An editorial in this space Friday used the arrest of a member of a burned church in Greenville to admonish the public against jumping to conclusions on sensitive issues like hate crimes.
As if on cue, another racially divisive case became public Thursday with the release of a cellphone video of a white police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, arresting a black mother and her teenage daughter after a confrontation over littering.
The video, made by a family member of those arrested, shows the impassive officer listening to the mother complain that a man had grabbed and choked her 7 year-old son because he had littered.
Now, litter is a public nuisance and one of American culture’s greatest flaws. But it’s rarely the motivation for the dust-up that followed.
If the officer made a mistake in the video, it was engaging the clearly upset mother in a philosophical discussion over litter. For example, he asked her why she hadn’t taught her son not to litter — without knowing whether in fact she had. And when the mother said that the man didn’t have the right to put his hands on her son, the officer asked, “Why not?”
The confrontational questions escalated into the arrests. When the teenage daughter tried to back her mother away from the officer, the policeman wrestled both to the ground, pulled a stun gun, handcuffed them and led them to his patrol car.
All the while, the phone user followed them, screeching with exceptionally foul language that the arrests were being transmitted live to the Internet. Her insulting narration, frankly, will not help make a case of police abuse: If any person, in any job, feels endangered or threatened, they are likely to take protective action.
The mother’s attorney stated that this kind of thing only gets done to minorities. The attorney for the officer agreed that the original video raises serious questions, but said further evidence, including data from the officer’s body camera, will present “a different account of the events.”
Like the Greenville church burning case, it’s easy for many people to assume the worst. After viewing the video, it’s hard not to — although it also is worth emphasizing that getting overly agitated in front of the police over the relatively simple matter of litter discipline increases the risk of trouble.
Meanwhile, Fort Worth police said they have looked at the officer’s record of events from his body camera, but that state law prevents them from releasing the video. If that is true, it’s a law that needs to be changed. The state can’t expect people to withhold judgment while it withholds a version of what happened.
There are two trends in play here. One is the rise of video evidence, in which anybody with a smartphone can make a recording. This is useful in ferreting out the truth.
The other is the demand for immediate information. This can be less useful when intricate details must be investigated in work that by its very nature takes time.
The Greenville church burning taught us to look before we leap. The Fort Worth confrontation challenges that lesson. The police should release their version of the story — soon.
