Heroic Cop Beats Handicapped Student

Many observers have noticed that government-run schools closely resemble their kindred institutions, government-run prisons.

Schools and prisons are drab, utilitarian buildings usually surrounded by fences. The inmates within them are forced to follow a regimented schedule punctuated by the use of buzzers and bells, and punished when they don’t react quickly enough. Entering and exiting both kinds of institutions requires official permission for both inmates and visitors. With the addition of police “resource officers” in many schools, their transformation into prisons is nearly complete.

Yes, I admit that the comparison is imperfect and in one sense unfair, since it’s possible to learn a useful trade in prison. But I digress.

Just days after we learned that a group of Chicago’s, ahem, finest stood by and allowed an innocent 16-year-old student to be beaten to death (a group of unarmed social workers attempted to rescue the victim while armed police awaited “backup”),we learn from a CBS affiliate in Dolton,Illinois that 15-year-old Marshawn Pitts, a “special needs” student, was attacked by a school “resource” officer at least twice his bodyweight.

The officer — as seen in the video —  began by berating the youngster; he then grabbed him, slugged him, and then threw him face-first into the floor in what is called a “face-down takedown,” a technique banned in many states because it frequently results in lethal positional asphyxia. Marshawn survived, albeit with a broken nose.

Ah, but the miscreant had it coming to him. You see, Marshawn — a young man who suffered a brain injury as a child and now is part of a special education program — had his shirt un-tucked.

Let us now praise the Uniforms that Guard us from the menace of sloppily dressed special needs students. Where would civilization be without their heroic vigilance?

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11:56 am on October 7, 2009