Girl accuses Rapid City cop of excessive force

When Garrison Keillor opened A Prairie Home Campanion in the Rapid City Civic Center Theatre on November 20, 1999 he cited a statistic that Pennington County has the highest per capita gun ownership in the United States. A nervous chuckle rolled through the audience.

The slap heard round the world, or at least Indian Country, has caused quite the commotion in Rapid City, and the girl struck by the RCPD police officer has denied the charge of assault in juvenile court. Despite the uproar the fight and strike had caused, one of the girls in the fight whom we will refer to as “G” for the sake of this article, had gone to juvenile court on Thur., November 14 in Rapid City. The officer G. was referring to was Officer Richard Holt of the Rapid City Police Department. In the videos, it appears that the officer had struck her along the side of the head, but G. said it caught her in the face and this is what made her nose bleed. “It makes me feel sad. People don’t know the full story. I just don’t feel safe around cops.” [Native Sun News Today]

Tim Giago sees little difference between Rapid City and Ferguson, Missouri where Michael Brown's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against that police department. Daniel Tiger chose to take out two Rapid City police personnel with him rather than be gunned down in cold blood like Christopher Capps was. Former Lakota Country Times editor Karin Eagle spoke out after another American Indian was killed in Rapid City. After another high profile racism incident the Rapid City Rush has an alcohol-free family section in the civic center.

The number of experiences that i have had in gun and pawn shops in Rapid City that have taken me aback are too numerous to count. Two are vivid: a fifteen year old with mother in tow pointing at a Glock in a case saying, "that one" and a man buying five AK-47s with cash.

The South Dakota Republican Party thrives on violence and a white nationalist cop who managed 'a bunch of racists' became Rapid City's mayor.

The people involved in this skirmish are not the first casualties of this war and they won't be the last.

Image captured in a Rapid City parking lot.