It’s our fucking right to be “verbally antagonistic” to officers of the law.
There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed, and if I were discussing this with someone rational we could hash out where those lines are. But I’m talking with you at the moment, and I already know your position that if someone sneezes in a non-respectful manner at a cop, they should be beaten.*
*Note: this paragraph may contain hyperbole for humour’s sake. No hyperboles were harmed in the making of this paragraph.
Arresting someone for jaywalking seems a bit much, but the correct response to that is not to resist arrest and bait the cop in order to make some youtube video (the fake crying she tried to start a couple times while at the same time resisting arresting just as fiercely was hilarious).
I feel bad for the cop personally. He will likely lose just because that is how the attitude towards the police is (I can see the headlines now, “White Police Officer punches young black woman in face for jaywalking”). He was just in a shit poor situation where he was probably afraid her friends were going to start attacking him (it did look like one of the guys was thinking about jumping in).
I’d say he probably should have just tased her the 5th time she told him to get the fuck off of her and called it a day. Although these days people complain just as much if you use a taser, saying you should somehow talk someone like that down (impossible).
If she had been “verbally antagonistic” while getting in the police car without fighting back, it seems pretty clear she wouldn’t have got punched in the face.
Jumping the hedge already? I wasn’t even trolling. You sure come out with it nice and quickly. Better to just get it out of the way, I suppose.
The situation was out of control, and the officer should not have let it come to that point. Honestly, pulling a taser seems like a better option in this particular instance.
Whatever happened to good 'ol mace anyways?
Yeah, this isn’t about jaywalking. It’s about a cop being 2-on-1’ed by people who are physically attempting to resist a ticketing (not arrest – he wasn’t “arresting them for jaywalking”). The whole jaywalking angle is just a non sequitur with the intent of inciting outrage because, hey, who wouldn’t be pissed at getting a ticket for jaywalking.
Now was the punch a bit overboard? Yeah, probably. That said it’s not clear what he should have done either. You can insinuate that this guy has magical cop skills that will allow him to “get control of the situation” all you want but it’s clear that he was trying and (for whatever reason) failing to do exactly that. I’m not sure what “calling in backup” is supposed to do when the whole problem started because the girls were leaving the scene.
The punch was uncalled for based on the video. The teenage girl wasn’t attacking him. She tried to push his arm away from the other girl. The cop lost his cool.
The teens were out of line too, but that officer needs to handle those kinds of situations better. I think we hold our police to a higher standard.
He’s lucky the punch didn’t escalate it more. I could see something like that easily incite other people nearby.
How, exactly?
Yeah. The officer lost his composure after the woman shoved/assaulted him. I think he punched her to try to regain control of the situation because he knew he had lost it at that point.
While I don’t know if “punch” was the correct option, it seemed to work to regain control of the immediate situation. Probably won’t work to regain control of the PR situation.
If he wanted to handcuff her or all of them or even call in for back up, fine. Punching her in the face is assault and she’ll happily collect her six figures from the city. Cops are trained not to let people get to them like that just because it does cost cities money.
Cops have to know by now that they are being videotaped and if they do something the least bit stupid, it will wind up on YouTube and most like the local news too. May not be fair or even right, but there’s nothing they can do to change it. Right now, the LA cops are in trouble for mistreating a bicyclist, again caught on video and uploaded to YouTube.
It’s a different world and really probably better for all concerned.
Well, like I said, she’ll certainly get at least $100,000 for that punch. That’s how we hold cops to a higher standard.
You didn’t answer my question. For example he was trying to handcuff the girl (as you suggest) but she and her friend physically resisted and he wasn’t able to. What next?
Lorini, she shoved him. That’s assault.
lol $100,000 for a punch.
Call in backup? C’mon, if she were some strong 250 pound guy and he couldn’t hand cuff him, do you think he’d punch him in the face? I don’t think so. He punched her because he was bigger than she was.
Bet. I’ll take you to lunch if I lose :)
I’ll let a cop punch me in the face for a lot less than $100,000. Where do I sign up?
No, she was bigger than him. Granted it was just having a fat ass, but I bet she tipped the scale higher.
Head over to the taser thread, I’ve never been a fan or apologist for police brutality. This wasn’t that. A woman was resisting arrest (and should have been thrown down with a knee in her back, he was being too kind) and then her friend started helping her resist/assault the officer. I’ve got no problem with anything here.
H.