S.C. police officer slams black student; video sparks social media outrage
A video of a white male police officer at a South Carolina high school flipping and slamming a black girl to the ground in a classroom arrest sparked outrage on social media on Monday.
The incident comes amid heightened scrutiny of the use of force by police, particularly against minorities, after numerous high-profile killings of unarmed black men by police across the United States in the last two years triggered protests.
The 15-second video was apparently recorded by another pupil at the Spring Valley High School in Columbia on Monday. It begins with Ben Fields of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, an officer assigned to the school, approaching the girl, who is seated at a desk.
Fields can then be seen yanking the girl’s arm and wrapping his arm under her chin before flipping the desk with her still seated in it. Fields then drags her from the chair and tosses her on the floor, as the classroom full of students looks on in silence, before handcuffing her.
The girl does not appear to resist or argue with the officer during the short video, which was published by local media outlets and on social media.
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