A Facebook video by Texas resident and African-American mom Kisa Jackson has gone viral because of its controversial message: More structured black parenting could have prevented a white police officer from drawing his firearm on unarmed black teens last week at a McKinney, Texas, pool.
Since being uploaded on Monday to Jackson’s Facebook page, the clip has been viewed more than 2 million times.
Reportedly filmed during her lunch break, Jackson said she had partaken in tense conversation about the McKinney news with her coworkers.
“Things got a little heated,” Jackson said. “I think ownership needs to be placed where it should be, and that’s on the parents… Parents need to take ownership in what their children are doing.”
She continued: “When the officers arrived, the kids started running… the white kids weren’t running, the black kids were.”
Jackson said that as the kids “mouthed off” to the officer, and because “three or four little friends that ran up on the officer,” that the policeman, Eric Casebolt, “had the right to detain her by any means necessary.” That would be the teen girl Casebolt was filmed wrestling to the ground.
Moreover Jackson said that Casebolt, who resigned on Tuesday, “had every right and probable cause to pull the trigger.”
Jackson goes on to say that parents—particularly black parents—need to teach their children to “follow protocol” and “respect authority figures” when it comes to dealing with law enforcement. Jackson said that the teens were lucky that Casebolt didn’t shoot because “he had every right to… We could all be talking about a funeral right now.”
Though Jackson’s indignation stems from an awareness of institutional inequality, her message is one rooted in the popular conservative notion that headline-grabbing instances of police brutality are caused by the lack of personal accountability on behalf of the victims. Because of this, part of its success can be traced to the placement of Jackson’s video on conservative news outlets like Glenn Beck‘s The Blaze.
H/T Western Journalism | Screengrab via Brandon Brooks/YouTube