Well, that was fast. It almost makes you wonder if they're ushering him out quickly before more information emerges about him.
Just days after a video that went viral online showed him yanking a 14-year-old bikini-clad girl to the ground and kneeling on her back, Eric Casebolt has resigned from his post as a corporal for the Police Department in McKinney, Texas.
The video posted to YouTube showing the police response to reports of fighting at a pool party sparked swift allegations of racism. Critics decried the white officer for cursing at several black teenagers, slamming the girl to the ground and unholstering his gun.
Protesters marched on Monday over the incident in the Dallas suburb. Outraged parents demanded the officer's firing.
At a press conference Tuesday announcing Casebolt's resignation, the city's police chief called his actions in the video indefensible.
"Our policies, our training, our practice, do not support his actions," Police Chief Greg Conley said. "He came into the call out of control, and as the video shows, was out of control during the incident."
He was a police union official, too. Such a rapid resignation suggests either they are responding to community outrage or the videos were just so egregious that the Chief had no other choice and the union capitulated.
Or, maybe they're actually concerned about what the man did there. That's also possible.
Officials previously had said Casebolt was on administrative leave as police investigated what happened. Now that he has decided to resign, the internal affairs investigation is closed, and it's too soon to say whether he'll face charges over what happened, Conley told reporters.
"We're continuing an investigation. We are continuing looking into all the allegations that are being presented to us, and any part of a criminal investigation regarding anyone will take a matter of time for us to work through all those allegations and those people who have come forward to us to complain," he said.
If they think this is a strategy to bury it, I'd suggest they think again. These videos have a way keeping these things from being buried in a pile of administrative red tape.
