The National Bar Association, the nation’s largest organization of black attorneys and judges, has called for the firing of a white Texas police officer who drew his gun and slammed a black teenaged girl to the ground while responding to a complaint at a pool party.
A seven-minute video shows the officer, who has been identified as McKinney police corporal Eric Casebolt, grab a teenage girl by the arm and slam her to the ground. When two people approached Casebolt, he drew his gun to chase them away. He then forced the girl face down onto the grass, placed his knees on her back and handcuffed her, the video shows. She was detained temporarily before being released, according to police.
The McKinney Police Department placed Casebolt on administrative leave and launched an investigation into his actions after reviewing the video published on YouTube on Saturday. The police said that Casebolt and two other officers responded to “a disturbance involving multiple juveniles at the location, who do not live in the area or have permission to be there, refusing to leave.” Nine additional officers later responded to the call.
“McKinney Police received several additional calls related to this incident advising that juveniles were now actively fighting,” police said in a statement.
In a statement released on Monday, the National Bar Associated accused Casebolt of racial bias.
“The National Bar Association is demanding a full investigation, and that based on the seven minute YouTube video standing alone is grounds to terminate Officer Casebolt. It is insufficient to place him on paid administrative leave, when it is obviously clear that this officer was not enforcing the law, but instead was enforcing his will and power and showing explicit bias towards these African American teenagers,” the statement reads.
The bar association said that Casebolt was “engaging in aggressive, unprofessional, out of control behavior towards these African American teenagers.”
“Officer Casebolt used profanity and aggressively threw a 14 year old girl in a bikini bathing suit to the ground, face-down,” the statement reads. “The officer at one point even pulls out his firearm on brandishes it at two male teens. When a small African American boy asks the officer for assistance locating his bag and attempts to explain that he was not involved the officer states that is not his problem and is extremely aggressive, rude, and dismissive.”
