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 Last week, an officer from the police force in McKinney, Texas,
resigned after a video that went viral showed him throwing a black
bikini-clad teenage girl to the ground and pulling a gun on other
black teens.
In the new incident, a cell phone video of the arrests at the
Fairfield Aquatic Center near Cincinnati on June 9, published online
by local broadcaster WLWT, were cited by the family of Krystal Dixon
as well as the police department to support differing views of the
event.
WLWT said the incident began when pool staff asked the family to
leave because one of the children was not wearing proper swim
attire.
As the group is leaving, one of the officers grabs Dixon's arm,
prompting the group to intervene, WLWT reported. Within minutes,
several officers are struggling to detain the group.
The video shows one officer wrap his arm around the neck of a girl
as he pushes her against a police cruiser, while another officer
uses pepper spray on a woman resisting being handcuffed.
The girls can be heard screaming and crying throughout the video.
A separate surveillance video of the scene before the arrests, also
published online by WLWT, showed what appeared to be the same group
of minors surrounding and scuffling with officers.
Bobby Hilton, a Christian bishop who spoke on behalf of the Dixon
family at a Tuesday news conference, railed against the police and
said five people were taken to the hospital following the incident.
"These kids were terrified. This was a traumatic event," Hilton
said.
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Fairfield Police Chief Michael Dickey pointed to the same videos in
supporting the officers' actions.
"I think the videos, including their videos, tell a different story.
It's clear to me in the videos they were non-compliant," Dickey told
the television station.
Krystal Dixon, Maya Dixon and a 15-year-old boy were cited with
resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, and a 12-year-old girl was
charged with assault and resisting arrest, WLWT reported.
The video comes amid a national outcry over police use of force
against minorities. Police killings of unarmed black men in cities
including Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City over the past year
sparked waves of sometimes destructive unrest.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Gareth
Jones)
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