Citizens and community leaders are applauding the selfless actions of a California police officer following the cop’s heroic takedown of an unarmed, already restrained teenage girl after the girl threatened the safety and well-being of an entire school body by standing still and talking.
According to a Los Angeles Times report, an instructor at Helix Charter School in La Mesa, Calif., called for a school resource officer when the teacher discovered that a student’s bag contained a weapon of mass destruction—namely, a bottle of pepper spray.
The student reportedly tried to explain that she had to take the trolley from nearby San Diego to school every day and carried the pepper spray for protection, but that’s when the teacher prudently decided that—instead of simply throwing the girl’s pepper spray into the trash can—the authorities needed to be involved.
Instead of calling the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security, the teacher called the school resource officer because everyone knows that—aside from crossing guards and meter maids—resource officers are perfectly trained for these kinds of hostage situations.
When the officer arrived, the girl allowed herself to be handcuffed, according to La Mesa Police Chief Walt Vasquez, but then the girl still refused to leave the campus. That’s when the law-enforcement-adjacent officer decided that he needed to act quickly.
“As they were walking, the student became noncompliant on two separate occasions and made an attempt to free herself by pulling away from the officer,” said Vasquez. “To prevent the student from escaping, the officer forced the student to the ground.”
The officer reflected on the carnage of recent pepper-spray attacks like the Las Vegas Pepper Spray Attack, often called the largest mass peppering in U.S. history, when a woman pepper-sprayed four guys outside Circus Circus trying to hand out flyers for the Bunny Ranch.
In the La Mesa case, the quick-thinking policeman decided to defuse the issue with an MMA-style body slam of an already handcuffed 17-year-old girl.
He threw her entire body over his shoulder and then pinned her to the ground using his knees. The friendly officer admirably refrained from punching or kicking the teenager as bystanders caught the act of heroism on video.
To be fair, some people, like Aeiramique Blake, spoke on behalf of the girl’s family, who are calling the incident an act of police brutality. Others are saying: “No, this is simply a case of—hold up, let me look up the definition of the word ‘brutality.’ ... Nah, my bad. She’s right.”
Blake said that the instructor accused the student of being under the influence of drugs and searched the young woman’s bag after the student complained of feeling poorly.
“No matter what was done or not done, that was not the appropriate way to handle a young lady,” Blake said. “The community is completely outraged.”
Vasquez, on the other hand, said that the Police Department will review the video, as it does with all allegations of police misconduct. Vasquez did not say whether the officer involved would receive a commendation, a medal or a simple pat on the back for saving the entire student body of Helix High from the possibility that a student who attends the high school every day would possibly have been on campus for a few more minutes, lurking dangerously, with her hands bound behind her back.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.