Texas Cop Suspended After Pool Party Melee

Cop grabbed teenage girl and slammed her to the ground
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 7, 2015 4:50 PM CDT

An explosive video of Texas cops chasing, handcuffing, and cursing at black teenagers has led to one officer being placed on administrative leave, the Dallas Morning News reports. According to police in McKinney, Texas, it began with calls Friday night about teens using a community pool without permission and "actively fighting." Brandon Brooks, who posted the YouTube video, tells Buzzfeed that "a bunch of white parents were angry that a bunch of black kids who don’t live in the neighborhood were in the pool." A white teen girl says a woman there turned violent when teenagers objected to her disparaging remarks about public housing. However it started, three officers showed up and failed to disperse the teenagers, so nine more cops were dispatched.

The video shows officers running down a residential street, chasing teenagers, handcuffing them, shouting profanities, and warning bystanders to move across the street or face jail time. "Everyone who was getting put on the ground was black, Mexican, Arabic," says Brooks, who is white. "[An officer] didn’t even look at me. It was kind of like I was invisible." An officer can be seen grabbing a black 14-year-old girl in a bikini by the hair, slamming her to the ground, and screaming, "On your face!" When two teenage boys run up, the officer draws what appears to be a gun and the boys run off, only to be apprehended by other officers. The girl—who wept and called for her mother during the incident—was later handed over to her parents, and an unidentified adult was arrested for interfering with police, KHOU reports. McKinney police have launched a formal investigation. (More Texas stories.)

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