Police officer ‘body slamming girl, 15, to the ground’ during street fight (video)

August 10th, 2012 | By love not hate

A startling video captures the moment a  police officer apparently body slammed a 15-year-old girl to the ground during a  street fight.

Police in Arlington, Texas are now  investigating whether the force used by the unnamed officer was too  extreme.

The incident was caught on a mobile phone  camera after a venue kicked out teenagers for fighting, and their brawl  escalated in the street.

Scroll down for  video

The party, at 1010 Collins, had been closed  down by the hall’s owner around midnight.

‘The teenage party got out of control because  of the children,’ Edna Tijerina, general  manager, told CBS.

 

‘They got in a couple of fights. At that  point, our staff did follow protocol. What we did was stop the party and told  everybody to go home.’

The fights then spread to the parking lot  outside of the hall, where police arrived to ‘de-escalate the crowds and the  fights’.

 

Amid the ruckus, a police officer apparently forcibly grabbed the teen girl as she ran away, raised her off the ground and slammed her to the floor.

As the crowd shouted obscenities at him, he  pinned her to the ground and handcuffed her, as other police officers gathered  on the scene.

The girl was arrested for fighting in public  along with four others. She was taken into custody but later released to her  parents, CBS reported.

In a statement on their Facebook page, the  Arlington Police Department said they would be investigating the officer’s  actions.

‘Several fights began to break out after a  promoter ended the party close to midnight,’ it read. ‘Officers attempted to  de-escalate… the fights.

‘Anytime an APD Officer uses force on a  person, there is a multi-layer, impartial administrative review that occurs to  review the force used.

‘This review will be conducted to determine  if the level of force was reasonable as compared to the level of  resistance.’

Police asked the public not to make a snap  judgment about the video and appealed for any other footage to help them in  their investigation.

‘What we look at: Was there force used? Was  it reasonable, based upon the resistance that was being encountered?’ Sgt. Chris Cook said.

‘We can’t see in the video what happened  before. We know what the officer said happened, but that’s under  investigation.’

The officer has now been assigned to traffic  duty while the investigation is ongoing, police said.

 

Follow us on twitter: @2TPMBLOG
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/2ThePointMusicBlog/187285107962040

Share on Facebook