Seattle Police Defend Own
 

Sorry but thie is inexcusable. They were jaywalking for goodness sakes.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/16...est=latestnews

I guess jaywalking is serious business in Seattle.

Since when are police allowed to punch people regardless of what was happening? This isn't about self-defense or officers hitting people back.

I agree with the guy who said "why'd you have to hit her with closed fists?" He couldn't taken her to the ground or anything to handcuff her.

That idiot spokesperson said "officers are trained in boxing with closed fists....."

I agree that being a solo officer surrounded by people can be terrifying but the people surrounding this officer weren't being aggressive or turning on him. Police departments need to be honest and acknowledge that much of this is just an adrenaline rush and officers playing "quines mas macho" rather than proper protocol for officers to protect themselves and public safety.

lol

I agree with the police officer and the guild.

Of course.

I have now watched the tape 4 times. I wish I could see what happened right when the teen jaywalkers got stopped. I assume they were pissed to get stopped for jaywalking. They were dumb if they began talking trash and being aggressive when they were being ticketed. Being a smartass to an officer happens but it should never be aggressive or anything that leads the officer to believe she/he is being verbally or physically threatened.

I still don't agree with the punch.

Agree, this does not rise to the level of physical violence shown regardless of what they said. The officer is, or at least should be, trained on how to defuse these type situations.

Sounds like a Barney Fife to me.

I do too, for the most part. Looks like a pretty busy road they were crossing. Maybe they almost caused an accident? Cop can't ignore that. There's always 2 sides to every story. The punch maybe was excessive, but he definately had to do something to get the 2 girls under control, into his car, and him into the car until back-up arrived. It easily could have turned into a mob type situation.

Why weren't they respecting the officer? They were hitting and yelling at him and everyone around was taking pictures and egging them on. I agree the punch probably took it too far, but WTH...it WOULD be scary to be that officer, out there doing the right thing (your JOB), with no back-up and the crowd behaving that way!! Who's to say that when she went to hit him, someone else wasn't going to try and knock him down and take his weapon?

I watched the video and saw nothing wrong. He should have broken out his tazer and pepper spray and arrested both of those women for felony assaulting an officer. They should do hard time for behaving like that. They are not victims.

http://www.policecatalog.com/images/71222.jpg

LOL. I really did find this picture before I read this part of your post.

There is a middle ground here. Nobody can put themselves in the officers' mind and feel his level of "threat" in the immediacy of that situation. That being said, officers train rigorously in assessing/handling threat. He didn't immediately draw his weapon on the girl. Why? He'd made an initial calculation that such a step wasn't necessary.

From that, you'd think there was a successful control/take down maneuver that likely would have subdued a 17-year-old girl, something short of a closed fist to the face.

I study martial arts (taekwondo). Training involves using self-defense techniques sufficient to the threat faced. An attacking stranger on a dark street at midnight is likely to get a far more forceful technique response than, say, a friend's uncle who has had too much to drink at the family picnic, where a more controlling technique (i.e. a joint lock) might suffice to stop the behavior.

Again, videotaped replay makes it easy to second-guess the cops' action in the heat of the situation, but it seems like something short of what happened, perhaps should have occured.

Sad situation.

Rai Goulsby, Seattle Police Punch Filmer, Wanted $1,000 for Fight Footage

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/daily...police_pun.php

Proper protocol is to control the situation, which this officer did. I think he should of taken her to the ground and placed her in handcuffs instead of punching her though, that's what I would have done at least. And yes, he was right in using a closed fist because that's how he was trained. Law enforcement agencys don't train officers to "bitch slap". I also don't think this guy is a Barney Fife, a Barney Fife would have let this girl beat the shit out of him. He stepped up and let this girl know who was in charge. I've seen countless videos of police officers getting the shit kicked out of them, maimed, and killed by subjects they encountered on "routine" stops. 9 times out 10 these people attack because of the perception that the cop was weak, inexperienced, or the fact that they thought they could get away with it.

TonyB06 - Very well stated. I agree that its hard for anyone to know how they would react in that situation. She was trying to prevent him from arresting her friend, one of them had shoved him, and he needed to respond, but whether the response fit the situation...idk.

To back up what Pika2001 said - there have been five police officers killed in the Seattle area in the last six months. Four were killed while they were sitting in a diner, writing reports. To say the police in Seattle are a little wary of the public these days and have every right to be is an understatement. In addition, the two girls involved had a lenghthy criminal history.

Everyone agrees that he should've done something. It's the punch option that people don't agree with.

I've seen grown men who are drunk and aggressive with officers being tackled and handcuffed rather than officers engaging in a street fight with them and punching them. Even giving her dumb friend a final warning that she will be tasered (and then tasering her if she doesn't stop being dumb) is more appropriate.

The girl was really dumb for interfering with her friend's interaction with the officer. If she didn't like how her friend was being treated, she should've taken the officer's name and badge #. They already had everything else caught on tape.

However, people in positions of authority are supposed to be ABOVE all the rest. They go based on protocols and policies rather than pure emotion.

This is already a few days old in Seattle, and the overwhelming majority of the public here thinks this officer did nothing wrong (myself included). These girls were fools. All he was trying to do was give them a ticket for jaywalking across a VERY busy street. They became verbally abusive, drawing a crowd, then started getting pushy. You can clearly see in the full video (not some of the edited ones a few TV stations have been showing) that the officers tried to calm the girls, but it was the girls who escalated the situation. When that girl pushed him, knocking him back on his heels, she should've expected the type of response she got. That's what happens when you are aggressive toward a law enforcement officer. How was he to know she wasn't going to grab his gun? She certainly wasn't behaving rationally! He did a good job of stunning her, keeping the situation from escalating.

The Seattle-Tacoma area has had at least six law enforcement officers murdered in the last 6-8 months. Combine that with the fact that the area of Seattle where I've heard this happened is not the friendliest part of town and has gang issues. Combine that with the crowd that had gathered to egg the situation on, and in fact even tried to shield the girls from the cops. Let this be a lesson to young people that you should LISTEN to police, not mouth off to them, and certainly not raise a hand at them.

LOL. Oh, I agree. It's just that PiKA2001's comment about jaywalking immediately brought Barney to mind.

From the first episode of The Andy Griffith Show: "Now she's going to go out and tell her friends how she got away with it, next thing you know people will be jaywalking all over the place and disregarding 'keep-off-the-grass' signs and everything! Why Mayberry is gonna turn into a regular sin town!!"

(Watch it here. I laugh every time.)

By the way, unless you've been to Seattle, you probably don't realize how "obedient" we all are here when it comes to traffic crossings. We'll stand on a deserted corner in the rain, waiting for the "Walk" signal to cross at a light.

Sidenote: This shows that women shouldn't put their hands on a man without consequences being expected.

I believe it. I work with Seattle folks. We were in a meeting in California, and they did not jaywalk period.

As for the punch. Do I feel it was appropriate?

Hmm, I've seen people beat with the Billy club for putting their hands on an officer. I've seen people maced, I've seen people tasered.

The punch was very minor compared to what he could have done.

(Remember it wasn't that long ago everybody was in an uproar about the fan getting tasered.)

HAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/seattle-...ho-punched-her

Just a quick update I stumbled across.

She should have been ordered to do something for that. Community service, some time in a detention facility, something. She has to understand that she cannot disrespect authority like that.

I really wonder if this sentiment would be the same if it had been a Black cop who punched a White female.


Overall, despite race, I think both parties were wrong. They took the situation too far.

Hell to the naw and that cop would have hell to pay.

I agree.

If that girl looked like Taylor Swift he would not have laid hands on her either. The young lady should have just stood their and taken the ticket if that's what he was intending to do, but he should not have hit anyone over a jaywalking. Also, apparently in the tape the crowd was VERY respectful and pleaded for things to calm down so the fact that they were there watching wasn't an excuse.

I agree and that's why I don't think he hit her because he had to calm the situation and be concerned about the crowd from coming at him. I still think it was about adrenaline, annoyance, and "do you know who I am bitch?"

She definitely wouldn't shut her ass up and I hope she learned a huge lesson.

I actually to a degree agree with you...what he did was escalate the situation.

Yeah the goal for the officer is to get home alive but I don't agree with not only the punch but he punched a woman.

Once she fought back she was already in the wrong.

If this was a man and not a woman, would public reaction be different?

Why is it okay for a woman to actively assist someone in resisting arrest and arguably not so for a man? Why shouldn't they face the same consequences?

I'd probably object to the punch still. It's less about the use of force and more about how the force was used.

But I'd lie if I didn't think there was usually something kind of uncomfortable about a man punching a woman in any context. Too much history.

Go back and look at the video. She pushed off of him, he stepped FORWARD and popped her one in the mouth. The moment he stepped forward he could have taken her down in other means besides straight hitting her in the mouth. He even could have slapped her with an OPEN HANDED slap.

And what Drole said. I am uncomfortable with ANY man punching a woman aggressively as he did.

You fixed it. But I saw it.
*watching you*

good grief ...why are you TRYING to pick a fight with me?

I'm just giving you grief over spelling my name wrong :p

But I fixed it....you need a good slap in the mouth

I'm a little swayed each way by this, but in the end, was she seriously injured? I doubt it. She made the choice to resist a police officer. Sometimes we have to live with the consequences of our actions. In the heat of the moment, what you should do and what actually happens are two different things. The woman was subdued and arrested with little injury. I'd have more of a problem if he'd hit her repeatedly. I also don't think women can claim that men shouldn't hit them unless they want to act in a feminine manner. You jump in a man's face and physically attack him, you open yourself up for the same. She was foolish if she didn't see it coming. That's why I don't pick fights with cops. :D

^^^ That's why I am on the fence with this