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Local12: Confrontation Between Police and KI Employee Caught on Film


BoddaH1994
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Cellphone video captured a confrontation between a Kings Island police officer and a park employee who claimed he was slammed to the ground. Kings Island suspended the 17-year-old summer employee after the confrontation with the officer. The teen said it happened Monday, July 6, as guests and park employees left for the night. Kamar Finley said he was going to take the bus home, but changed his mind and decided to call his dad for a ride. During the phone call, police ordered him and other employees to sit on a bench and wait.

 

 

http://www.local12.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/Caught-on-video-Officer-employee-confrontation-at-Kings-Island-160025.shtml

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It seems to me that many officers today could use a refresher course in proportional response – the "punishment" fitting the "crime."

 

After this seemingly endless wave of violence against predominantly black young people, I sense a thread connecting the incidents: a sort of god complex where a police officer thinks what he or she says is infallible. If someone talks back, take them to the ground. If someone won't answer your questions, put them in a chokehold. If someone runs, shoot them. No. If someone doesn't do what you want them to do, you don't get to stop them from running by killing them unless they pose an imminent danger to others. There's a legal process to follow, and mighty police officer doesn't get to impose vigilante justice on any who don't immediately comply.

 

I can appreciate that officers put their lives on the line and must err on the side of caution, but there's this consistent and quick escalation where an officer "goes there" in a situation that doesn't require it, which in turn makes the confronted party feel bewildered and confused. Like, "is this really happening?"

 

The two things at work here: First, we all should comply with officer demands.

 

Second, officers need to re-evaluate. After being on the job for 5, 10, 15, 20 years you're likely to be pretty jaded and, put simply, think the worst of everyone. I get that. But while you should be safe and consider your own well-being first, you cannot enter every situation pre-escalated and enraged and frustrated. This officer tackled a 17-year-old for refusing to sit on a bench. Given the racial angle, we can ask if this is Birmingham 1963 (and it would be fair to ask, "Would the officer have reacted this way to a 17 year old white child in the same situation and saying the same things?"). Even not bringing that into it, this is a disproportionate response on the officer's end and a bad choice on the young man's.

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Without coming down on one side or the other, if officers were to wear body cameras you could see what was happening from their side.

No one deserves to lose their life or to be treated poorly, but at the same time these officers have to make decisions in real time and assess danger.

Officer Sonny Kim didn't react with an appropriate level of response and was killed. The cop in Fergusen almost had his gun taken away (based on evidence at the scene).

If I make a mistake at my job, a kid may or may not make a /k/ sound correctly. If a ride op makes a mistake, the train doesn't dispatch.

Maybe this cop over reacted to the threat. Maybe the kid was super respectful and was just up talking on the phone. Maybe the kid threatened the cop verbally and when he put his arms up, the cop reacted physically.

I talked to a cop buddy a few months back and he said in training you are taught to end the threat.

There is no good way to test officers about how they react with a white perp vs a black perp. Videos online have tried but they can't replicate the same problems in the same situation with the same responding officers.

The best we can do when approached by an officer is to comply 100%. At my old school, the students would tel us that at home they were told to always fight back against the police. To never listen. They were instructed to run from a cop no matter what and to be physical if a cop got into their space. The parents would actively tell kids to fight police because of the threat the police were to the kids. We the staff would of course tell them the opposite but we were mostly white teachers speaking to kids that did not share our backgrounds.

In every instance, 3 sides. His side, my side, and the truth.

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Not to mention it picks up the situation after it started. Maybe the cop walked over and harassed the young man from the beginning. Maybe when the cop walked over to tell him to not walk in the Parking lot but to get on the side walk the kid reacted very negatively.

All we know from the video is their is a KI security guard and a cop talking to a young man about something before the cop puts the kid on the ground.

So KI suspended the kid but then rescinded the suspension after being shown the video. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

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Why would the security guard be razzing a park employee in the first place? I can see if it was a guest that was trying to do something unauthorized after close but this guy works there...

 

As much as we don't want to admit it, we all have biases. The officer overseeing that bus stop may very well have gotten a little "itchy" as the bus stop fills with young people from what one might perceive as low income families, so a slight disturbance might've put him on guard. A lot of assumptions there on my part, but as to how this could happen and escalate so quickly, there you have it...

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Well, no matter the evidence, I'm sure all sides will be displayed fairly in the media, and nobody will overreact. Everything's going to be just fine.

(There isn't a large enough wink emoticon.)

I really hope that the guilty party (no matter what side it is) gets taken care of.

We had a cop that would patrol our school. One day he said "I could just get rid of all of them and my life would be better" referring to our students. He no longer (at least I never saw him again) patrolled our events.

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No interpreting was in that post.

Three questions were asked.

You CHOSE to answer only one.

There is a message in there somewhere, but not from me.

The other two questions, both important, cry out for answers.

The forum, affected, and the public await.

As markr said, pending investigation, "we have no idea what happened." We may never.

And "random things" often lead to great revelations.

I've been asking "random questions" (which often are nothing of the kind) for more than five decades now, here and elsewhere.

One learns tons by listening, watching, reading and asking questions. IF one doesn't make the assumptions (often wrong--such as thinking a question, hint, or clue is "stupid") that most others do.

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Can anyone provide some insight on the bus stop where this happened.  Are there more park visitors or employees ridding the bus this time at night?  Does it typically cause issues or is it a pretty quiet bus stop?  Just wondering since I have zero experience with it.  Thanks

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