Originally Posted by
BiTeMe UsAdOj
Drawing his weapon was absurd in that situation and will be hard to rationalize away in his probable official hearing.
You're right, his skills in defusing situations obviously suck donkey balls and his actions (verbally, too) clearly contributed to the escalation of the event.
Not excusing the non-compliant behavior of some of the teens... BUT ... an officer has to possess better control-the-scene skills than this guy obviously has.
Years ago I worked (4 years total) in a facility in NY similar to the infamous Tryon (where Mike Tyson was as a youth... we actually swapped kids back and forth from time to time with Tryon)... ages 13-17yrs old... most court-appointed... from murderers to arsonists and most everything in between.
What I saw in that video was a friggin picnic scenario compared to what transpired nearly every day in the facility I worked at; yeah, teens don't listen when authority speaks... duh ... have the skills to get them to comply without escalating things. Fights, drugs, weapons, even arson attempts weren't uncommon where I worked -- we had to deal with things far worse than on that video nearly every damn day. That jacked-up embarrassment for a police officer really shouldn't be out on the streets with a gun and a badge if he can't properly handle a not-too-hard scenario such as that.