Video of white officer slamming black girl sparks outrage
A shocking footage of a white male police officer slamming a black girl to the ground at a high school in the US state of South Carolina has sparked outrage.
The incident, recorded on the mobile phones of at least two students, occurred at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina on Monday.
The video shows Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Fields asking the girl to rise from her classroom desk but she stays seated.
He then places his arm around the student’s neck, flipping her backward and dragging her across the floor, before placing her under arrest.
The black female student does not appear to resist or argue with the officer during the short video, which was published on social media and by local media outlets.
Fields, who has a history of aggression against African Americans, has been placed on administrative duty as authorities investigate.
"I've never seen anything so nasty looking, so sick to the point that you know, other students are turning away, don't know what to do, and are just scared for their lives," said Tony Robinson Jr., who recorded one of the videos. "That's supposed to be somebody that's going to protect us. Not somebody that we need to be scare of, or afraid."
Robinson claimed Officer Fields escalated the incident unnecessarily. "That was wrong. There was no justifiable reason for why he did that to that girl," he added.
Sheriff Leon Lott has asked the FBI and US Justice Department to investigate the incident.
"It's very disturbing what happened today. It's something I have to deal with and that's what we're going to be doing," Lott said.
The incident comes amid public outrage over high-profile killings of unarmed African American men by white police officers in the last two years.
The number of US police officers charged in deadly shootings has surged to the highest level in a decade this year, but only a small percentage result in convictions, new research shows.
A Washington Post database last week showed 796 fatal police shootings this year by officers, and one maintained by the Guardian newspaper recorded 927 deaths.
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