Steve Williams is – at least for the moment – a police officer in Prescott, Wisconsin, which is on the far west side of the state, near the Mississippi River. Williams also was working as a substitute teacher at Woodbury High School in Minnesota.
It was while in the latter capacity that Williams crossed the line of acceptability and appropriateness:
According to a letter from school officials published in full by Minnesota Public Radio, Williams was a substitute for 10th and 12th grade English classes, when he put a student on the ground in front of the class to reenact Floyd’s murder.
[…]Williams told the Woodbury teenagers that “police brutality isn’t real,” according to the letter.
He is accused of twisting a student’s arm behind the student’s back and showing pressure points on the chin and face.
Williams repeatedly made racially harmful comments and sexist jokes, the letter said. He also mimicked holding a gun and pointing it at students while sharing disturbing details about previous police investigations, according to the letter.
Williams said “cops would be the best criminals” and that “they know how to get away with stuff,” the letter reads.
Unsurprisingly, school officials have said that Williams will not be filling any vacancies at the school. Likewise, Prescott officials have placed Williams on leave pending an investigation.
My question is why the Prescott Police Department didn’t do a psych eval or a background check on him before hiring him?
