The people have spoken and they want CNN anchor Don Lemon fired, effective immediately. A change.org petition has surfaced with over 29,000 signatures from people who believe Lemon did not appropriately respond to the video of the Spring Valley High student being mishandled by a police officer, and they want him gone.
According to the NY Post, after Lemon challenged prosecutor and CNN legal analyst, Sunny Hostin, on what led to the aggressive classroom arrest of a South Carolina student after being forcibly removed from her desk chair by a South Carolina deputy, things got ugly. CNN reported on the video showing a student being slammed to the ground by a deputy who used muscle tactics and excessive force to remove the girl from her desk and ultimately, the classroom.
The video "show[s] the officer standing over a student, seated at her desk," CNN described of the short video. "He puts his arm near her neck, then yanks her backward. The desk tips over and the student crashes onto the floor. ...He doesn't let go,sharply tugging the student toward the front of the classroom. She flies out of her desk and slides several feet across the floor."
The video was captured by students in the class and soon went viral after being uploaded to the internet, sparking outrage among some communities. Lemon however, needed more information before drawing any conclusions. In the conversation with Hostin he stated, "I've looked at it over and over again, as far as the desk going over, I don't know if the desk fell over because she didn't want to get up or if he pushed it over - I don't know." Lemon said he could not form an opinion of who was wrong or right based off of the video alone. He needed more information and agreed with the commissioner that it may "look horrible," but the video only shows "a small slice in time" and no one knows what happened before and what happened after to cause this incident.
Hostin argued that even without more details, the officer did not need to use this type of force on a student. "The bottom line is, this is a young girl," Hostin argued. "This is a girl in school. There is no justification for using that kind of... I don't need to know [more] we see what happened."
Apparently, 29,000 people agree with Hostin and now want Lemon gone. The NY Post reported that the goal for the petition is to reach 35,000 signatures but it does not specify what will take place once this goal is reached.
