Not another Ferguson: Peaceful protest, unity mark McKinney's response to police incident

Many condemned former McKinney Police Cpl. Eric Casebolt’s actions at the pool party in Craig Ranch. Others showed their support for him and the police department.

Aside from a few shouting matches and brief scuffles, they did so peacefully.

Squeezed into the same hot-topic vein as the Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore situations – ones notably different and more severe – McKinney stood out in its reaction. Outside reported vandalism in the Craig Ranch neighborhood in days following the party, the community’s response stayed at conversation and investigation.

There haven’t been riots or looting. There’s been tension, yes, but it’s been held in check through swift action from city leaders. Under a national glare, the city has acted and not blinked.

Before last Monday’s rally outside the McKinney Police Department building, a low hum of conversation between protesters vented their frustrations, trying to mark a correlation between Friday’s incident and what others deemed civil rights issues throughout history.

“I mean, with this video, and basically everything that’s been happening, this is institutionalized violence,” said protester Adam Kalar. “That’s institutionalized oppression and racism.”

Undoubtedly, Kalar’s take – like that of others around the nation – is rooted in the viral 7-minute video that shows the police response but leaves out the fight (some say fights, plural) and unrest around the party minutes before.  It’s a response to the now-resigned Casebolt’s handling of the situation, his holding 15-year-old Dajerria Becton on the ground and pulling a gun on other teens.

Much has come out since the incident, though, about the party, Casebolt’s emotional state and the words and events that led up to that 7-minute stretch. Some still claim racism and excessive force; others tout necessary and critical police action.

Community organizer Mike Ghouse led an open forum in response to the incident. “We need to learn to know each other,” he said. “When we know each other, most of the conflicts fade and solutions emerge.”

One protester, a Plano resident, said, “This is not the America my mother marched with Martin Luther King Jr. for.” Similar, race-driven commentary came in, mostly from NAACP officials and civil rights groups who met with McKinney Police throughout the week. But much of the opposition to Casebolt alluded to his specific actions, not the specific people at which he directed them.

Others marched the following Monday from Comstock Elementary School to the Craig Ranch pool at the center of the controversy, some stopping to form a blockade at Silverado Trail and Alma Road: “If we can’t swim, you can’t drive,” they chanted. They stayed at the pool well into the night.

“I have never been involved in a protest like this,” said Saba Abraha, a 19-year-old Richardson resident. “It felt good seeing everyone come together for a cause.”

Anger still simmered. Jahi Bakari, the father of a teenage girl pushed by Casebolt when she approached him while he was holding Becton on the ground, said that if Casebolt had pulled the trigger, the spotlight on McKinney could have been even brighter.

“It’d be another Ferguson a hundred times over,” he said.

But no one pulled a trigger. Instead, many people in the city have pulled together.

Across town, over 100 spiritual leaders met with Mayor Brian Loughmiller and Police Chief Greg Conley for prayer and dialogue. Pastors joined hands and pleas for justice and transparency from all sides.

People from other states and countries chimed in, from all sides of the situation. Linda Woodcock, a retired teacher from Florida, put the onus on the teens at the party; if they’d listen to police, Casebolt’s actions could have been avoided, she said. Anthony Higgins, of Melbourne, Australia, called those actions “an absolute blight on your so-called land of the free.”

For the most part, extreme views poured in from elsewhere. There are some, of course, still calling for criminal charges against Casebolt – assault and battery, they say – and they likely won’t rest in pursuit of those charges. But over a week later, they’re just words, however strong and persistent.

Conley has vowed authorities will follow up on every allegation and continue to investigate all that transpired at and after the pool party. The mayor repeatedly has urged the community to get past it, learn from it, and be better from it.

“My hope is that this crisis will be an opportunity, a spark, for greater healing, greater unity,” said Pastor Bruce Miller of Christ Fellowship. “This incident is an opportunity when something bad could be used for good.”

Kim Diggs and Forrest Milburn contributed to this report.