Teen Says Plano Police Officer Threatened Him For Smiling
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PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) - Scorned and threatened for smiling?
A Plano teenager claims that is what happened to him after an officer pulled him over at a car meet back in May.
For the first time, a video of the ordeal has now surfaced prompting the Plano Police Department to launch an internal investigation.
"There's nothing funny about that," said the passenger in the video.
The police officer remarks, "Okay then, stop smiling. You understand that?"
The driver in the video then responds, "How are you going to tell me to stop smiling?"
The interaction is between a 16-year-old driver named Jose and a Plano police officer in May at a car meet near the North Dallas Tollway and Spring Creek Parkway.
"Next time I see you. Maybe we'll spend a little more time out here. You too," remarked the officer.
A different passenger then responds, "What did I do?"
The officer then said to the passenger, "I don't know. I just don't like you."
Being out of the town at the moment, the driver said via Facebook message that the officer pulled him over and accused one of his passengers of flipping him off with their middle finger.
"Keep going," said the officer in the video. "Say something else and I'll drag you out of the car."
The officer can also be heard calling the driver and his passengers a foul name.
"When it gets to that point, that's a line that they cross and they can't do that," said Pete Schulte, an attorney and former McKinney police officer.
Schulte said the officer should not have used foul language or threatened the passengers or driver.
But, Schulte points out the 1:17 video is only a slice of the interaction.
"I'm not defending the officer, but we don't have all of the facts with this limited video," said Schulte.
Plano police would not comment on camera but said an internal investigation was launched as soon as the department was made aware of the video.
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