So the deputies were supposed to prevent the kid from flipping everyone off?
How? Handcuffs?
I’m not saying it’s right, but the situation escalated because the deputies didn’t stop the provocations from continuing once they had decided to eject the protesters.
I left law enforcement in 1988 so I can’t say what it’s like today, but even in my time, if you put handcuffs on someone, they didn’t come off until you hit the booking room.
IMO, this is being made into a bigger deal than it rightly should be, but there’s too much attention being paid for it to quietly go away.
In a just world, the protester got what he deserved, the old man probably shouldn’t have hit him (although I can understand why he did. People can only take so much before they react) and because the deputies had gotten themselves involved, at the point of their intervention it becomes their responsibility to make sure nothing else happens.
That’s not how it worked out so they have to pay the price, whether we like it or not. No one ever said it was easy being a cop.