If you still haven’t heard of the psychotic violence perpetrated on a high school girl by Senior Deputy Ben Fields, it’s time to get up to speed. If you want a gauge as to how far this society has fallen, this is all you need to see.
First, a little background from the AP:
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A school resource officer in South Carolina is on leave and his boss has asked the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate after a video showed him flipping a female high school student from her desk to the floor and dragging her across a classroom.
The sheriff’s department said no one was hurt during the confrontation, which was captured on cellphones by several students and posted online. One student said it all started when the girl pulled out her cellphone and refused her math teacher’s request to hand it over during class.
During the moments captured on video, Fields can be seen standing over the girl, asking her to stand up. The girl remains seated and the officer wraps a forearm around her neck. The desk then flips and the girl is slammed backward onto the floor, where the officer tosses her toward the front of the classroom and handcuffs her.
A second student who verbally objected to the girl’s treatment also was arrested.
Go ahead and read that again.
Both girls were charged with disturbing schools and released to their parents. Their names were not released, but the second student, Niya Kenny, told WLTX-TV that Deputy Fields’ use of force shocked her. Her mother, Doris Kenny, said she’s proud her daughter was “brave enough to speak out against what was going on.”
Lt. Curtis Wilson confirmed that Fields is white and the students are black, but told The Associated Press in an email to “keep in mind this is not a race issue.”
Tony Robinson Jr., who recorded the final moments of the confrontation, told WLTX that it began when the teacher tried to confiscate a phone the girl took out during class. She refused, so he called an administrator, he said.
Welcome to America’s school system. A teacher can’t even handle a slightly disruptive student on his own without calling cop into the classroom. Never once in my entire life did I see a cop called into a classroom, despite seeing chaos that makes “not handing over a cellphone” look like the equivalent of putting a shiny apple on the teacher’s desk. Absolutely revolting.
Now watch the video. It’s will make your blood boil:
To make matters worse, this cop has a history of aggressive, violent behavior. As the AP noted:
Fields has been accused of excessive force and racial bias before, but has prevailed in court so far.
Trial is set for January in the case of an expelled student who claims Fields targeted black students and falsely accused him of being a gang member in 2013. In another case, a federal jury sided with Fields after a black couple accused him of excessive force and battery during a noise complaint arrest in 2005. A third lawsuit, dismissed in 2009, involved a woman who accused him of battery and violating her rights during a 2006 arrest.
And that’s just the start of it. He attacked a veteran and his wife back in 2005, as reported by the New York Daily News:
Martin said the beefy officer “snapped” after he called him “dude,” and slammed him on the ground. He began pepper-spraying the helpless veteran, but Martin said he was trained in the military to resist the chemicals. An entire canister of the stuff failed to disable Martin.
“He became even more violent because I didn’t react like most people would,” Martin told the News.
His wife at the time, Tashiana Rogers, witnessed the fracas, and ran outside to take photos of the violent encounter with her cellphone.
That’s when Fields called for his partner to “get her black ass,” Martin said. The officer grabbed her phone and deleted the photos.
Fields then called for backup.
“I’m watching my wife get beat up in front of me, and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Martin said.
During the arrest, Martin told Fields the rough arrest would lead to a lawsuit.
“I’m glad Johnny Cochran is dead,” Fields shot back, according to Martin.
The officer also told Martin as he was cuffed that “you’re just another notch in my belt,” according to court documents.
“That was shocking. I was definitely shocked that the jury did not find in her favor,” Mobley said.
Rogers was shocked too. She worries Fields was allowed to operate with impunity — giving him freedom to terrorize high school students.
“I felt like if he had felt the consequences from 2005, this wouldn’t happen today,” she told the Daily News.
Precisely. This is exactly what happens when people in power fail to be held accountable.
Yet it gets even worse. As the Daily News reports, Ben Fields actually received the Richland School District Two Culture of Excellence Award from the Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary School in 2014.
Someone please lock this guy up and throw away the key.
For related articles, see:
Iraq War Veteran Blows the Whistle on Shameless Propaganda Being Taught at Police Academies
South Carolina Cop to Be Charged with Murder for Shooting Man 8 Times in the Back as He Ran Away
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Fields was obviously trained to obtain absolute obedience and respect by employing immediate and intense aggression in any and all situations involving young people. He’s probably of the mind that any perceived weakness on his part would be exploited by other students and his effectiveness undermined irreparably. Hence his behaving like a psychopath. Question is, who trained him?
On a side note, his ferocity would not be needed in the classroom of 1915. The student would have been respectful to the teacher and obedient — or she would have been struck across her face with the teacher’s open hand!
‘or she would have been stuck across her face with the teachers open hand…almost equally unacceptable’.
I’m a bit torn…this cop seems like a real douche and he certainly was more aggressive and douche-like than the situation warranted…but, I’m also a bit tired of people (especially the youth) thinking they can act (or not act) without consequence. If I were that student (when I were young) and that happened to me…my parents would have punished me for not respecting the teacher and officer asking me many times to obey…then they would have made me apologize to both for acting like a little brat. The force used was certainly excessive…but the decision to physically remove that girl from the desk was the right one IMO.
you’re a disgusting piece of garbage.
you condone this facism?
you’re dying inside. your vital organs are literally rotting away inside you….This earth can’t be rid of you and your ilk fast enough.
And that goes for all the rest of you cowards that believe this is OK or justified.
you’re nothing but sheep, ruled by wolves, owned by pigs.
I agree with you, Mike, that the stupidity train starts leaving the station with the teach who calls a cop because a student won’t give up her cell phone. How many different ways does the teacher have to deal with that besides calling a freaking cop?!
1) Detention
2) taking points off her grade for bad behavior
3) Tell the girl that whatever’s going on, a lecture, quiz, test etc will not proceed until she gives up the phone.
etc etc etc
I’m not necessarily endorsing all these choices or even saying that the phone should have been taken from the girl. I’m not sure why that was required. But the teacher had a LOT of options before jumping to the CALLTHECOP option.
As to what this thug cop did, my god! He rag dolled that poor girl. He’s lucky he didn’t break her neck.
You’re forgetting this is South Carolina. #49 in the country for education. What does taking points off for bad behavior do? She’s a teenager, not 6 years old.
If cops are above the law, then they are outside the law; and if they are outside the law, then they are outlaws.
When a law enforcement official tells you to do something, you do it- regardless of guilt. I’m sick of people disrespecting authority just because they think they’re “privileged”.
Mike,
I normally agree with most of your posts but this one I have to say you’re contributing to the very defiance that is encouraged to youth especially in this country against authority. Don’t get me wrong we should challenge authority, but there is a difference when the government is snooping on all our electronic devices and a girl who is disruptive to her class, does not obey the requests of the teacher to stop the disruption, then does not obey an administrator who was called in after the student refused to comply with the teacher’s request, and then a police officer who asked her kindly to get up and leave with him. When she refused he placed his hand on her and then gets punched, (yes that’s a felony folks), repeatedly, as he is trying to remove her from her seat.
Now could a man of his size subdued her differently, perhaps, but any effort to subdue her physically would obviously have been fought with resistance from the student. Police are always taught to restrain as quickly as possible to effect the arrest. In the heat of the moment yes some take it too far. When this student gets stuck in the desk he tugs on her harder to free her and when she frees is tossed several feet toward the front of the class. Yes he has a history, and should he be reprimanded in a way that fits his “apparent” aggression, sure. But reports are that his wife is black, so I doubt outright racism is at hand if those reports are true. My suggestion is when are we going to entertain a society again that recognizes there are things called respect for your teachers, administrators and your fellow classmates. None of this would have happened if the student didn’t misbehave or cooperate with her teacher or administrator. Many of my teacher friends report constantly of the lack of respect many kids and their parents have, and how disruptive that behavior is to the ability of the teacher to actually teach the class whatever the lesson is being discussed.
I suspect Mike you would have feared getting in trouble by your teacher or principal, but mostly your parents. I know I did for sure. I am a few years older than you but I suspect you would never have punched a police officer and been that defiant. I certainly would have left the classroom voluntarily and maybe complained to an administrator if I truly felt the teacher was in the wrong.
But this immediate response to publicly try this guy without any acknowledgement or culpability for the student is just plain ridiculous. This only encourages more young people to do what she did and feel confident that defying police, hitting police, etc. will not only not get you in trouble but the police will get in trouble. No wonder so many police are sick and tired of engaging in high crime communities, the risks are too high for their careers.
That said if the reports that FBI statistics prove move violence and rough arrests in minority communities that should be looked into and addressed. But the response should sure as hell not be this way. I said to a friend last night, what if everyone on both sides of this issue simply thought, WWMLKD? Yes, not Jesus but MLK. Somehow I doubt he would encourage anyone to hit a police officer or disrespect a teacher or administrator. I invite you Mike to push that question particularly to this movement.
Engaging in peaceful protest and dialogue is a better effort and will gain the movement for fairer treatment more support. This kind of behavior only goes further to divide us. Ultimately we need to educate people or get them to take their education more seriously so we can finally break the ridiculous hold the corporate and political elite have on this country and get back to a constitutionally sound republic. But that’s another conversation.
Lastly, I want to wish you a heartfelt congratulations to you and your wife on the birth of your first child!
First off, thank you for the congratulations! We couldn’t be more thrilled.
Second, I think you missed the point of my post. If people end up taking it the wrong way, that’s not my fault and it’s not a reason to not cover it.
A few things. First of all, cops don’t belong in the classroom to begin with. You end up having situations like this occur and it further enflames the situation. Cops are used to dealing with violence. Teachers are supposed to be able to deal with unruly students. If they can’t, then we need better trained teachers.
As I mentioned, in my high school, kids were so much more unruly and out of control than this girl. Somehow the teachers handled it without violence. This shouldn’t be rocket science. I experienced it myself thought my time in school.
Also, I never made this about race. It’s not about race. Sure, when I was describing his past evidence of aggression and violence, potential racism was mentioned, but I never expounded on that, because it’s not the central issue at play here. Which is that we are criminalizing everything, and getting cops involved in situations a civilized society should not have them involved in in the first place. A classroom would be such an example.
As a teacher and human being, I would just like to point out that I doubt more training is necessary for the teacher in this situation. I would guess that the teacher was following “training,” i.e., policy.
The school likely has a policy which states that if a teacher encounters a student who is being willfully defiant and refuses to comply with the teacher’s request, the teacher is to call an administrator, who then decides whether or not to call in the officer. Pretty standard. I submit that the teacher followed the training/policy perfectly.
To me as a teacher, the issue would primarily be: Is the student interfering with other students’ learning. If the answer is “no,” then it is not necessary to escalate the situation at that point. I would just go on with the class and avoid the power struggle/escalation. Of course, I would deal with the student later by calling a meeting with the parents and the administration to discuss the student’s future in my class.
If the answer is “yes,” (i.e., the recalcitrant student is stopping the teacher from teaching the other students) then the teacher acted appropriately by following the school’s policy. A teacher is paid to provide an education for his or her students. If a teacher does not do this (for whatever reason) he or she can be fired. Personally, if a student is interfering with me doing my job, I would not hesitate for a moment to follow the school’s policy, or it’s MY ass. Why would I risk my job for a disruptive and defiant child?
I do not know what magic moves other teachers have that could somehow fix the problem of an openly defiant student who is interfering with the teacher’s ability to conduct classes (if that is what was happening here). Sure, you can bring everything to a halt and wait, you can apply peer pressure, you can use humor and attempt to make light of the situation, you can appeal to the student’s better nature, you can threaten to call the principal, you can threaten to deduct marks, and finally, you can follow the school’s policy.
To be sure, I do not condone the use of violence against a non-violent disobedient student. I do, however, condone removing students who interfere with other students’ learning, and with teachers doing their job.
I grossly take offence to your standard of teaching. You call yourself a teacher! To call a police officer in for any action other than having your personal self in harm, is inexcusable! By the very act of calling in a police officer you are elevating a situation to a point of showing how tyrannical you are. So a student is disruptive in class! SO WHAT! For you to stand there sanctimoniously and decide to call a police officer, is the highest example of racism and/or egoism! What of these questions?
-What where you doing leading up to the situation?
-What kind of teacher were you in the weeks and months before?
-What kind of manner do you have with the said student?
-Are you fulfilling your responsibilities as an adult and said teacher?
-Have you been provoking the student or students by your lack of ability as a teacher, or worse, lack of ability as a human being?
As you can see, you as an adult have role to play too. Yes it is very easy to call a cop and and then have that cop beat the crap out of the student. Why can’t we have cops protecting student’s rights to a good proper education? What student can call someone to come inside the class room and beat the crap out of the teacher for being a bad teacher?
You are a selfish, heartless, despicable person! What kind of creature are you, justifying the beating up of a child! It is because of monsters like you in the education system, that make it so bad! What a horrible monster you are! HORRIBLE!!!
if that was my daughter, that fucking pig would be lying in a pool of his own blood under a blood soaked sheet. go ahead and flag my comments and ban me Mike. All who condone this depraved act are cowards.
LOL…sounds like you’ve got about the same degree of emotional stability as that cop.
And what other acts/deeds of bravery did you performed in your life, apart from commenting in blogs?
Coralle Escoda
https://youtu.be/v-kjphoEksM