UTEP Psychologist weighs in on viral video involving EPPD officer, confrontational teens
The El Paso Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division continues to investigate the incident surrounding the viral video where an officer pulled out his gun on a group of confrontational teens.
Thousands have weighed in on social media, with some blaming the officer and others putting the blame on the teens.
Dan Jones, a UTEP psychologist, researches what leads individuals to engage in violent behaviors. He was careful to point out that he does not know the full circumstances of the situation, but he can understand why it escalated.
“My initial reaction was one of shock,” Jones said. “I can say definitively that different individuals react differently to stressful situations. At any given time an individual so overwhelmed with stress and so overwhelmed with a particular situation ultimately acts in two ways: there’s a fight-or-flight response.”
The video has more than 7-million views.
“So he (the officer) is trying to de-escalate the situation and that goal is being blocked, that can explain the aggression right there. No matter how much training you have, it’s a natural human tendency — when you’re frustrated — to get aggressive,” Jones said.
Jones said the other factor is that the group of children start to emulate what he calls a “pack mentality.”
“Individuals tend to lose their sense of self. They start to take what’s called a pack mentality. They start to engage in aggressive behaviors. They escalate and bounce and synergize with one another,” Jones said.
The third factor that Jones said escalated the situation was the fact that the officer was being filmed. Jones said he is in favor of officer’s having body cameras, for accountability purposes, but that filming an officer can make things worse.”
“When you’re recording an officer it can cause an undue amount of disrespect, an unwarranted amount of disrespect, and an undue amount of tension in the officer’s mind,” Jones said. “The situation has now become much more consequential and much more escalated than it had to be.”
