Freshman at Round Rock High in Texas was choked by a on site police officer. The police officer had been called to help with a fight in the cafeteria, because the administration "needed police assistance." Administrators also told police that one student was refusing to comply, this is when the police officers took Gyasi Hughes. The Round Rock Police Department stated that, "after repeated attemps to calm the non-compliant student, and stop him from going after the other student, officers were forced to detain him for his safety and the safety of others." There is a video of what happened between the boy and the police officers, the video is filmed form far enough away that we are not able to here the conversation. The video also is cut off before the problem is resolved because a teacher tells the student filming to put the phone away. You can find the video here. Hughes's family did say that they plan on pressing charges for the police officer using excessive force on their son. Gyasi's father believes that the police officer that abused his son should have to be retrained, because "he should have been trained well enough to know that this is a 130 pound child (Gyasi) and that the action that was taken was totally unnecessary."
When watching the video the police officer appears to be Caucasian and Gyasi an African American boy. While this act of violence can not automatically be proven as an act of racism, the idea should not be totally thrown out the window. Because the video is filmed at a distance, the audience can not hear what exactly is being said. Consequently we can only hear other people's description of what happened. Other information that I would like to know is the race of the other student, the one that Gyasi got into a fight with, this would give a reader a hint if there was any racial prejudice. Since prejudice in america seems perpetual, starting with the unjust hatred toward the Native Americans continuing to today when certain religions have to fight to keep their jobs. One could say that most crimes occur because of a prejudice.
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I find it kind of sad how reading this didn't shock me at all, and how cases similar to this are becoming more and more frequent everyday. I really hope this time the cop is given what he deserves and not put on payed leave. (Jillian P.8)
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