Calls for Cop to Be Fired After Pool Party Fight Video Angers Texas Town

— -- A community leader called for the white McKinney, Texas, cop caught on video cursing and forcing a teenage black girl to the ground at a pool party to be fired, but others defended the overall police response to the incident.

The officer, Cpl. Eric Casebolt, has been put on administrative leave, but the Rev. Ronald Wright, executive director of Justice Seekers Texas, and other community activists demanded that he be fired.

"We're going to ask for justice to be done, and this is ridiculous that we continue to fight these type of issues throughout this country," he said. "It is our hope and prayers that the chief of police and the mayor of this city handle this situation by not only firing this officer but taking his...license because this was simply based on race."

The McKinney Fraternal Order of Police vehemently denied that the incident was racially motivated.

"The McKinney FOP assures that this was not a racially motivated incident and can say without a shadow of doubt that all members of the McKinney FOP and McKinney PD do not conduct racially biased policing," lodge president Daniel Malenfant said in a statement.

At a news conference outside the McKinney police headquarters, Jahi Adisa Bakari, a parent of a 13-year-old who was also at the party, said that while he thought Casebolt was "out of control," he defended the actions of other officers on the scene.

"I saw some people doing the right thing," he said. "I saw some actually trying to do the keep the matter right."

Other community members -- both black and white -- told ABC News they felt the police were justified because the kids were out of control.

In the seven-minute clip of the incident Friday posted to YouTube, the girl can be seen confronting the officer who was one of a dozen cops police said were sent to deal with a group of teenagers who had gone to a pool party where they were not allowed and refused to leave.

The now-suspended officer uses profanity, grabs the 15-year-old girl, Dajerria Becton, by the back of her head and forces her to the ground, face-down, and kneels on her back.

"He told me to keep walking and I kept walking, and then, I'm guessing he thought we were saying rude stuff to him and he shoved me in the grass," Becton said. "He shoved me in the grass, he started pulling back of my braids. And I was like telling him that, you can get off me."

The incident on Friday evening began with a report that there were "multiple juveniles" at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool who "do not live in the area or have permission to be there, refusing to leave," McKinney police spokeswoman Sabrina Boston said.

After a group of officers responded to the call and "encountered a large crowd that refused to comply with police commands," she said, additional units were sent.

A formal investigation into the incident has been started and Casebolt has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation, Police Chief Greg Conley said at a news conference.

Casebolt, 41, joined the police force in August 2005 and according to records from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement served two years before that as a state trooper.

"Several concerns about the conduct of one of the officers at the scene have been raised," Conley said. "The McKinney Police Department is committed to treating all persons fairly under the law. We are committed to preserving the peace and safety of our community for all our citizens."

An adult male was arrested for interference with the duties of a police officer and evading arrest, he said. Everyone else who had been detained by officers, including a 15-year-old female, was released to a parent, legal guardian or responsible adult, Conley added.