McKinney is north of Dallas, where I live, and just slightly north of Plano, where I grew up. It is the county seat of Collin county and I’ve had family who lived there, so I have spent some time there either visiting family, doing business or shopping. I have never had any dealings with any police officers in McKinney and I doubt that the entire force is full of terrible policemen. But there is at least one terrible policeman and his name is Eric Casebolt. I doubt if McKinney is full of racists assholes, but there are clearly some. I have been reading with some amusement and even more disbelief, the nearly foaming at the mouth ravings of those who insist that the entire problem was caused by unruly black kids, crashing a party in a neighborhood that they didn’t belong in, fighting and causing problems, then refusing to leave when asked. So perfectly natural to call the police in such a case, right? That certainly doesn’t make them racists, right? Except as it turns out, the young lady who threw the party (who was black) lived in the neighborhood, many of the friends she invited (both black and white) lived in the neighborhood and her mother was chaperoning the party. Seems a white lady (who I’m sure would deny to her dying breath that she’s racist) started yelling at the black teens, calling them “black fuckers” and told them to go back to their section 8 housing. When a 14 year-old white friend tried to stand up for them, this fine upstanding white lady started berating her telling her “she could do better for herself” (I guess meaning better than hanging out with black people?) and when the host of the party told her to stop being ugly to a 14 year-old this fine upstanding white woman slapped her in the face. A white male called police, of course telling them that they were overrun with black kids that didn’t belong, were fighting with each other and who refused to leave. It turns out this man has a pretty extensive rap sheet (look it up, it’s not pretty) but by golly he needed to protect his family from all the blackness. I don’t need to explain what happened next. I’m not going to embed the video. Either you’ve already seen it, or it is easily found on youtube. But I do have something to say to everyone condoning the actions of the white folks, condemning the actions of the black teens, and applauding the actions of the cop named Eric Casebolt. Everything I’ve read from people like that, to a person, claims victimization over being called racists. Poor, poor, people just want to feel safe in their own neighborhoods and too many black teens in one place, even if they do live in the neighborhood are just so, so, scary. That’s not racist at all (sarcasm). So let’s just give all those poor, scared folks the benefit of the doubt and just pretend they’re not racist and look at the situation in the context of their preferred story. A whole bunch of white kids from outside of the neighborhood, showed up uninvited to the neighborhood pool, starting fighting with each other and refused to leave when asked. So the police were called. And the police came and grabbed a 14 year-old blonde and blue-eyed girl wearing nothing but a bikini by the hair and threw her on the ground, pushing her face into the grass, knee and full weight on her back before handcuffing her, because she was not moving fast enough, and then also drawing a gun on blonde, blue-eyed teen boys trying to come to her aid. (Wouldn’t happen, but we’ll pretend for the racists). But here is the rub. Whether or not those kids should have been there or not, whether or not they were talking back to the cops or not leaving the area (where they lived!) fast enough, whether or not they were black, white, or all the colors of the rainbow, you DO NOT get to slam UNARMED minors to the ground or PULL YOUR GUN ON THEM all while cursing at them. That is completely out of control behavior by a member of the police who are paid through the taxes of the citizens they are SWORN to PROTECT and SERVE. And sorry to all you non-racists who believe the cop was right, but they were ignoring the white kids, including the one taking the video and only mistreating the black kids. Any cop who is so afraid of UNARMED, black, teenagers does not need to be on the streets. And here is what the racists don’t seem to get. Any cop, or group of cops or department of cops that allows that kind of behavior for one group of people will eventually allow it for other groups. Police brutality is much worse for minorities, but it also happens to white people. If you condone it for one group, you condone it for all. As citizens of the United States, those black teens, just like you and me have rights. If you’ve forgotten what those rights are or if you believe they only apply to fine upstanding white folks, I would suggest doing a bit of research because you would be wrong. But as a citizen of this country, if I were you, I’d be appalled that ANYONE was treated in such a manner. And if you can’t find it in your heart to feel for people who are different than you, I feel very sorry for you. Not sorry enough to not call you out on your bigotry though. Grow the fuck up, grow some balls, some brain cells and some empathy. The world will be a better place if you do.