CNN legal analyst Paul Callan asserted on Monday that a Texas police officer had been right to pull a gun on kids at a pool party because the teens were likely going to "jump" him.
A white police officer in McKinney was suspended over the weekend after video emerged showing him pulling his gun on black children and manhandling them at a pool party in a gated neighborhood.
"Beyond cursing a swearing, he draws his gun," CNN host Alisyn Camerota noted on Monday. "I mean, why would he do that?"
"Kids allegedly using a pool without permission, that a pretty universal summer experience," she continued. "Why are police officers even chasing kids? Why not just let the kids scatter?"
Callan agreed that the officer "acted inappropriately" when he chased the kids without first identifying who was a suspect.
"Remember, this is a private gated community," Callan explained. "Apparently, there had been complaints that people were trespassing on the pool and there were fights going on. The police then arrive on the scene and then they're confronted with a large crowd of kids, they don't know who is supposed to be there and who's not."
"The final thing you were talking about, the un-holstering of the gun. The cop's actions were totally inappropriate up until that moment," he insisted. "But he's not effecting the arrest of the girl in the bikini."
"What?" Camerota gasped.
"Probably he shouldn't be arresting her but he is," Callan replied. "He's surrounded then by eight civilians, I count them. One kid comes around and looks like he's approaching him and is going to jump the officer."
"No!" the CNN host exclaimed. "Not jump the officer! He's defending his friend. I mean, when they see this kid thrown to the ground, it's just, I think, a natural reaction. You want to go defend your friend."
"From the cop's standpoint, he's looking at this big kid, who he thinks is about to jump him," Callan opined. "He then un-holsters his weapon and the kid backs off. The cop then re-holsters his weapon and continues to subdue. Of all of the things that he did, that's probably the one thing that most police officers would say was within training and procedure."
