Justice

Pres. Obama's Response to the Dancing Cop Is Worth Your Praise

October 30th 2015

President Barack Obama has weighed in on the community policing example set by an unnamed Washington, D.C. police officer filmed Monday dancing with an area high schooler after asking a group of teenagers to leave the area and go home.

"Who knew community policing could involve the Nae Nae?" Obama asked in a tweet, referring to the popular song that soundtracks the dance-off. "Great example of police having fun while keeping us safe." He also linked to a Washington Post story that made the rounds Wednesday.

A post accompanying the original video, which was posted on 17-year-old Ballou High School senior Aaliyah Taylor's Facebook page, explained that the officer had asked two students to disperse.

"So basically I was trynna get to this girl but the police told me to go home so we made this deal," the video's caption reads. "[I]f i win u leave but if u win i step andddddd she step."

After the officer confronted the students, Taylor allegedly played the "Nae Nae" song and challenged her to a dance-off. Taylor told the Post that the officer's response was "cool."

"Instead of fighting, she tried to turn it around and make it something fun," Taylor told the Washington Post. "I never expected cops to be that cool."

"There are some good cops," she said.

Obama's reaction to the video comes after the nation's attention was focused on another viral video, also filmed Monday, of a former South Carolina sheriff's deputy throwing a Spring Valley High School student to the ground while she sat in a desk, and dragging her across a classroom floor in an attempt to put her in handcuffs. The student had allegedly been disruptive in class, and had refused to leave. Following the attention the video received, the former officer, Ben Fields, was fired by his department Wednesday.

 

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