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The video—which went viral yesterday—has rightly horrified the public. Yet like so many other high-profile videos of police brutality, what happened between Officer Fields and the student should be seen not as an isolated incident, but rather as evidence of a much larger problem of police violence towards communities of color.In this case, that community is comprised of young kids at their desks in a school.School resource officers may be part of a full-time school police force, or, like Fields, they may be municipal police officers contracted to work in academic settings. Like other officers wrapped up in high-profile incidents of police brutality, Fields has a history of excessive force allegations, the New York Times has reported, including an ongoing lawsuit set to go to trial in January in which he's accused of unfairly targeting black kids for allegations of gang activity. But Fields is not an isolated bad apple. Over the past five years, at least 28 students have been seriously injured by school resource officers, according to a Mother Jones report from this spring, and at least one student was killed.The incidents detailed by Mother Jones included a child as young as 13 being put in a chokehold that lead to a brain injury; another teen being beaten 18 times with a baton; a third suffering a brain hemorrhage after being Tased and hitting his head; and a 14-year-old who was shot to death after punching another student and trying to run away. Earlier month, a federal judge ruled that officers in Birmingham, Alabama used excessive force when they pepper-sprayed a 15-year-old pregnant girl for crying in the hallway, and a 16-year-old boy during a search of his pockets. The students were sprayed with a chemical described by its manufacturer as "the most intense incapacitating agent available today." That school district is 96 percent African-American.The full video of the Spring Valley High School Police Officer brutally assaulting a peaceful student. — Shaun King (@ShaunKing)October 26, 2015
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