Abusive Cop vs. Dancing Cop: One Chose Force. The Other Chose Humanity

[eridani]

.https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dancing-cop-vs-abusive-cop-one-defused-a-defiant-teen-the-other-got-fired/2015/10/29/2d9ea4fa-7e2a-11e5-afce-2afd1d3eb896_story.html

In Washington, police showed up in a neighborhood near the Nationals baseball stadium to break up a fight between two groups of teens. After it was over, 17-year-old Aaliyah Taylor, a senior at Ballou High School, walked up to the officer and started playing “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” on her phone. Instead of clearing out, as the police officer had demanded that she and the rest of the crowd do, she started dancing the Nae Nae. You could totally see a teen doing this, right?

That officer had a choice. Yell at the teen for being defiant and disrespectful? Go rogue and slam the teen to the ground, South Carolina-style?

Nope. Instead, the officer began dancing, too, matching Aaliyah move for move. It was a hilarious, uplifting and refreshing 56 seconds of video that immediately went viral.

It shouldn’t be news that a police officer used her humanity to defuse a tense situation instead of escalating it, that a white cop didn’t use force against a black teen. But for many people in Aaliyah’s community, it was.

All seven of her siblings have been cuffed or arrested by police for nonviolent crimes, like breaking curfew, she told The Washington Post’s Perry Stein. And her brother and six sisters all told her that the police were rough on them. We saw that video in South Carolina. We know it happens.

[ohheckyeah]

1. Good on her.

I have a nephew that was a discipline problem for everybody but me. I never got into power struggles with him but instead used humor or absurdity to defuse the situation and get his cooperation.

One day he came to the kitchen door and said "get me a glass of milk". I looked under the kitchen table, looked in the pantry, etc. and he said in an annoyed tone "what are you doing"? I replied "looking for whoever you were talking to because I know you wouldn't talk to me that way". He grinned and said "would you please get me a glass of milk?"

He never talked to me that way again. Power struggle and lecture avoided.

[mahannah]

3. Well done !

[DLevine]

2. K&R. nt

[Oneironaut]

4. Women are usually better officers because they

don't immediately resort to aggression and force to try and control a situation.

(There are male cops who are like that too, but not as many. There are also bad female cops too.)

I think one of the best ways to overhaul the police siege mentality in this country is to get more women as cops. There are too many who become police officers because they're like a hammer looking for nails to hit.

[SunSeeker]

6. Exactly.

And when you're a 300 lb, muscled up, 'roid-raged hammer like that SC meathead, everything looks like a nail.

[valerief]

7. Definitely more women as cops. Get the roidheads off the forces. nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Then there's this.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-10/washington-courthouse-shooting-arrest/53467288/1

In 2008, Steven Kravetz was convicted in Lewis County of third degree assault and making false or misleading statements to a public servant. He served 102 days on the charges, the Daily World of Aberdeen reported.
In that incident, Centralia police Sgt. Stacy Denham told the Seattle Times that Kravetz was arrested after he refused to cooperate with police after being kicked out of a Centralia public library.
Scott said courthouse witnesses identified Kravetz as the man who was behaving strangely in the courthouse Friday.
Around lunchtime Friday, Deputy Davin responded to a report of a suspicious person at the courthouse and confronted a man. During a struggle, she was stabbed with either a small knife or scissors. The judge intervened, striking the assailant, who then stabbed him, authorities said.
Davin reached for her gun, but it was wrestled away by the man, who shot twice, striking her in the shoulder before fleeing, Scott said.
Both the judge and the sheriff's deputy were treated and released from a hospital hours after the attack.

[beam me up scottie]

14. And a male cop never had his gun taken from him?

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. Probably. Much the same way a male cops often defuse situations peacefully.

There should be more female cops, but not because they're inherently better at it.

[beam me up scottie]

16. Nice try but I know what you meant.

Being a female and a former Marine I grok the sexism.

We wimmenz just can't handle ourselves.

[niyad]

19. and that means what, exactly?

[treestar]

23. I agree the whole problem with everything from war to these confrontation

is the damnable masculine complex of I have to prove I'm a manly tough man. Can't be a "girl" or a "sissy." Well except girls and sissies don't hurt people. It's rewarding bullies, who are the "toughest."

[SunSeeker]

5. We need more cops like this. nt

[lunatica]

9. I saw that video on tv on CNN this morning

Those gals can really dance! It was great watching it.

[Rex]

10. The dancing cop got some moves!

It is better to self-identify as human, then as pig...always imo.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

11. That right there is how police work should be done. nt

[Feeling the Bern]

12. Exceptions to the rule are not the rule.

[Skittles]

13. both those gals have very good moves

yes INDEED

[niyad]

18. thank you. and, of course, we all notice that it was a female officer.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. That's what the original "community policing"

concept attempted to encourage back in the '90s - getting out of the vehicle (outside of responding to a call as in this case) and learning the neighborhood and those who live there, so you wouldn't be suspicious of every person walking down the street or standing on the corner. That whole common-sense concept disappeared and now almost 20 years later, some are finally attempting to bring it back.

This doesn't mean the officer is "the same as" those in the community that he/she is supposed to "serve and protect" because he/she has been given certain authorities. But it helps to build trust and probably reduces acting on the rampant number of "there is a strange person in the neighborhood" false alarms.

[mwooldri]

21. Community policing should be the norm, not the exception.

Police officers in England complain that cutbacks reduce their ability to police effectively - meaning that all they're doing is running after emergency calls and not getting out into the community, going door-to-door, holding public meetings, writing a column in the community newspaper or newsletter, sending out leaflets.... yes... that kind of policing... but critically getting out of the patrol car and walking around... they called it "walking the beat" - still happens because when you're armed with a stick you're relying on the best muscle in your body... your brain.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. When I was growing up

here in Philly, the cops "walked the beat" and always came into the schools (along with the firefighters) to give special presentations. Then much of that ended and all they did was drive around their territories. When they started walking the beat again in the '90s, they also included bike cops, which was something new and actually seemed to be a good compromise between walking and driving (where the motorcycle was more awkward in this task), because during a chase, the bike could go where the car could not and could pick up speed to gain on a nimble suspect. Nowadays, the bikes are still there (and I noticed the National Park Service also deploy them), but the beat walking has been much reduced.