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Should Texas Officer Have Been On The Beat After Two Suicide Calls?

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In this screenshot from YouTube, police officer Eric Casebolt pushes a 14-year-old girl to the ground.
In this screenshot from YouTube, police officer Eric Casebolt pushes a 14-year-old girl to the ground.

The McKinney, Texas, police officer who resigned after he was filmed wrestling a black, bikini-clad teenager to the ground at pool party says he was stressed by two earlier suicide calls, according to his lawyer. What is the standard operating procedure for a cop after a traumatic call?

Eric Casebolt, the police officer who resigned after his reaction to teens at an out-of-control pool party, has been called racist, violent and out-of-control himself. Eleven other officers at the scene reacted with restraint.

Yesterday, she said that Casebolt apologized for his behavior, and that just before the pool incident he'd been on two suicide calls - one in which a father shot himself in front of his family, and one in which a teen threatened to jump off a roof.

Should he have been taken off duty after those events? Here & Now's Robin Young asks John Violanti, a research professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the University at Buffalo, part of the SUNY system.

Guest

  • John Violanti, research professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the University at Buffalo.

This segment aired on June 11, 2015.

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