Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Monday said that while the white Texas police officer who threw a black, teenage girl to the ground on Friday was “brutal,” she said that the girl was not properly following the officer’s orders.
McKinney police police corporal Eric Casebolt was placed on administrative leave this weekend after a video showed him throwing a teenage girl, Dajerria Becton, to the ground and drawing his weapon to chase other pool party attendees. Police said officers were responding to a “disturbance” at a community pool in McKinney, Texas.
“I’m sure he didn’t know she was 14 at the time,” Kelly said on Monday night during “The Kelly File.” “Maybe he did, we can’t assume it. But now we know, and she looked like a young woman. It’s brutal.”
“And now people have made this into a race thing. Are we there yet?” Kelly asked one of her guests, radio host Richard Fowler.
“Race aside, Megyn, I think to watch a woman being handled like that by a guy who’s two times her size made me totally sick to my stomach,” Fowler said.
He said that many of the teens likely ran from the cops because they “are used to seeing police brutalizing young African-American men.” Fowler noted that Becton repeatedly asked for someone to call her mother.
“The girl was no saint, either,” Kelly responded. “He had told her to leave, and she continued to linger. When the cop tells you to leave, get out. I’m not defending his actions. Let me make that clear.”
Becton told Fox 4 News in Dallas-Fort Worth that the officer told her to keep walking and that she was following his orders just before he grabbed her arm and slammed her onto the ground.
“And then I’m guessing he thought we were saying rude stuff to him,” Becton said.
Watch “The Kelly File” clip via Media Matters:
