Is this a local case of a racist deputy? Not even close

Meet Christopher Hardy. He’s a Parkland high schooler at Washington High School. He was set to graduate last Saturday, but he wasn’t allowed to participate in the ceremony, much to his mother’s disappointment. Now, the NAACP is involved because he’s the victim, apparently, of racist injustice.

“It does have something to do with race…” claims Hardy.

Why didn’t he get to walk during the ceremony? According to the News Tribune, Hardy joked about shooting up the school and becoming famous, along with a 16-year-old friend. Both students are black. Now, to be fair, Hardy apparently did it in a joking way and I actually feel schools tend to overreact to anything having to do with school violence (some of you will undoubtedly and understandably say they need to).

But how he decided to act when approached by a deputy, is what’s serious.

When approached and handcuffed, Hardy was yelling obscenities, resisting arrest and threatening to spit in the deputy’s face. He ended up doing a night in juvenile detection and getting suspended from school.

There is no reason to believe, based on this data, that what happened was based on race. None whatsoever. Schools overreact to kids joking about school shootings all the time; this is not the first overreaction and it’s hardly an issue we see facing black kids over white kids. I look at this and I don’t see an officer targeting the kid for being black; he reacted to a kid who doesn’t know how to act around a cop.

So why are groups like the NAACP involved? It would appear it’s due to the notion that this kid needed to be handcuffed in the first place.

I think it’s fair to ask if it was appropriate to handcuff him outside of his classroom. Couldn’t he have just been called to the principal’s office to chat? They obviously didn’t think he was an imminent threat at this point because they first talked to his friend who also engaged in the joke.

And that’s the context that changes everything.

Hardy’s younger friend was apparently called into the principal’s office first. When he was confronted with the comment that was overheard, the friend decided he would change his tone with the school administrator.

He said: “Do you know who I am? I am Maurice Clemmons’ nephew and you know how we do.” Clemmons is the degenerate who killed the Lakewood Four.

It turns out that when you make a comment that can be seen as reasonably threatening violence, it makes it harder to believe you might be “joking” about shooting up the school. This kid’s actions are likely what elevated the seriousness of the so-called joke. If this kid is capable of threatening Maurice Clemmons-like retribution, I imagine they thought Hardy might be just as much of a threat. And that’s when they approached Hardy, not waiting to walk him to the principal’s office, instead throwing him in handcuffs.

This isn’t a case of racist deputies. It’s a case of a punk kid who made it hard to believe he and his friend were actually joking. And there are consequences to that. If he gets off with punishment no more serious than missing graduation, he’s a lucky kid.