The Villain
By Mitch Berg
Was the “school service officer” in this video – posted on Facebook yesterday, shot at Central High School in Saint Paul – the bad guy, using a lot of force to subdue a guy who, it’s claimed, had transferred to a different school and was back for some unspecified reason?
Or, as the school district said, was he just doing his job with an uncooperative, trespassing student?
None of us saw how this episode started. And Black Lives Matter is involved – they had a rally at Central yesterday – so all sides are going to go into siege mode; we’ll never know.
And since we’ll never know, most would say it’d be most prudent to say we don’t know who the good and bad guys are in this video.
But we do. We most definitely do have a bad “guy”; the school staffer who swoops into the frame around 1:21, to tell the kid to stop taping what’s going on?
She’s the bad guy.
May 27th, 2016 at 7:30 am
Did I see someone drinking a beer in that video? On school property?
May 27th, 2016 at 7:33 am
Public school students might as well get used to beat downs from cops. At least they can say they got something from their time.
May 27th, 2016 at 7:37 am
I think the teacher was telling the kid recording it to stop egging on the kid getting arrested.
May 27th, 2016 at 7:42 am
the SPPS version of Melissa Click?
May 27th, 2016 at 8:18 am
For sure he didn’t have a weapon hiding in his pants. Pretty blue panties.
May 27th, 2016 at 8:41 am
The boy in the blue panties will make a good theater major at Macalester. Very good drama queen.
May 27th, 2016 at 8:51 am
If you see something, tape something.
May 27th, 2016 at 9:22 am
That was staged. Those kids knew exactly what they were doing. No big deal though because it’s just a way of starting a dialogue, right?
BLM is involved? They’re going to waste a lot of political capital and goodwill making an issue out of this one.
May 27th, 2016 at 11:35 am
He’s a product of the St. Paul school system. “Put your hands behind your back” is spoken in a language that’s confusing for him.
May 27th, 2016 at 12:18 pm
It’s hard to judge a story by the last chapter alone which, of course, is why activists edit video (see Mitch’s Katie Couric post). Yes, there are “thumper” cops but yes, there also are arrest resisters. I’m withholding judgment until I get “the rest of the story.”
May 27th, 2016 at 12:59 pm
Reason I’d never make it in inner city schools; the dress code WOULD specify that one’s outer garments MUST cover one’s inner garments and tuckus.
I’m actually pretty impressed that the officer was so gentle with the kid. Really, he was ignoring what any kid that goes to school knows; report to the office when you visit during school hours, or else you will be asked to leave. Do so acting like a convict, and you will be treated as one. It’s not that complicated.