Tough Guy Sheriff Fired for Brutal Arrest of Special Needs S

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It is common for a policman to be put on Administrative leave following a public event such as this so I think it is you who are making judgements without the facts.

The FACTS are tha this girl caused enough of a disctrubance tha the bus driver pulled the bus over and called the police. The video shows this girl mouthing off to the cops and then blantently disobeying his request to leave the bus (or even stand up for that matter) As for what happened once he pulled her up by force we cannot see as his body blocked the scene. She may have thrown her hands up at his face which would have warrented her being put down.

I'm sorry, but the cops are out there to protect us and cannot play games like this as her behaviour is dangerous and impactful to many IMHO.

She got what she deserved from the evidence presented in the video and news story.

The video only shows what the school board wants you to see. Where is the video of the girl acting out or what caused her to act out? The school board are hoping to drum up the idea of the girl as acting bratty or uncontrolable before they release the full video to gain support and to not look like the bad guy. Odds are the full video will only be shown in court. For all we know the bus driver and aide might have deserved being attacked by the girl but we will not know until the full video is released.

Why am i not suprised that this was in florida seems like alot of incidents againgst special needs students happen there

Actually my bad...

http://www.sarasotasheriff.org/press_de ... p?r=11-003

It appears as though there was already a review and he was fired for conduct un-becoming as well as offensive Language and too rough. This was also a "short bus" so it should be obvious that the girl was special needs. That makes a difference from the text you posted in the original link to how I feel about this situation.

We will likely NEVER see another video (if it exists)

I don't disagree that the action was heinous, but what are the damages you would sue for?

I don't much care what this small child may have done - but I do care when someone that big, that burly and that scary - and holding a position of power over the general public - throws another life around like it was just a bag of rubbish.
He didn't even try to handle it any other way other than barking at her.

Some of the the Police here are just as simian.
In the recent student demonstrations a guy was pulled out of his wheelchair and dragged across the street by the Police. (about 1:35 in)
And yes; he was one of the students protesting - not just someone caught up who was, er, dragged across the street for his own comfort.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kh8iRjF6b4&feature=related[/youtube]

I don't know all of the circumstances surrounding this, but one issue is, which seems to be a common issue, is law enforcement officers aren't trained to handle these situations, where they are dealing with a minor or someone with special needs.

They utilize the same methods they would use if they were dealing with an adult who may potentially have a gun.

The aid should have first called her supervisor, who should have called the girl's parents or guardian. If the aid wanted to press charges, this should have been done after the fact.

Either way, multiple individuals here were not properly trained and for that reason, the parents should sue.

Whatever the lawyers can come up with or think they could get away with. The only thing school boards and police officals understand is that lawsuits will bite into their budgets when they get sued. Thats the only way they will keep their people in line and to make sure it never happens again otherwise they just transfer the guilty to somewhere else causing it to happen again in another district.

I absolutely agree!! There needs to be a policy in writing for how to handle these situations with the absolute minimum force necessary. Special Education schools have written policies for what to do when students are getting violent in the classroom. It's not the sort of situation that can be handled off-the-cuff. And it certainly can't be handled as though the person was a potentially armed adult.

Cockney, she did do something wrong; for whatever reason, she kicked and punched an aide and threw a bottle at her. She was also unco-operative with the police when they were asking her to leave the bus.

Whilst that doesn't mean she should be roughed up (and that video seems quite extreme), perhaps the type of special needs may explain why people weren't exactly leaping to her aid; if she had something subtle (as opposed to Down's syndrome etc) and she appeared completely normal to the police apart from the fact that she was kicking up hell and arguing, then the police may not have been as sympathetic (they deal with drunk people who act the same way on a regular basis).

That said, I agree that the police response was brutal and totally uncalled for in the situation; she wasn't punching the cop at the time (apparently one of his reasons for the force was that knew karate and had already been violent).


edit:

found this on http://www.theledger.com/article/201101 ... th-Student

http://www.lineofduty.com/the-blotter/1 ... rrest-fair

Some pretty good comments on this thread (both for and against the cop). In particular this one gives an alternative perspective;


Doesn't quite explain the swearing though, but I'm starting to think that the actions themselves (without the threats) might actually have been the correct response if she was that unstable; she wasn't hurt, she was just shocked.

Exactly. It's a question of proportionate response.
There's "bad" - a stroppy child and then there's "bad" - an adult waving a gun around - with a world of difference between them.

The cop used excessive force on a minor. If she is mildly mentally ret*d, has Schizophrenia, or severe autism, then the police department will have to pay some big bucks.

As a special education teacher, I get hit all the time. Numerous students have sat down at the most inopportune times. This is part of the reason why special education teachers rarely worry about unemployment.

However, the correct procedure in this case was probably to call 911.

This is why all law enforcement officers should be trained for autism and related developmental disabilities. They need to be aware of varying levels of functioning and realize that some people have problems that lead them to behave the way they do. It's very sad. I know one Aspie who had not so good experiences with police over their condition. Basically just a big misunderstanding. The movie "Adam" shows this quite well. Great movie.