White cop who lectured black kids playing with a BB gun in viral video praised on CNN but Twitter has thoughts
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An Ohio police officer who stopped himself from shooting a black child when he realized he was holding a toy pistol is being praised this week after video of the conversation he had with the children went viral.
Wednesday, CNN host Brooke Baldwin, invited the officer Peter Casuccio to her show, and began the segment by reminding her audience of cases like that of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who had been fatally shot by police in 2014 while playing with a toy gun.
In stark contrast officer Casuccio, who now explains he went into “dad mode” when he saw the 11 and 13 year old Black boys playing with what looked like a real gun.
Instead of using deadly force on the children, Casuccio cautiously questioned the boys, and then gave them the lecture of a lifetime when he realized there was no real threat and their gun was just a toy.
https://twitter.com/ColumbusPolice/status/1051912826246316033
“If you have two kids in front of you — and it almost ended in deadly force — you have an obligation as a steward of your community and to the men and women you work with to grab them by the ear and sit them down and say, ‘Hey, man, this is not the way it works,’” Casuccio shared.
“I could tell they were both scared, so I thought it was a teachable moment,” said Casuccio, who told the boys to sit on a railing as he spoke to them.
“This is getting kids of all colors of all different types of neighborhoods killed on almost — I hate to say — annual basis,” he continued.
“It is, that’s the truth,” Baldwin responded. “And good on you for doing what you did.”
Casuccio insisted that most of his colleagues in the Columbus Police department would have done the same thing.
“We need more Peter Casuccios in the world,” Baldwin concluded in the segment.
Check out the segment below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jqsRKyGw4M
But Twitter had thoughts on whether this officer should be getting praised for not shooting the two children.
Yeah, I couldn’t find anything praiseworthy about this. It comes across as very condescending and a veiled threat. Also, with Ohio being open carry, why does he insist he’d be justified in shooting them?
— Kandace Jones (@mskandacejones) October 18, 2018
Nothing heroic about scaring young black boys into not playing with toys. Or telling them you could have shot them for playing with a toy. Black boys can’t play with toys, wear hoodies, swim in pools and the world wonders why they have to grow up so fast. No lesson, just racism.
— ❤LovelyHalo❤ (@lovelyhalo) October 17, 2018
Wait…isn’t Ohio an “open carry” state? Unless you’re Tamar Rice?or John Crawford? These callers WANT black people shot.
— Jay Bradshaw (@JBradshaw_SCV) October 18, 2018
Boys do still play with toy guns. Cop says the call said to kids and a BB gun. The lesson learned “cop know its a toy but will kill you anyway”? Why only black boys get that lesson #TamirRice
— Darlene Hugee-James (@msdeehj1) October 18, 2018
Now I wonder what would have happen if it were a 11 year old white man.?
— kenny (@jg95mia) October 17, 2018
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