What I have a hard time conveying to some of my more sheltered friends* is that the actions of "officer slam" are not remarkable. They are commonplace.
And given how common this is "officer slam" probably felt he was just doing his job. For too many young people that kind of interaction is normal. Think of what that does to young minds, to a learning environment, to a community.
Too much of the reporting makes it seem like this is some terrible unheard of thing that has never happened before. It is terrible to be certain, but it is not unheard of. What is remarkable is that we have a video. Many other videos have been deleted, or students never had the chance to make them since no phones are allowed on school grounds.
As a teacher in the NYC public schools I was scared to call school security since I didn't know what they'd do to my students. The first time I called them it was because a student had shoved me (not hard, though) and called me "a b***h" -- this student then refused to leave the room or stop arguing so I thought "oh security will escort him to the office, then he'll get a one-day suspension... or maybe a few detentions" -- Boy was I wrong.
The female (in this case) school police officer slammed him to the ground and dragged him off in cuffs. I was horrified and stunned. I feel guilty that I didn't say or do anything. From then on I never called for help again. But, this was a big problem for me. I needed help.
I was a new teacher with not enough training and my class could get out of hand. Of course, from time to time I had a student who was in an emotional state that made me scared for myself and other students ... and teachers cannot touch students or break up fights-- those rules are serious and they will go after teachers for well intentioned actions. I knew people who had that happen to them.
It felt like an impossible choice.
The principle refused to hire a school psychologist or do anything to address the emotional needs of the students who really needed help. He thought I was naive for wanting to do something like that. "These kids don't change" He'd just send them back to disrupt the whole class. (but if there were standardized tests he'd keep them away... heh.)
Most of my students were ready to learn, but some needed to talk to someone. They needed to play sports and burn off steam (but gym was only once a week and often... not physical) They needed help that I couldn't give in the middle of a math class.
My hands were tied behind my back and my only choice was calling in monsters who just made everything worse or letting a whole room filled with students learn nothing for 40min.
I talked to the principle about the school police. He said if I complained he'd send me all of the "troublemakers" and make certain security knew not to come to my room. "They do hard work. You don't want to be on their bad side." No, I didn't want that.
It was like having a gang in the school. (our school had no other gang issues, though the school police were always making stuff up about students being in gangs... It was bizarre. I never understood why they thought every student was in a gang)
Some kid probably got the "officer slam" treatment in NYC today, maybe several kids. So, even if that incident gets justice there are thousands of others without videos and without any recourse.
I don't know how to fix this... but a start would be no more cops in the schools. The bigger issue is that our schools remain separate and glaringly unequal.
*I don't shrink from calling others "sheltered" having been there myself.