One Consequence In McKinney, Texas

McKinney, Texas, police Corporal, Eric Casebolt, responded to a call of trespassing and fighting at a private neighborhood swimming pool last week. When he arrived he found chaos. A group of teenagers, mostly black, were running around, ignoring police instructions to either leave the area or sit down until the officers could investigate what exactly was going on. Officer Casebolt's actions with a 15 year old girl who refused to leave and resisted attempts to detain her resulted in him resigning from his job. But was that a good thing?

Casebolt himself, speaking through his attorney, said he let his emotions get the better of him. But what caused that to happen?

According to his attorney, Eric Casebolt, a 10 year veteran of the department, began his shift by responding to a suicide call. A man had just shot himself and Casebolt had to attempt to console the grieving widow. He also had to assist in photographing the body. I have no idea what condition the body was in, as in where the man shot himself, but chances are it wasn't a pretty sight. And if you don't see things like that on a regular basis it can greatly affect you.

Casebolt's second call of the day was to a home where a young teenage girl was on the roof of her parents' home threatening to jump. Casebolt was able to talk to the girl and calm her down, thus preventing her from jumping and helping her down from the roof. No one knows whether or not she would have jumped but Casebolt quite possibly saved her life.

Then he responded to a mob situation where he encountered a belligerent teenage girl, whom he ended up wrestling to the ground. He drew his service weapon when to boys ran up on him (while he was on the ground with the girl) - one of whom put his hand behind his back as they approached Casebolt.

A short video of those two things, a mere 1/5th of the entire incident, ended up on the national news and Casebolt is not only out of a job, he's in hiding with his family due to death threats. One black actor, a man by the name of Dennis L.A. White, took to Twitter to launch a threat against Casebolt.

“We have associates looking for #EricCasebolt family,” his first tweet read. He followed up with “What if we found Eric Casebolt’s family and beat up the young girls in it?” after which he made this menacing statement: “If you live in McKinney, find his family.”

Really? Find his family? Has America really sunk that low - Hollywood actors calling for the family of a police officer to be attacked because of an incident that the black residents of the neighborhood have all said had nothing to do with race? And if Casebolt's family is found and assaulted or terrorized will Mr. White (an unfortunate name for him, I'm sure) be held responsible? 

The sad consequence of this incident is that an experienced officer, who likely saved a life that very day, won't be there to save another one because of one short and isolated incident. Like Darren Wilson, Casebolt really did nothing wrong yet he had to resign his position and go into hiding because some black citizens decided he needs to die for his actions. 

Is it any wonder that police across the nation are somewhat afraid of being proactive in their fight against crime when cops are being prosecuted, threatened and forced to resign even when they do the right thing?

We'll never know if a future life in McKinney could have been saved by Eric Casebolt. But I have no doubt one could have been if it wasn't for the hatred some people have for white police officers today. And we don't have to look very far to determine the reason for that.