to jail.

Certainly, things have evolved since I retired in 1988, but in my day, if you shot someone, that person had better actually have a gun they were going for. A “furtive movement” or “reaching for his waistband” would never have been accepted as an excuse for shooting an unarmed person.

Back then, failure to comply by putting your hands in your pocket would get you a punch in the face, or at worst, a flashlight across the head. Doing so today gets you shot.

What I’ve written here is not meant to be justification of how the deputy handled the situation that is the subject of this thread. In my time, what the deputy did would have not drawn this kind of attention and whatever complaints that were generated would have probably been met with the response that the girl should have complied when ordered to.

If this particular case does nothing else, it will be a clear message to every cop on the job, if the shit hits the fan, every one behind you is going to make sure you’re in front and get hit first. And for every punk kid that doesn’t want to behave in school, do whatever you want because you will get away with it and probably get a big cash settlement for your troubles.

It is impossible to predict right now just how big this can of worms is that just got opened here, but it’s going to be huge.

I must admit that the increasingly militaristic behavior of the police is disturbing to me as well, but I also understand well why it’s becoming this way. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

And I’m glad I’m no longer a cop.


56 posted on 10/29/2015 11:52:29 AM PDT by Nacho Bidnith (Leftists can see racism everywhere except the mirror)
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To: jurroppi1

She was removed not for the phone, but for disobeying the teacher and then an administrator. And from what I saw the chair flipped because of her resistance as the officer was trying to lift her out of it, and she did take a swing at him in the process.


57 posted on 10/29/2015 11:54:24 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: ScottWalkerForPresident2016

This officer should IMMEDIATELY file suit for wrongful termination.

How do they expect him to arrest someone who is resisting? Ask them “pretty please”?


58 posted on 10/29/2015 12:04:15 PM PDT by Mr. K (If it is HilLIARy -vs- Jeb! then I am writing-in Palin/Cruz)
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To: colorado tanker

“I think the guy just snapped after years of dealing with the mouthy little jerks.”

He can bench press over 625 pounds and squat over 900 pounds. I think he was on a steroid rage.


59 posted on 10/29/2015 12:04:42 PM PDT by MeganC (The Republic of The United States of America: 7/4/1776 to 6/26/2015 R.I.P.)
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To: Nacho Bidnith

When you were a cop.....this nation didn’t have a race-baiting, Black Grievance Industry enabling and encouraging Department of Justice and White House. And when you were a cop, ferals were not portrayed as victims by a complicit leftist-biased media.... vs. the law-breaking thugs that they really are in today’s America.

Things change.

And make no mistake. The left will also pull this same victimization BS on behalf of the Muslims that are being mass-imported by Obama as we speak when they break our laws. It’s all part of that leftist plan, in fact.


60 posted on 10/29/2015 12:06:50 PM PDT by XenaLee (The only good commie is a dead commie)
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