A special needs student at the Academy for Learning High School in Dolton, Ill. was the victim of severe police brutality. Marshawn Pitts was approached by a cop who asked him to tuck in his shirt. As the 15-year-old began to do so, the officer put down his coffee, pushed Pitts against the wall, and struck him several times.
Video of the incident demonstrates how aggressive the cop was, and how Pitts did nothing violent to encourage the attack:
Police brutality stories are a dime a dozen. Each week at least one incident like this makes national headlines. But this particular story enraged me in several different ways. As mentioned by Cenk Uygur in the video above, the cop clearly did not value the young boy's life. I talk about how easily the boy could have died from internal bleeding in his head after the "face down take down."
The officer had power to abuse, and his mindset was that if he assaulted the black student, no action would be taken against him. In fact, at this point no one knows if there has been any consequences for the cop's actions. But this clear and vivid assault of a young boy should easily convince his employers to fire him. I also argue that he needs to be thrown in jail.
Campus police and law enforcement are supposed to have a presence in school to protect students, not harm them. Even if Pitts had refused to tuck in his shirt, it did not warrant a brutal attack by a cop.
Comments
Sadto say this happends more than we know. I think the savage beating death in Chicago will bring more attention to what is REALLY going on in schools. It's unfortunate that is took the death of an innocent student to bring light to this issue, but I believe that things will change.
Thanks so much for covering these important stories! I sure hope that cop doesn't have kids because he clearly has an anger problem. Makes one wonder what his childhood was like. And that poor student, to so randomly be a victim of the cycle of violence. So sad. :(
What I thought about was, maybe the boy said something to the cop (maybe insulted him) which made him lose his mind. Look at it from that perspective.
Even if that was the case, you can't go off like that under any circumstances.
Police are taught to be aggressive and to project force. This is not anomalous; it is standard police/security training. It can be justified in extreme situations. However, the justification threshold level has gotten much lower recently as people demand "absolute" security (and compliance). This demand is across the polical spectrum and is seen in the despicable response to 911. This school incident is part of the acquiesence to a police state. The fact that this was "caught on camera" is disturbing in and of itself. Where is the individual and group in self regulation and policing of behavior? This may lead to the point that without the eye in the sky a society will go "lord of the flies."
Do students have rights? Courts have been contradictory and hypocritical on this point for quite a long time.
Nothing ticks me off more than hypocritical cops. Ones who enforce the law, but don't follow it themselves. This story really gets me fired up. Hopefully the kid will be okay, physically and mentally.
Police are taught to be aggressive and to project force. This is not anomalous; it is standard police/security training. It can be justified in extreme situations. However, the justification threshold level has gotten much lower recently as people demand "absolute" security (and compliance). This demand is across the polical spectrum and is seen in the despicable response to 911. This school incident is part of the acquiesence to a police state. The fact that this was "caught on camera" is disturbing in and of itself. Where is the individual and group in self regulation and policing of behavior? This may lead to the point that without the eye in the sky a society will go "lord of the flies."
Do students have rights? Courts have been contradictory and hypocritical on this point for quite a long time.
Apparently the cop in the video, Christopher Lloyd, is now in an Indiana jail on a rape charge. Lloyd's ex-wife alleges in a lawsuit filed last summer that Lloyd killed her new husband in February of 2008. An autopsy showed Lloyd shot the man 24 times, but Chicago police accepted his self-defense explanation.
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