The South Carolina cop who triggered national outrage after hurling a high school student across a classroom will not face criminal charges, prosecutors said in a jaw-dropping Friday report that claims the shocking incident looked “worse in the video.”
Ben Fields, a former Richland County police officer, was booted off the force after he was caught on camera ordering a Spring Valley high school student to give up her phone in October.
What happened after that turned Ben Fields’ name into a nationwide hate-object.
After the female student refused to surrender her phone, Fields wrapped his forearm around her neck, then flipped her and her desk backwards before dragging her along the classroom floor while keeping her in a tight headlock. Fields then cuffed the student as her classmates shrieked and cried in shock.
In a confusing twist of words, Solicitor Dan Johnson said in a 12-page court report Friday that he found no probable cause to charge the disgraced school resource officer.
Johnson’s report includes statements from a slew of witnesses — one of whom said “the incident looked worse in the video than it did in the classroom.”
The report also included a formal account from Fields himself and he appears to have no regrets about his outrageous actions.
“I realized that I was going to have to physically remove the student from her seat to effectuate her arrest,” he said, adding that the desk only flipped over because the student locked her legs inside it.
Fields’ supervisor, Sheriff Leon Lott — who said he wanted to “throw up” upon seeing the video — was so outraged by his deputy’s behavior that he fired him and called on the FBI and the Justice Department for help.
However, Johnson said Lott’s firm stance might have hampered the case against Fields.
“These administrative actions, taken prior to the completion of the investigation, have been injurious to the prosecution of the case,” Johnson said in the report.
To many people’s outrage, the girl who recorded the stunning video, Niya Kenny, was arrested after questioning Fields’ conduct.
Both Kenny and the student Fields threw across the classroom have faced “disturbing schools” charges for nearly a year. But on Friday, Johnson said those would be dismissed as well.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the state of South Carolina over such charges, calling them criminalization of “regular adolescent behavior.”
“The ACLU has found that hundreds of students … are being charged under a far-reaching and nebulous statute,” the advocacy group said in an Aug. 11 press release.
“The statute also has a chilling effect on students who speak out against policing abuses within schools. Black students are nearly four times as likely to be targeted under the law.”
If that was my child I would be hunting feral pig.
That girl’s father would be totally justified in my opinion if he tracked down that gestapo thug and beat him to a bloody pulp.
My question is…
What is the teacher in the class of this incedent have to say.
Are these teachers so pussified that they can’t handle their own classrooms. ..?
Well unfortunately. .. I have a solution.
1.) All smartphones are banned in schools…or
2.) All smartphones are checked in at the beginning of class. …or…
3.) All the pussyfied children jump the security guard.. Dog pile on him and beat the living fk out of him with a desk.
I offer solutions.
Not answers.
3
I’ll take door #3.
COPS DO NOT BELONG IN THE CLASSROOM!……THEY CAN NOT BE TAUGHT!
“Fields then cuffed the student as her classmates shrieked and cried in shock.”
Buncha pussies.
Had that happened to one of our friends when I was in high school (60’s), that POS would have been hammered from every direction at once, and f%&k the consequences.
zacly…………………………………………………………………………..
Like to see the dad of this girl , drag that resource pig out of his house and across the lawn by his neck