US opens probe into violent arrest of black student by white officer

The US government has launched a civil rights investigation into the violent arrest of a black female student by a white male police officer at a high school in the state of South Carolina.

The US Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched the probe on Tuesday to determine if the law enforcement officer violated federal civil rights laws during the brutal arrest on Monday.

Federal investigators began the probe after videos filmed by students showed sheriff's deputy Ben Fields flipping an 18-year-old girl out of her chair and dragging her across a classroom for refusing a teacher's demand to put away her mobile phone.

The incident, which occurred at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina, has sparked outrage on social media.

The confrontation has many questioning why a police officer was needed in the first place.

"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."

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who had requested the federal probe, has called the arrest “very disturbing” and said the internal police investigation should conclude within the next day because “the facts pretty much speak for themselves.”

Fields, who has a history of aggression against African Americans, has been placed on administrative duty during the investigation.

In 2007, a black couple accused Fields, another deputy and Sheriff Lott of excessive force, false arrest and violation of free speech rights, but a jury ruled in Fields' favor.

The incident comes amid public outrage over several high-profile killings of unarmed African Americans by white police officers in the last two years.

A founding member of a black parents association for the Richland County School District said the district has a legacy of expelling and suspending large numbers of African-American students.

Stephen Gilchrist said the association has called for a US Justice Department investigation into what it says are long-standing racial discriminatory practices by the school district.

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