John Oliver breaks down how school resource officers are making schools less safe
One of the things that the National Rife Association frequently says that the solution to mass shootings is more cops, more guns and in schools, more resources officers.
In his Sunday expose, John Oliver explained that such school security officers actually make things much worse.
He showed one incident in which a student was showing her science class how mixing two chemicals together can make the cap of a soda bottle blow off due to the gas that it builds up. The noise was heard by principals and administrators who ignored it as nothing more than a science project. Hours later, she was arrested by the school resource officer and charged with two felonies. While charges were ultimately dropped, she now has to list on her college applications that she was charged with a felony or arrested.
Oliver revealed video after video of students who have been beaten, attacked, and arrested by school resource officers who treat the tiny beat as some kind of fiefdom.
Another student explained that a campus cop only had his eyes on Black students. Yet another police officer dragged a student across a desk in the office and handcuffed her after "mouthing off."
A Georgia teenager had to have his leg amputated after "behavioral specialist" Bryant Mosley threw him to the floor multiple times. The 13-year-old was walking to the office to call his mother and let her know what time to pick him up. The teen complained of numbness in his leg, and they debated whether to call an ambulance but decided against it. Instead, the "behavioral specialist" picked him up and put him on the bus home without telling his parents where he was or what had happened.
Ultimately the child's mother lost her job because she had to take him to so many doctors' appointments.
Florida cop Ethan Fournier, shoved a teenage girl to the floor with such force it knocked her unconscious. He then proceeded to handcuff her while she lay on the floor. After the officer was attacked online, the police chief went off on how mean people were to the police after throwing the girl down. The officer wasn't charged with a crime and no disciplinary actions took place.
"A lot of things aren't going to look pretty on camera," said Sheriff Marcos Lopez. He's the chief of the county. "But guess what? You know, this worked out. And it's a positive thing for law enforcement. It's unfortunate that the young lady went through this incident. But it's also unfortunate that my deputy had to suffer a lot of constant bashing and harassment when he just did how he was trained."
Oliver said that he honestly believes that no one makes a better case for defunding the police than the police themselves.
"If throwing a kid to the ground and then having your boss complain about how everyone was rude to you after, is emblematic of how you were trained, then the problem is clearly: 1. the training, 2. the cops themselves, or 3. the entire system. and not for nothing, that sheriff's fake Oakley sunglasses."
He went on to warn that those under a certain age are being traumatized not just by shootings in schools, but by those tasked with keeping them safe.
See the video below at the 40-minute mark:
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver 6/5/22 || HBO John Oliver 5th June, 2022 FULL 720HD www.youtube.com