Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The incident in South Carolina

As I watched the now viral video of that school cop dragging that girl out of the chair to arrest her, my first thought was honestly not, "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA". As I listened to the rest of the report, the story I heard was that 1) the girl was using her phone during the class 2) she had been told to put the phone away and she refused 3) she was asked by the teacher to leave the room and she refused 4) a school administrator was brought to the room to ask the student to leave and she refused 5) Robocop with the tactical gear on finally showed up and brought the scene to a predictable end.

It will be no surprise to anyone here that I was a smart ass in school. I received plenty of physical slaps from the principle of my grade school. It's not just matter that you can't do that today, but the shit he did would have gotten him in some serious trouble in today's world. Since his response was always a way over the top smack down, it's not like I was gonna get a mild slap for  mild grab ass behavior and a roundhouse kick to the head for worse behavior. I say this to make the point that I was pretty much the same smart ass everyday and I knew what the limit was. It wasn't his threat of reprisal that set my limits, rather it had a lot to do with not only how I was raised, but also how my friends were raised. Even in my most smart assed moments, I would not have dreamed of openly disrupting the class the level this girl, allegedly, did.

So TS and I have been having this round and round about who's to blame. If what is being said about the girl's behavior is true, I think she's kind of an entitled spoiled bitch, and I feel the same about a lot kids I meet today. Obviously, the video shows the final stage in a conflict and Robo Renta cop was called in to do the dirty work and be the bad guy. And he delivered. I guess as I read liberal outrage and listen to the cherry picked interviews with carefully selected black "authorities" I ask myself what, exactly is that these people would rather have seen done. Should they have allowed the girl to completely take over the class, disrespect the teacher, disrespect her classmates who might want to learn and be allowed to sit there with smugness while the school people politely "bargain" with her? It appeared she was digging in her heels and wasn't going to budge. That's a no win situation for everyone involved.

I feel like kids today have no respect for authority, and while this has surely been said of every generation looking backward, I feel like the present moment presents something new. Not only do kids not respect authority, but neither do their parents. The video only shows what happens at the end, and I can only judge from anecdotal reports of what lead up to it. Still, I feel like teachers have to put up with a lot of bullshit today and if they aren't getting it from girls like the one shown in the video, they are getting it from parents who are equally abusive. I'm sure there is some liberal scapegoat to blame for this girl's behavior, probably related to gay marriage and lack of respect for the constitution, but if the rest of the story happened they way I'm reading it now, my only thought at the moment is that this girl should grow the fuck up. I saw nothing there that made me think about racism.

9 comments:

  1. You sound like the old white dude you are honky.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are correct Max.

      People have little respect for authority. A trait children are learning from their parents.

      Liberal scapegoat?

      It belongs to the parents.

      Delete
    2. We saw just a few seconds of the film on TV here. The accompanying commentary was not in any way racist but the inference was that the Policeman acted way beyond his authority or his need for self preservation.

      I cannot discern anything racist in the Post by Max.The fact that a Colored student is manhandled by a white policeman is not a good look. I have viewed the video in the reference several times and as the story progressively draws out I note that on each episode!!! The salient and confronting vision is repeated.

      Perhaps a reasonable result would have been the arrest of the student by two law enforcement officers, one colored and one white. I find it passing strange that the policeman has been summarily dismissed from his position. What price the sixth amendment, natural justice and due process?

      Cheers from Aussie

      Delete
    3. I honestly feel bad for this officer. He was the third adult to try and end her behavior and I don't know if you saw the other video that has popped up. but before he forcefully pulled her from the chair, he asked her to leave the room, twice i believe, without profanity, and told her that he was going to remove her from the room if she did not leave on her own volition. He was put in a spot to be the bad guy and end a situation that had already gone on for some time. I'm not asking this of you, but I keep wishing I could ask the black people they keep interviewing how long the girl should have been allowed to keep the disruption going. Should they have moved everyone else int he class to another room in order to not violate the rights of the girl? Should they have taken more time and waited for another office to arrive so that they gently lift her desk up and carry it out of the room to further show how utterly in control of the situation the girl was?

      I have plenty of strong opinions that racism, particularly racism against black people, is still a problem in this country. In this instance though, I feel like this is one of many many examples of bad behavior that teachers and schools have to deal with. Many people here bitch about how screwed up our schools are and how they are warping the minds of our children with their leftist bullshit, because after all, any institution, by design, robs freedom, especially when it is government sanctioned. I believe, on the other hand, that schools today are tasked with solving a lot of social problems, whether it's kids acting out because their home life is crappy, or it's parents who storm the school to complain about every inch of the curriculum, and that goes for both left and right.

      Delete
  2. Update, so the good folks at Daily Koz today have a piece up saying, "She only looked at her phone, she refused to give up the phone to the teacher, and she didn't leave the classroom because she did nothing wrong" They also note she is a child in foster care.

    In my life experience, I get that kids frequently act out and challenge authority when their home life is shitty. In this case, however, there is still a problem, the adult teacher is the one in charge of the room, not the child. I disagree with the concept, "She didn't leave because she did nothing wrong". She disobeyed the teacher and put the teacher in a bad spot to either ignore the challenge, or escalate it. She also told the administrator she would not leave, because again, in her mind, she did nothing wrong and allegedly has the power to tell the teacher and the school administrator their rules do not apply to her. Officer slam, as he is now being called, was the last in line and was expected to do exactly what he did, which was to end the standoff. This is the kind of societal issue that teachers and schools have to put up with everyday. It's well and good to claim they all suck, are overpaid, don't do their job, etc etc, but I think that the endless list of things like this they have to put up with are seldom taken into consideration.

    ReplyDelete