Another Facebook post from one of the neighbors:
As most of you probably know my city, McKinney, has made national
headlines & is a top trending topic. Forgive this long post, but I
feel most of my friends would like to
know some actual facts involving this. For those of you still blindly
trusting the media, let me tell you I have seen it with my own eyes how
inaccurate & one sided it all is. I have truly lost all respect for
the media & these so called "journalists" who sensationalized a
story with a very one sided, inaccurate report. We moved to Craig Ranch
in McKinney almost 5 years ago to get out of Dallas & put our kids
in a great public school system. If you will recall McKinney was also
recently named #1 best place to live in America. It really IS a great
city & part of what makes it so great is our top notch first
responders. I have several friends who are on the force, we have crime
just like every other city, but what we don't have is a bunch of racist
cops "assaulting innocent teenagers", "crashing a pool party" or using
"police brutality" as this recent event is being portrayed.
Let me share with you some facts which have conveniently been left out of the narrative going viral.
1. First & foremost, Craig Ranch in NOT an all white neighborhood.
It is the most diverse place I have ever lived. The situation &
issue was not racial at all. Many black families live in CR along with
Asians, Caucasians, Hispanics, Indians & more. The claim that it is
some elitist neighborhood with "white privilege" is beyond ridiculous.
2. This was not a little pool party at a residential home &
neighbors didn't call the police because they saw too many black faces.
That is absurd & absolutely laughable given the demographics of
this neighborhood. The pool is a private community pool for residents
only. They pay a large HOA fee each year for the benefit of having a
private pool. Residents have to use an ID card for access & are
allowed up to two guests/ID card. Security is in place to ensure that
rules are followed & the area is safe - again, another expense paid
for by homeowners.
3. In some news reports I have seen it
reported in a way that implies this was a resident having a private pool
party at their home. Now while some of the people there were in fact
residents, the vast majority were not & they were trespassing in a
private community pool. Why were they there? Because the party was
being promoted by people on Twitter, including a DJ who sat up in a
public place next to the community pool & begin playing very loud
explicit music while parents were there trying to enjoy the day with
their kids. Tickets were being sold. No one had the right to do that
& no one had authorization from the HOA for a party.
4.
HOA rules for the pool also include that children must be at least 16
years of age to be there unsupervised. Teenagers were being dropped off
by the carload. When the security guard at the pool asked to see ID
& refused to let them in, these kids displayed an absolute blatant
disregard for rules/authority & began jumping over the fence. Once
inside their behavior was wild, loud, obnoxious, rude, with no regard
for the families & small children there. Small children were
knocked down in some of the ruckus. Cursing, sex, drug use & more.
It was not good & certainly not what these families want to see
when they are at the private pool they pay for with large HOA dues each
year. And let's not forget these teens were trespassing. In addition
to the above, there was a verbal altercation between one of the party
goers & a mom who lives in the neighborhood. By all accounts things
were being said on both sides that should not have been, BUT when the
mother attempted leave with her children an actual physical fight broke
out & the mom was assaulted while her children ran to the car
terrified & crying. THAT is when the police were called. The same
girl & others threw items including water bottles at the mom's
vehicle as she was driving away.
5. This is not the first time
these types of parties have taken place in local cities - the people
posting about them on Twitter actually brag about taking over the
neighborhood's pools. Craig Ranch is great neighborhood who takes care
of their own & pulls together whether someone is sick, needs help
jump starting their car, loses their home in a fire or just help fixing
something around the house. Fund raisers have been held for a
critically injured child & anti-bullying rally after a neighborhood
teen tragically took his own life. These are for the most part GOOD
people. When the Craig Ranch homeowners & security guards see
destruction of property, an unsafe environment, rules & laws being
broken by what some are estimating as at least 100 non-resident teens
who are trespassing & being violent, yes they called the police.
Wouldn't you? Let me be clear, the police were not called because there
were black kids just hanging out at an innocent little pool party.
Black kids are always there, as I said it's a very diverse neighborhood
& seeing a black face in not unusual in the least. I can also
guarantee that the police would have been called if it had been a crowd
of all white teenagers behaving the same way. The difference would be
the lack of race card being played.
6. The small portion of
video that is circulating on the media outlets is a clip from a 7:20
minute video which also does not clearly portray the entire situation.
There was mass chaos & a large crowd all around. When the
responding officers got there they were massively unnumbered by a crowd
of kids who were violent, refused to comply, began running &
displayed a complete lack of respect for authority. What most people,
who have been spoon fed garbage by the media, think is that a police
officer used excessive force, drew his weapon unnecessarily & was a
racist. Let's address racism first, it is a fact that most of the party
goers were black. The people who were Tweeting the invites were black,
a lot of their followers & people coming to the pool were black.
So based upon the law of averages, yes black children are going to be
detained. That's not racist, its just a fact, there were more black
kids there. These officers were walking blindly into a hostile
environment & their job was to protect people & restore order.
Its very difficult to establish order when you have dozens of kids
running around wildly, shouting, fighting & refusing to obey simple
commands. When an officer asks you to leave, you leave. When he tells
you to sit down, you sit. Once order has been established they will
listen to you & sort things out. It's true, that is what they are
trained to do. Just because they ask you to sit does not mean you are
being arrested, but order had to be restored first. The police
department had to call for additional units & back up assistance
from the fire department because it was mass chaos & took at least
30 minutes to get things under control. This video & the brief clip
being shown cannot possibly accurately capture the events that
unfolded. The girl in the video was running her mouth & refused to
leave the scene when directed to do so, several times. She was given
every opportunity to comply, she didn't & when she continued ranting
the officer went to detain her. At that point she is breaking the law
by resisting & the officer did what he had to do. Of course he took
her down, she should have left when she had the chance & stopped
running her mouth. She wanted to act tough & grown. Guess what?
Act grown, get treated grown, she didn't like that much & called for
her Momma. If Momma had taught her to respect authority, she would
have never been in this situation. With regard to the amount of force,
more force was needed because she was fighting him. He followed
protocol by putting her down & restraining her with his knee until
she calmed down & stopped fighting. Again, none of this would have
happened if she had just left.
7. The issue of drawing his gun
is being raised. He didn't just openly draw his gun & swing it
around threatening "innocent" teens. While attempting to subdue the
girl he was rushed by other teens including one who looks to be reaching
behind him. The teen probably wasn't but remember this was all
happening in real time with a very chaotic environment & the officer
had a split second to make a decision. Those kids charging him could
have overpowered him, mob mentality could have taken over, someone could
have been hurt including those boys, the officer or innocent bystanders
who were attempting to help. If I was being charged by two teenage
boys in a large unruly crowd, you can bet your sweet a$$ I would have
drawn my weapon too. There are two things to remember, 1. his finger
was not even on the trigger he handled the gun safely & properly and
2. he reholstered it as soon as possible once the threat of immediate
danger was gone. Please remember that these officers were trying to do
their jobs without interference. I fully support the MPD & the
actions taken on scene. Not for one minute do I think he used excessive
force, nor was there police brutality. He did what he had to do in the
moment to re-establish order & create a safe environment for
everyone. They are there to protect & serve, their lives are put on
the line every single day with situations most of us can only imagine.
8. Once things calmed down & got sorted out most of the
teens were released to their parents and NOT arrested. Good, right? No,
unfortunately most of the parents who showed up were more concerned
about how their precious babies were treated vs. what they did wrong
that actually led to all of this nonsense. Police are immediately
blamed, accused of brutality, the neighborhood & police are accused
of being racist. Threats of complaints to the department & making
the story "go viral" were made. Guess what? They got their wish, local
media decided to show a slanted one sided view & fan the flames on
this one - rushing to the news desk without doing their due diligence
regarding the actual facts.
9. But the fun doesn't stop there,
no, there is more! These kids decided to host another party in the
neighborhood the next night at private residence. Again, said party was
publicized on social media. Party goers roamed the neighborhood,
vandalized it, were beating on people's doors at all hours of the night,
stole a vehicle, crashed into parked cars & other petty nonsense.
Threats have been made on social media against one of the residents
& his family. This man was there & stepped in to assist both
the police who were establishing order & the kid who got hurt while
running from police. People have also publicized the police officer's
name & address with threats against his life. This is not ok!!!
Yes, #BlackLivesMatter
but so do everyone else's including the police officers on scene. The
residents of Craig Ranch, regardless of race, should all be able to
safely & peacefully enjoy their neighborhood without fear of
violence or retaliation. At this point while most everyone in the Craig
Ranch Family stands united in a non-racist attitude with support &
gratefulness towards the MPD, many of them are afraid to go on camera or
even on record to give a statement regarding the actual events. The
journalists are taking their intel from minors who were committing
crimes.
10. The media frenzy surrounding all of this is
ridiculous. At the end of the day an officer who was doing his job has
been labeled a racist, received death threats & placed on
administrative leave. That is procedure in a case like this &
doesn't mean he will be found guilty of any wrong doing, but the court
of public opinion has already tried & convicted him without all the
facts. Now a man's career could be on the line, his reputation has been
tarnished by irresponsible reporting. The media keeps race baiting
& fanning the flames of racism. I urge you all to do some research
on this & other news stories before blindly accepting the crap the
media feeds us for ratings. Information is out there, I will also be
adding links & screenshots in the comments below.
Are there
cases of excessive force used by officers? Yes, of course there are,
it's wrong & should not happen but this was not one of those cases.
Does racism exist? Yes, we should not be naive enough to believe it
doesn't. Sadly racism is all too real, but it goes both ways - being
black (or any other color for that matter) does not entitle you to
automatic exemption from obeying the law & following a police
officer's commands. Nor does being caucasian mean we all have "white
privilege" & hate black people - that stereotype is wrong & just
another form of discrimination. It's offensive just like all forms of
racism.
Sorry for the super long "book length" post. If you
took the time to read it, thank you. There is so much misinformation
out there, bits & pieces here & there and a complete lack of
integrity by the media/journalists to give the full story. Their
soundbites are causing passionate reactions & people are hopping on
the racism train without the benefit of having all the facts. The media
is playing a shameless role in dividing this nation's people & they
need to be held accountable for this. Do not blindly trust everything
reported - they are there for ratings not the benefit of the public
& certainly not for those they choose to villainize. Do you think
they care for one minute that a police officer's career could be over
because of their irresponsible reporting? No, he is just collateral
damage. And truth be told, they don't care whether those teens were in
the right or wrong, it was a story & in a couple of days the news
cycle will change and someone else will be thrown into the fire... If
you found this post helpful at all, feel free to like or share. Even if
it didn't change your opinion, that's ok, everyone is entitled to their
own, but before anyone jumps to conclusions more people need to realize
how slanted & one sided this "viral" story is.
Bottom line: I know & love McKinney, Texas - Unique by Nature, I know the McKinney Police Department & McKinney Police Association and I fully support the MPD & the officer's actions, and I know Craig Ranch which is full of many wonderful & caring people and friends. The Craig Ranch Family
is not a racist one, it is one that will pull together & get thru
this and then continue to enjoy living in the #1 best place in America.
