Which of these two videos do you find more disturbing? The first one was taken recently at the Chicago Vocational Career Academy. Look:

The second one, which you have no doubt seen because it has received national media attention:

The sheriff’s deputy, Ben Fields, was later fired. From the NYT:

The deputy’s dismissal came after department officials conducted an internal review that, according to the sheriff, found that Deputy Fields had used a maneuver that violated the agency’s training and procedural standards. But Sheriff Lott also criticized the student, a sophomore, in harsh tones for “having started this whole incident with her actions.”

Deputy Fields, who could not be reached for comment, was called to an Algebra 1 class on Monday morning after, according to witnesses and law enforcement officials, the student refused her teacher’s requests to stop using her cellphone. After the student refused to leave the classroom, Deputy Fields forced her from her desk by flipping it before he pulled and threw her toward the front of the room.

Now the out-of-control Obama administration is conducting a civil rights investigation into the deputy’s actions, which could result in federal charges lodged against him. According to the sheriff who fired him, Fields has been in a long-term relationship with an African-American woman. Some kind of racist he is.

Two black TV personalities, Raven-Symoné and CNN’s Don Lemon, for criticizing the teenage girl. If my smart-aleck daughter had behaved that way in a classroom, and refused a deputy’s orders to get up and leave, I would buy him dinner for treating her that way.

Which of these two videos represents the greater threat to society, the behavior of the Chicago students, or the behavior of the South Carolina cop?

Even if one concedes that the cop overreacted, there’s no question in my mind which one is by far the worst. God help that poor Chicago teacher, Ms. Cox. You would have to be crazy to want to teach (“teach”) in a school (“school”) like that.

We can’t deny that the racist use of power by authority exists, and is a problem. When authority — the authority of law enforcement, of educational institutions, of religious institutions, and so forth — is abused by those who hold power, then they must be held accountable. The worse problem, though, as we see in the Chicago video (the fear in the eyes of the teacher is both heartbreaking and infuriating) is a total lack of respect for authority. Any authority.

UPDATE: A reader responds to this post in an e-mail, which I’ve ever so slightly altered with asterisks:

I hope your children are taken away from you very soon and placed with someone who does not condone assaulting them.

Christ, you’re an a**hole.

Dan Adams

Systems Administrator

Hawley, LLC

Thank you, Dan Adams, for showing your hand. I am pleased to know that you would have the state seize my children over my having expressed hypothetical sympathy for the cop. Left-wing tyrant that you and your ilk are.

UPDATE.2: Dan Adams writes back:

Left-Wing Tyrant checking in here. I am at a complete loss how you can claim to follow “The Prince of Peace” and yet condone this vicious, unprovoked *assault* on an orphaned black teenager.

The fact that you laughingly consider rewarding someone for throwing your own children to the ground in that manner is incredibly disturbing and frankly, unhinged. I stand by what I said and I advise you seek professional help before you ever do that to those who call you “Father”. How would your wife feel if she read this post?

And yes, if parents will not protect their own children from physical harm, the State should.

As an aside, people like you who claim Christ but condone child abuse are why I lost my faith.

And people like you are why even though I have big problems with organized conservatism, I have no faith at all in liberalism.