FIVEO Teens; creators of police review app, respond to McKenny, Texas pool party video

June 2015  —  My sister and I are 16 and 17 years old respectively and we considered our own ages when we watched the McKenny, Texas, pool party video where we saw a 14yr old teenage girl tossed to the ground. We watched in horror as the bikini clad teen had her hair pulled and was screamed at by Officer Eric Casebolt.  Her face was then pushed into the ground and the officer maintained a knee in her back.

The video reinforced our fear of encounters with police officers.  How does one avoid being demeaned, disenfranchised, disrespected and abused in this way?  Should we no longer accept pool party invitations from our friends?

Our fear is the same fear experienced by so many young black teenagers we know and it is real.  Citizens should not have to endure this sort of interaction with police officers in whom we entrust our safety.  Police officers should protect and serve.  I do not believe that the teenagers in that video felt protected and today we do not feel protected and safe.

We are encouraging all citizens to share their police experiences with our FIVEO app so that the media, community activists, police department leaders and citizens will have a better idea of where police officers are doing an outstanding job and where they are simply failing.

We all deserve to live in a safe and secure world.  Help us to improve community policing by downloading the FIVEO app for android or creating on online account at http://fiveo.us and sharing your good or bad experiences with our team.  Your feedback will help to improve citizen-police relationships in every community in the US.

Hear more from Brandon Brooks who shot the video