A Clark County School District Police patch during an interview at CCSD Police headquarters in Henderson, Friday, Feb.18, 2022.
Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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The video is shocking.
A group of high school students hold up their cellphones, exercising their rights to document Clark County School District police officers as they appear to be arresting a classmate outside of a Clark County high school. The students, most of whom appear to be no older than 16, peacefully advocate for their friend, telling the officers that they believe he shouldn’t be detained.
In a social media post, one comment suggested a group of teenagers were heading to “Jack” (presumably Jack-in-the-Box) after school.
They are all Black teenagers living in the post-George Floyd era of law enforcement; they know the potential stakes of this moment. They know that their only hope for justice is to remain calm and document everything.
One of the students walks past the officers, apparently recording with his phone as he passes. He comes within a few feet, but steers clear of the police. He poses no threat to the officers. He simply walks past while recording and heads away from the cops.
One of the officers turns to him and says “You want (to be) next dude? ... Start walking.”
According to a witness who posted to social media, the officer then told the teen to stop recording. The teen refused, correctly pointing out that it is his constitutional right to record the incident. He also moves even further away , ensuring there is no confusion that he is not a threat.
But it’s too late.
The officer moves toward the retreating teenager. After closing the roughly 15-foot distance between himself and the student who refuses to stop recording, the officer grabs him by the neck, twists his body around and slams him face down into the pavement next to the curb. He presses his knee into the youngster’s back in a harrowing echo of Floyd’s killing.
The officer is yelling at other students to “back the f--- up!” even though he is the only person in the situation who appears to pose a threat to anyone.
Several more students peacefully plead with the officer, saying “you can’t have him on the floor like that.” Off camera, one child says “call my momma” and another, also apparently recording, asks a friend to hold his camera. While the students plead with the police, they comply with the officer’s commands to back away.
Yet the officer’s only response is to continue screaming “back the f--- up!” while grinding the full weight of his adult body onto a child’s back.
Toward the end of the video, the boy under the policeman’s knee shifts slightly as the cop raises his fist menacingly above the prone and helpless kid and screams for him to stop moving. The child was not struggling in the slightest, only shifting on the ground.
We don’t yet know the full circumstances of this situation. Once the video hit social media, the CCSD Police Department released a statement that claimed the incident occurred after an unspecified warning about a gun somewhere in the district. No further details were released and the officers in the video do not give the appearance of being concerned that any of the teenagers are armed.
The youngsters visible in the video go out of their way to demonstrate that they are not a threat to the police, and the police reaction seems utterly outside acceptable behavior. Moreover, the teenager slammed and pinned to the ground was actively moving away from the police when grabbed. It appears that simply recording police was enough for this officer to resort to violence.
The students in this video tried to demand justice calmly and peacefully. They tried to comply with the officer’s orders while exercising their basic constitutional rights. Were curse words used in frustration? Yes, some. But at no time in the course of this video did any of the teens behave aggressively toward the police. To the contrary, they were trying to reason with the police.
On what should have been a happy afternoon after school, these officers taught the kids an ugly lesson about the abuse of power. In a time when our entire nation would benefit from a climate in which Black teenagers can trust the police, this cop scarred everyone on the scene and everyone who sees the video.
If we don’t want that to be the only lesson these kids learn about law enforcement, then we must demand more. If we want to heal as a community, this cannot be the way the story ends.
The officer involved must be immediately removed from duty pending a full investigation with real accountability. That investigation must have the full cooperation of other members of law enforcement, as well as the police union. CCSD Police should take this moment to review its practices, resolve to have a more effective relationship with the students they are supposed to protect and, yes, try some outreach.
We must show these kids that justice will in fact win the day. That’s a lesson worth teaching.
Only then can we come together as a whole community and heal.
To the district’s credit, CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara quickly called for a full investigation and noted the importance of the relationship between CCSD students and school police.
It’s a promising first step, but it is only the first step.
