Pubdate: Tue, 11 Nov 2003
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2003 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: Emmette Boone

NOT A TV SHOW

I don't trust police officers using assault tactics, especially against a 
group of students peacefully transiting a hallway at Stratford High School. 
Too many police officers and public officials have been watching cop 
assaults on television programs. That's television, guys.

Stratford's principal and some police officers apparently observed video 
monitors at some earlier time and saw what they believed to be drug 
transactions taking place in the hallway they assaulted recently. If that 
were the case, they should have dealt with the problem at the time it occurred.

Sending police officers with weapons drawn into a high school hallway while 
shouting, "Down on the floor! Nobody move!" and using other shock tactics 
is fine for cop shows on TV, but we expect our school administrators and 
police officers to behave more responsibly in our public schools and elsewhere.

EMMETTE BOONE

124 Columbia Drive

Ladson
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens