Late yesterday, McKinney police chief Greg Conley held a press conference to announce the resignation of Eric Casebolt, the police officer who was captured on video going Rambo on a number of black teenagers who attempted to enter a neighborhood pool party.
Conley used strong language to distance his department from the controversial officer. “The actions of Casebolt, as seen on the video," stated Conley, "are indefensible.” Casebolt, he further added, came "into the call out of control" (this must be a reference to Casebolt's now-famous roll), “and as the video shows, was out of control during the incident.” Conley then stated that out of the “12 officers on the scene" (12 officers to deal with teens at a pool party!), only one of them, Casebolt, behaved unprofessionally. The rest "did an excellent job.”
In short, Casebolt is a bad apple.
But the problem with the bad apple idea is exposed right away by watching the video of the incident. The third officer to appear is actually talking with teenagers in a calm and adult manner. Then Casebolt explodes on the scene, barking orders, handcuffing a young black male for no apparent reason, yelling at a confused clutch of black girls, grabbing one of them and throwing her on the ground like a doll, and pulling a gun on two teenagers.
But during Casebolt's rampage, none of the 11 excellent officers attempt to chill him out or take him aside and have a little talk. True, they may have behaved professionally at the beginning of the incident, but once Casebolt detonates, they do not restrain but assist him. Two chase after the terrified teens, one handcuffs the girl crying for her mother, and so on.
What all of this reveals is a structural flaw in group policing. A situation of this kind appears to be vulnerable to one bad cop. Yes, all can be good cops, but all can become bad when one is bad. There appears to be no group mechanism to check behavior that is excessive or explosive. What this means—and why the police chief's bad apple claim is empty—is that bad policing is the default.
Eleven good officers could not stop one bad officer. That is damning.
