Authority figures need to play it firm but cool.  Always.  Even if some kid is giving them toxic attitude. I know this because I was that kid in my teens. Toxic, defiant — a serious animus toward authority. One spring day in my senior year the vice-principal grabbed my arm in order to…I forget but probably take me to his office for some kind of disciplinary session. And I snapped and shoved him away — a major infraction, grounds for possible expulsion. I was suspended that day and the next but the day after I was told I could return to class. The vice-principal, bless him, had decided to forgive and forget. When I realized he’d cut me a break I felt more respect and affection for that guy than I’d ever felt for my dad, at least up to that point. That God for compassion. Comment:  I’ve no idea what that 16 year-old girl did to piss off Officer Ben Fields, but it probably wasn’t much. She probably told him to go fuck himself, and he saw red. Officer Fields, in any event, is getting schooled right now by the Twitterverse, and is now the newest member of the Famous Racists With A Badge Club.