Updated 10/09/09 02:35
One of the more notorious stories this week comes from Dolton Illinois where a 15-year-old student who suffers from a learning disability caused by a brain injury was apparently assaulted at a special needs school by a Dolton police department “school resource officer”.
That officer apparently took issue with the child’s untucked shirt and this issue escalated into a one-sided attack in which a controversial take-down method called “a face-down take-down” was used which resulted in a broken nose and facial lacerations for the student. That move has been banned in at least 8 states since it’s responsible for at least 20 deaths.
It was only in recent times when local governments decided that placing police officers in schools, and calling them “School Resource Officers” was a good idea, all in the name of student safety. Of course, it’s hard to argue against the idea given a few high profile school shootings such as what happened in Columbine Colorado.
However, cases like what is alleged to have happened in Dolton Illinois should cause parents some pause about whether loading their schools up with these “resource officers” is such a good idea as it’s currently implemented. After all, to argue that their presence enhances safety it also has to be true that their presence doesn’t also put children at undue risk too.
More than this, even, law enforcement agencies must be mindful that, in these days of public relations pushes focused on establishing trust in the police, that the lessons learned by people in their youth make far more impact than a PR push targeting them when they are adults… Indeed, the lessons learned by children in school last a lifetime, so one wonders what school resource officers are teaching our children in our schools…
For example, in just the last couple months:
In Tolleson Arizona, they teach kids about gun safety at a very young age after an armed elementary school resource officer accidentally shot one of his fingers off while kids were being released from school.
In Dougherty County Georgia, 11-year-old girls have learned that refusing to have your picture taken will get you choked and arrested.
In Ladysmith Wisconsin, 16-year-old girls have learned that sexting cops is cool. Why? Because down the road in Milton Wisconsin students there already learned that police officers don’t get in trouble for sexting and molesting high school students.
In Penn Hills Pennsylvania, however, students there learned that police only like it when the girls use cell phones in the halls because when you’re a boy you get electrocuted and charged with a felony for it.
In Toledo Ohio, a 16-year-old girl learned an ugly lesson about sexual assault from a cop who was assigned as a school resource officer despite a history of groping women at traffic stops. They also seem to be letting school resource officers teach sexual education in Vicksburg Mississippi and Pinellas Florida too.
And just today in West Valley Utah, a school resource officer was arrested after sending what he thought was a 15-year-old boy pornography via email and arranging a meeting with the presumed teen for sex, fortunately for the students he guarded, the boy was actually an undercover officer.
Obviously, I doubt that anyone will be able to convince people to rethink the idea about putting armed police officers who are trained to think of their own safety before anything else in our schools to “protect” our children. But, I think it would be a reasonable thing to ask that law enforcement agencies consider being more careful about choosing officers with the right temperament for working with children and carefully retraining them to be less aggressive when placing them in our schools.
After all, if what happened in Dolton Illinois teaches us anything, it’s that putting a police officer with aggression issues, who is three times the size of the kids around him, in our schools can be as dangerous a proposition as not putting any officers in our schools at all… lest they really want to get a head-start on teaching the next generation that it might be best not to trust the police at all.
UPDATE: According to the Chicago Tribune, Dolton Illinois police officer Christopher Loyd, shown in the video leading this story assaulting special needs student Marshawn Pitts, is now in an Indiana jail on charges relating to an alleged sexual assault where “he held a pillow over the woman’s face while sexually assaulting her Sept. 14 and had previously threatened her with a knife“.
Additionally, it appears as though he was involved in a controversial fatal shooting incident that he claimed was self-defense that he is now being sued for, by his ex-wife who claims that he murdered the man she married after him outside of their home and in front of her children. Her husband was shot 24 times, but the Chicago police never charged him because they accepted his version of events without question.
How any law enforcement agency would think it was a good idea to place a cop with this kind of troubling history in a school full of special needs children is beyond any iota of rationality.
One important side effect of having police in schools is that it normalizes a police state. People grow up thinking of police not as protectors and servants, but as more like big brother. I particularly like how in the Toledo Ohio story the officer uses the phrase, “she was becoming argumentative and challenging” because, you know, we sheep – I mean citizens aren’t allowed to question, argue, or challenge big brother.
I’m convinced that we need to start now working toward a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to record public servants in the performance of their jobs. Technology is advancing so fast that in just a few years, we’ll have a device that’s wearable like eyeglasses that will be able to record a year’s worth of audio and video. And I think that’s about the only way to protect ourselves from these thugs in uniform. But sadly, when they see you recording them they take the camera away or arrest you for “wire tapping.” So that’s why I think we need a constitutional amendment. The situation is becoming unbearable.
Most alarming. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention, as you usually do. Your work is appreciated.
JL
It’s great that the news agency has a special number for people that have witnessed corruption in their town.
Hey Packratt,
Not one single event covered by I. E. made it to CNN or any of the local stations I get here in Texas.
Just to show you what happens when you are not aware of what’s going on around you, I asked three people ages (17, 27 and a 58 year old) did they, “know of any instantces of police misconduct”? All three said “No” and the 27 yr. old added he would sue ‘em if they beat him. I told them all it’s time to wake up and for them to check out I.E.
All three emailed and wanted to know if I checked out “What did the police teach your child today? It’s just a matter of time and “everyone” will know what’s going on around them. We just have to keep telling everyone about INJUSTICEEVERYWHERE?COM
Thanks again.
Eric, it seems that you may have something. Taking the dashcam to another level & mount it on the shoulders of each & every person carrying a gun / taser and or in charge of monitoring humans.
I would like to add that it should include animal control personell. I also think that keeping records of tapes for one year is good for it would cut down on getting rid of the evidence.
Thomas,
Yes, one of the things that is difficult to keep in mind and especially difficult to get across to people who already believe that police misconduct happens is that a majority of people actually don’t believe it happens and are unaware of it, and even when they are, they are unaware of the actual magnitude involved. Sure, anyone who visits the site and the follows the feed knows it, people who write about it all the time also know it happens and tend to get into the mindset that everyone knows and accepts it when that’s not really the case.
This is why it’s important to keep a moderate tone on the issue and not go directly into “cop bashing mode” like so many others do because, in part at least, it’s not the people who already know police misconduct happens that we should be trying to reach, but that vast majority who do not. Clearly you understand that, so I’m very appreciative of your effort to get the word out to that audience, thank you!