The video of Richland County (South Carolina) deputy sheriff Ben Fields as he flipped a female student backward in her desk and then tossed her across a classroom is a jarring reminder of the seemingly endless barrage of cases of police appearing to use unnecessary force on victims who dare not resist for fear of even more grievous actions.
The student was texting in class and refused to surrender her phone to the teacher. While also indicative of the perceived breakdown of respect for authority in the classroom (there are likely as many cases of students assaulting teachers as officers assaulting students), Fields’s reaction seems a tad over the top. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lawyer-teen-suffered-several-injuries-in-classroom-arrest/ar-BBmwylc?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=iehp
On Wednesday, Fields was fired by Sheriff Leon Lott. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/sheriff-school-officer-fired-after-tossing-student-in-class/ar-BBmwylc?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=iehp
Had I blatantly disobeyed any of my high school teachers (male or female) the consequences would have been quite severe—at school and again when I got home. I knew hulking football players at Ruston High who were terrified of Miss Ruth Johnson and would never have given even so much as a fleeting thought of challenging her.
Clearly, some common ground must be reached between respect for authority and discipline to be meted out in cases of open defiance.
Many law enforcement offices across the U.S. have begun appointing school resource officers for the dual purpose of protecting schools from the epidemic of mass shootings like those at Columbine and Sandy Hook and to help school administrators maintain order and discipline in the classroom.
Often those officers must make judgment calls on the fly and their actions come under withering criticism, sometimes justified and sometimes not.
At least three Louisiana state troopers were either terminated or allowed to resign following investigations into complaints about their performance.
In one of those, a trooper was fired after he slammed the butt stock of his shotgun into the right temple of a suspect who had suffered a broken leg following a chase and then kicked him as he was lying face down while being handcuffed by deputies.
In Lake Charles, a Troop D state trooper has resigned in the wake of a state police Internal Affairs investigation into complaints against him which were unrelated to his duties as a school resource officer in Calcasieu Parish.
Jimmy Rogers posted a somewhat upbeat message on Facebook that he was accepting “an amazing opportunity” in the private sector.
That message did little to diminish the impact of harassment and domestic abuse complaints against Rogers which were ignored at State Police Troop D and at LSP headquarters in Baton Rouge until a series of LouisianaVoice stories about irregularities in Troop D. https://louisianavoice.com/2015/08/17/state-police-headquarters-sat-on-complaint-against-troop-d-trooper-for-harassment-captain-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-it/
By letter dated Nov. 14, 2014, State Trooper First Class Travis Gallow was terminated from his job by Assistant State Police Superintendent Lt. Col. Charles Dupuy.
His termination followed an Internal Affairs investigation into a four-parish pursuit of a suspect who was attempting to flee officials at speeds of up to 105 mph and who was said to have been throwing drugs and a handgun from his vehicle during the chase.
Certainly he was no Boy Scout.
Gallow was in Opelousas when the chase began in East Baton Rouge Parish and proceeded immediately to attempt to intercept the suspect whose name was redacted from the 37-page report provided by LSP to LouisianaVoice.
Gallow, after disengaging the motor vehicle recorder (MVR) on his own unit, set up a partial roadblock with his vehicle and as the suspect slowed and attempted to drive past Gallow, the trooper fired his weapon at the suspect’s car. He told investigators he discharged his weapon because he feared for his safety but investigators said the suspect had already driven past Gallow’s position with the trooper fired and that he was in no danger from the fleeing suspect. “It was determined that TFC Travis Gallow was not justified in the discharge of his firearm and in violation of Louisiana State Police Procedural Orders…,” the 37-page LSP report said.
When the suspect finally did stop and attempted to exit his vehicle, he was struck by a patrol car driven by an Iberville Parish Sheriff’s deputy. The impact knocked him to the ground, fracturing his right leg.
As he lay face down on the ground, deputies attempted to pull his arms from beneath his body in order to handcuff him. Deputies told LSP Internal Affairs investigators that the suspect was not resisting but as deputies were attempting to handcuff him, Gallow approached the scene and slammed the butt stock of his shotgun “deliberately in the right temple area” of the prone suspect’s head.
One deputy said that when Gallow struck the suspect with his shotgun, “it caused the forward slide to cycle, causing a round to be chambered in the weapon.” The report said the deputy told investigators that after the round cycled, he “disengaged because he did not want to get shot by a possible accidental discharge of TFC Gallow’s weapon,”
A second deputy told investigators that once the suspect was handcuffed, the officer who was standing to the deputy’s immediate left, kicked the still prone suspect in the left side of his body. “It should be noted that after reviewing the video footage from (redacted) unit,” the report said, “the officer standing to the left of (redacted) is TFC Gallow. In addition, the video footage also shows TFC Gallow making a kicking motion toward (redacted).”
Investigators ultimately upheld five of seven charges brought against Gallow and in his Nov. 14, 2014, letter of termination, Dupuy told Gallow that his response to his intended termination “did not present any evidence or information to dispute the findings.
LouisianaVoice obtained video of the chase and the incidents involving Gallow from LSP but the video file was so large (more than 30 minutes) that it was simply impossible to include it here.
“…You are hereby notified that effective at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 14, 2014, you are terminated from your employment as a Louisiana State Trooper…,” Dupuy wrote.
Gallow’s termination will certainly hamper him in any attempts to gain further employment in law enforcement but when troopers are allowed to resign in lieu of termination, it allows them to join other law enforcement agencies.
Jimmy Rogers, who chose to resign from Troop D, now has that option open to him.
LouisianaVoice is currently investigating the case of at least one other state trooper who was allowed to resign and who now is again working in law enforcement. When we receive public records requested from LSP, we will be posting that story.
Louisiana Voice 
I have long thought that the problem with education is lack of parenting. I am aware that for many parents it is incredibly difficult to work and be a good parent especially since many households need two incomes to survive. Lack of teaching children respect by example or plain teaching has got to be part of the problem. When parents do not respect themselves or each other what are we teaching the children? Coupled with the media and so-called entertainment where children are seemingly taught that being “bada$$” is the way they should be is also part of the problem. Just lack of respect for anyone is terrible.
It is a sad state of affairs.
And as you say, Tom, none of that is in any way an excuse for the actions of the officer in S.C. We need to have this discussion.
Yes, we do need to have this discussion. But what I find disheartening is that this story got only 3,000 unique hits, 13 Facebook shares and so far, only the three comments while the Vitter stories, important though they were, got over 1,000 Facebook shares 10,000 unique hits and many more comments.
I see this is a wholesale attitude of “so what?” on the part of Louisiana’s citizens who, while pushing tough law enforcement, tend to look the other way when people’s rights are openly violated—until they themselves become the victims.
Something has got to be done to rein in these cowboy cops and to promote the good ones who will administer enforcement evenly and fairly and that will only happen with public awareness.
“But what I find disheartening is that this story got only 3,000 unique hits, 13 Facebook shares and so far, only the three comments while the Vitter stories, important though they were, got over 1,000 Facebook shares 10,000 unique hits and many more comments.”
Though, interest in the politics of the day is not entirely apathy toward any other issues. Who is more likely to crack down on bad state police behavior, Vitter or Edwards?
Amen to that. Better training for police, police in appropriate roles with appropriate “guidelines” and more respect for all levels of authority with a no tolerance for “bad cops” would help immensely. Unfortunately it seems that matters may get worse as many former soldiers turn to law enforcement as a career after the military, and bring with them the training of the military which is vastly different than that of LE or at least it should be. The militarization of LE also, in my opinion, plays a role and is easily exacerbated by things like the so-called Patriot Act, the burgeoning number of former soldiers in the LE field, and are manifested in things like LE’s all of a sudden not being referred to as civilians (a trend I find particularly disturbing) as the only non-civilians, in my opinion are active duty soldiers. I guess I a showing my age again.
Based on what is see in the video, I don’t condone the actions of the student or the officer. Perhaps both came from the same “lack of respect” parenting background or neither did. We don’t know and we weren’t there. From my experience as a student, parent and teacher, I find it hard to believe that the neither teacher nor the principal were able to correct the situation.
Our entire society is messed up. Lack of respect for authority is only a symptom. Some parents have to spend more than their fair share of hours at work. Some parents were never raised properly themselves, so they can’t teach their children. It’s been reported that the girl involved in the incident in South Carolina had recently become an orphan and is in foster care. It does not excuse her behavior, but shows that there is more going on there.
But the authority in our society is also corrupt. Respect is something that is earned. When people witness police abusing their authority and allowed to get away with it, how can the police then command respect from the public? When we hear every other week of teachers molesting students, how can they then command respect from students? When our political leaders tell every lie in the book to get elected, steal from their constituents to line the pockets of their campaign donors, are regular clients of prostitutes (and the list goes on), how can they then expect to earn respect as leaders?
There is plenty of blame to go around. Parents are not the only problem.
Something has to be done about these rogue cops. I know there has to be some psychological test that can be done on potential recruits to weed out those with issues. Too many of the wrong kind of people are given a gun and a badge.
All cops are taught how to handle resisting subjects.
The problem is most of the defensive tactics systems are more concerned with liability to the department than the safety of the officer.
None of which excuses a bad officer’s brutality.
But I’m less concerned with an openly uncooperative student in South Carolina than I am a LSP Trooper butt stroking a non resisting suspect and then kicking him once he was handcuffed.
I have been racking my brain about what I would have done in this situation had I been the officer. I guess the only answer is, “I don’t know, because I wasn’t there.” I have to hope I would not have done what he did, but I find myself seriously wondering if, as has been reported, the student absolutely refused to leave and then physically resisted any effort to remove her, what would have been the best approach? Walking away and leaving her sitting there until class was over? Calling her parent/guardian to come get her as soon as possible? Calling for help (to minimize danger to her or anybody else) and removing her immediately? What? Again, I don’t know and wonder if any of you can suggest the best approach in such a situation.
I do believe this was a school discipline problem and should not have necessarily involved bringing a law enforcement officer into the equation. It begs the question, “What, exactly, is a school resource officer supposed to do at the school? Isn’t s/he supposed to protect the students and staff? Is s/he supposed to be “Officer Friendly” at the same time to engender a positive view of police?
A dangerous situation is evolving that places public safety personnel and citizens at increasing risk. Fewer and fewer people of any race (and, unfortunately, even fewer black people) trust police to be fair when they have to deal with them and police find it harder and harder to trust the people with whom they have to deal. This mutual distrust cannot have positive implications and there is certainly no easy answer.
It is good this discussion is out here and sad this is one of those things most people don’t really want to think about, much less try to address. There are no easy answers. The dynamics are complex. Only a preponderance of positive interactions between police and “civilians” will change the prevailing attitudes on both sides and it is difficult to figure out the best way to make that happen.
I admit here and now that I do not know all of the circumstances surrounding this incident.
I suspect what we have is an unfortunate coming together of numerous factors ending in a very bad situation and response. First the young lady who apparently refused several different attempts by several authority figures to surrender her phone. Secondly you have a police officer who knows that this has occurred. He has been asked, I gather to either “get the phone” and/or remove the young adult from the room. Now you have inserted an individual, in uniform, who is mostly accustomed to having his orders followed “or else” as we used to say. This individual whether right or not determines that, by gosh, by golly, or by force one or both of those two things is going to happen. It is in all of his training. It is his responsibility, his job. It is in his pride as an officer to get things done, control the situation, be the ultimate authority in the situation at hand. Deliver justice, as he understands it to be pursuant to the rules as he understands them.
The outcome of the encounter as far as the officer is concerned is not under question or negotiation. Especially not with the young adult lady. He has the authority AND the power, in many instances by any means he can muster, to get the results he thinks are the legitimate results that the authority demands. He sees an intransigent young adult who has until now and after his first attempts continues to flaunt the authority and its, he believes, “lawful” request. This occurs, more unfortunately, in a room full of other young adults, an audience that for different reasons each protagonist feels they must prevail in front of. Not a good scenario.
The young adult lady, for whatever reasons, either thinks she is being “smart” (as we would say in the day), does not know, either the rules or the potential consequences, or does not think she cares about any of that. Whether she came to that/those conclusions due to life experience, teaching or learned it from example I could only speculate and that is not appropriate. However she came to that decision not to obey several requests/orders to follow rules it was, it turns out a bad choice.
The officer, who has been trained and has sworn an oath to protect, defend and administer the “law” came into the situation only knowing what he was told, i suspect, by the “authorities on site”, and what he was requested to do. As far as he was concerned, because of his training and responsibility order must be preserved because w/out order there is chaos and chaos is bad.
Did the young adult act responsibly? It appears not based on the information I have. Did she act prudently? I say no.
Did the officer act responsibly? It appears not at least at the point at which he became violent. Did he act prudently? It appears not as his decisions and the actions he took pursuant to those decisions, his beliefs, training and/or orders has resulted in violence that was probably not appropriate and caused his termination.
Like Mr. Winham I have no idea what I would have done. For one thing, in my day I would have never questioned or at least not denied the first request I received to relinquish or stop using the phone. That was just the way I was raised. Whether or not I thought the request justified I would have done so. At that point I might have sought some other recourse to achieve justice that I thought i deserved but that would depend on the circumstances. Unlike the police officer and i do not mean to second guess, armchair quarterback the officer but I cannot imagine that I would have resorted to the level of force he did. Unfortunately I think he painted himself in a corner. He was trained to get the response he expected from a lawful request as he saw it. Once requests did not rectify the problem his only recourse, i suspect given his training was escalation unless and until the young adult finally submitted. Here he is making lawful demands which are summarily rebuffed, in front of a classroom full of young adults and again his training, i suspect tells him to ratchet up until the order is followed.
This still leaves so many questions.
Excellent analysis, du chicot.