Joshua Dubois, source: The White House
Joshua Dubois, one of President Barack Obama’s two closest spiritual advisors and a former high ranking Obama administration official, posted a veiled threat on Twitter Sunday night about the police response to allegedly rowdy Black teenagers at a pool party in McKinney, Texas on Friday.
You will not do this to our girls. This should disgust fathers, sons and brothers of all races and faiths. #McKinney pic.twitter.com/5J5wKPZtVs
— Joshua DuBois (@joshuadubois) June 7, 2015
Dubois wrote on his verified Twitter account, “You will not do this to our girls,” below a screen grab from the viral YouTube video by Brandon Brooks that shows white police officer Cpl. Eric Casebolt (who has since been suspended pending an investigation) with his knee on the back of a Black fifteen year-old girl, Dajerria Becton, who has been forced face down on the grass by the officer after resisting being detained.
Dubois added, “This should disgust fathers, sons and brothers of all races and faiths. #McKinney”
The veiled threat by Dubois went viral, with over fourteen thousand combined favorites and retweets within twenty-four hours.
Dubois’s Twitter account lists 48.6 K followers.
In an appearance on CNN Monday afternoon, Dubois made clear he has already judged the officer guilty, saying the officer was ‘losing his mind’ while absolving the teen girl’s behavior, “There’s nothing wrong with you, you did not deserve, this woman did not deserve what happened to her. Perhaps there could have been a different dialogue with the officer but when you have knees shoved into your back and when you have someone yelling and screaming and cursing at you, that’s not a proportionate response, so first there’s nothing wrong with you.”
How the #McKinney officer should have responded: @LtStevenLRogers & @joshuadubois join @BrookeBCNN on #CNN: http://t.co/KixMpg9Guc
— Charli Lee (@CharliBLee) June 8, 2015
The Brandon Brooks video shows the officer engaging teens in differing ways depending upon how the teens are acting. Those being respectful and compliant are left alone. Those who mouth off are told off and told to leave, those who stood up to him got sat down. What precipitated the officer trying to detain the girl is not discernable in the video. What can be seen is the girl repeatedly physically and vocally resisting efforts by the officer to detain her which drew a menacing crowd around the officer.
Two young men in street clothes approach the officer, with one removing his ball cap and assuming a fighting stance as he got within one foot of the officer on the side where his service weapon was holstered. That is when the officer drew his weapon causing the two menacing men to withdraw.
Casebolt has also been criticized for swearing at the teenagers he and the other officers were trying to control.
An eyewitness described Becton as resisting the officer:
“”He grabbed her arm and tried to handcuff her, and she was resisting immediately and she should’ve just stopped at that point,” one white woman, who declined to be identified on camera, told the Fox affiliate. “They were just doing the right thing when these kids were fleeing and using profanity and threatening security guards.””
According to a Politico article published last December, Dubois is still acting as a spiritual advisor to Obama even though he left the White House after Obama’s first term. Indeed, on Monday Dubois posted “The President’s Devotional, 6/8: “Small Changes””.
Dubois’ bio page at his website reads:
“Joshua DuBois is the author of the bestselling book, The President’s Devotional: The Daily Readings that Inspired President Obama, and is one of our country’s leading voices on community partnerships, religion in the public square and issues impacting African American men. Joshua led the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships in President Obama’s first term and was called the President’s “Pastor-in-Chief” by TIME Magazine. He spearheaded the White House’s work on responsible fatherhood, grassroots community partnerships and religion in foreign affairs, and brought together religious leaders from across the ideological spectrum to tackle the nation’s biggest challenges.
“Joshua now leads a consulting firm, Values Partnerships, that creates faith-based partnerships for the public, private and non-profit sectors, teaches at Princeton University, and is the religion and values columnist for The Daily Beast. Joshua is a frequent media commentator and his work with faith-based organizations has been profiled in The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC News’ This Week, PBS Newshour, CNN and elsewhere. Joshua has been named to “The Root 100″ and Ebony Magazine‘s “Power 150” list of the most influential African Americans in the country. He has authored four cover stories for Newsweek magazine, including a seminal piece entitled “The Fight for Black Men” which historian Taylor Branch called “stunning.”
“Joshua received his Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and his Bachelor’s Degree from Boston University. A former associate pastor at a small Pentecostal church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Joshua originally hails from Nashville, Tennessee. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Michelle.”
