Seattle Cop punches female black teen after resisting arrest

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Article's title is highly misleading.

He punched her friend for intervening while she was resisting arrest. Point is, her friend doesn't get punched in the face if two things happen...

1.) Original jaywalker doesn't resist arrest.
2.) Friend doesn't try to intervene, which was clearly a dumb decision.

Fair enough, but while we are at it why don't we discuss how unnecessary laws against jaywalking are.

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

All of this could have been avoided through a simple conversation and informing the group of girls to cross at the light. Why this cop felt the need to make this a big issue is beyond me.

 

[Rush]

Fair enough, but while we are at it why don't we discuss how unnecessary laws against jaywalking are.

Laws against jaywalking prevent situations like Stallworth hitting and killing a pedestrian.

He shouldn't have been drunk, just like the jaywalker shouldn't have been jaywalking

With that said, I jaywalk all of the time. :buttrock: I see exactly what you're saying.

 

[BigP50]

I just walk in the street instead of the side walk.

 

[Lefty]

The way I see it is that the girl intervening with the officer making an arrest (justified or not, though probably not justified because the last time I checked, you don't/shouldn't get arrested or searched for jaywalking) could justifiably be placed under arrest. Cops aren't regular people outside of a bar that you can scuffle with if they say or do something wrong, you just can't. So then, the chick that got punched would rightly be placed under arrest for intervening and even touching the officer.

That being said, the punch (a manifestation of the police officer's perceived power to subdue people under arrest) is a clear-cut example of excessive force. This wasn't some 300-pound ex football star or a raging lunatic, this was a teenage girl, and the force used to subdue the situation is not befitting of the person being taken under arrest. If the intervening party were an angry male approaching with clenched fists, we'd have a different story, but there is no way you can justify using that kind of force on a teenage girl who most likely has no training in unarmed combat and is in no way a threat to anyone's life (she wasn't even striking at the officer, to say nothing of the fact that even if she were, she's a teenage girl).

I know the Seattle pigs have come out in defense of the officer with things like "the officer was in fear for his life" and "he was surrounded by a hostile crowd", but anyone that gives the video even a cursory watch can see that neither of these things are true. The "attacker" in this situation was a very loud and angry teenage girl, and the "crowd" was doing nothing but watching the goings on from at least 50 feet away and in no way were they attempting to intervene or even making moves to do so.

I doubt anyone would say the girl that got punched wasn't doing anything wrong, but it is clear that the way in which the situation was handled involved excessive force on the part of the officer, and now this girl's life will most certainly ruined by the assault charges that are sure to come.

Maybe she'll get a nice settlement from the city, but maybe she won't. What I do believe is that nothing even resembling a punishment will be handed down to the cop, save for maybe a cushy desk job for 6 months until everything blows over and he'll be sent back out on the beat. It's pathetic.

 

[Lefty]

"Occasionally the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants."

I think it's time more people started taking this to heart when dealing with police officers and other governing bodies, because in case no one has noticed, our civil liberties have been chipped away for a long, long time now.

 

[X]

In short, both parties made mistakes, the cop will be reprimanded (tho not severely) the woman who resisted will get community service, and the woman who got hit will get a new Benz.

 

[GrinderBall41]

If you think an angry black woman is less of a threat than a 300 lb ex football star, you havent met an angry black woman. Horrifying.

 

[Chitown]

Righteous

 

[Got teeth? Keith doesn't.]

A cop can't hurt someone unless they're in danger of getting hurt, he wasn't in any danger of getting hurt

I'm pretty sure someone coming at you and shoving you means you're in danger.

I think he was a bit out of line but it wasn't totally unnecessary. When you resist arrest and start getting physical, you can't really expect not to receive physical confrontation back, such as a punch. None of us seen the whole thing, so we really can't say for sure who is right and who isn't.