On Friday, a large group of teens gathered for a pool party in the city of McKinney, Texas. Shortly thereafter, someone called the police. And by Sunday night, as footage of the police response spread across the internet, the McKinney Police Department announced it was placing Eric Casebolt, the patrol supervisor shown in the video, on administrative leave.
It is the latest in a string of incidents of police using apparently excessive force against African Americans that has captured public attention. And it took place at a communal pool—where, for more than a century, conflicts over race and class have often surfaced.
The video shows a foul-mouthed police corporal telling the young men he encounters to get down, and the young women to take off, although far more obscenely. When several seated young men appear to ask, politely, for permission to leave, he explodes at them: “Don’t make me fucking run around here with thirty pounds of goddamn gear in the sun because you want to screw around out here.” The corporal was white. The young people he detained were, almost without exception, black.
Reminded me of this one:
The Justice Department announced a settlement agreement Thursday in a Philadelphia-area racial discrimination case dating back to June 2009.
During that summer, Creative Steps Day Camp of Northeast Philadelphia paid The Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley for pool access for summer campers. After their first day of swimming, the camp's money was refunded and campers were told not to return.
Several campers claimed they heard pool members making racial comments while they were at the club.
White people don't like to swim with black people.