Seattle Cop Punches Girl in Face

[Simon_Jester]

I doubt it was a Great Media Conspiracy at work as SV seems to think, though; more probably it was two idiot kids who took an attitude (more or less the same one I have, just more strident and violent) at the idea of a police officer punishing jaywalking. Two dumb kids, one cop who made a somewhat unwise, very un-photogenic, but legitimate blow to the face.

Well, the kids were far beyond idiotic in that they decided it was a good idea to start wrestling with a police officer. That never helps.

Given that we don't have one policeman per citizen, police have to be able to do their jobs with legal immunity to physical violence, even when they are doing things that you would reasonably expect a person to get violent in response to were they done by random citizens. If there are situations where you could reasonably argue that the police should expect to be physically assaulted, then the problem is police procedure putting cops into that position, not that citizens have the right to assault cops. The procedure may need to be changed, but wrestling with a policeman is still out of line.

[White Haven]

Which is, oddly enough, exactly what I said.

[SVPD]

I should point out for the benefit of those that don't get it, that comparing this to a domestic violence incident is spurious, at best. Husbands and wives or other family relationships should not be hitting each other regardless. In this situation, however, the officer was attempting to issue a citation for jaywalking and evidently "tensions escalated". (I have a hard time imagining that the laws in Washington allow you to make a custodial arrest for jaywalking, so I imagine where the paper says "tensions escalated" they really mean "the women started doing other things we won't mention to avoid messing up our neat little attempt to make the cop punching one of them into a nig deal.")

I'll assume you made an accidentally racist typo there and ignore that bit.

Heh, it appears I did. I actually couldn't find it at first.

I do agree that the media in the area is definitely pushing a "Seattle cops are out of control and police brutality is rampant" angle on this. Every time the story has run they bring up an incident from a few weeks ago where a cop was clearly guilty of brutality on a man in handcuffs that was racially motivated (though for some reason they keep saying that calling him a "fucking Mexican" is a slur) so it's pretty transparent.

That's precisely the problem with the media. They've got a story from a few weeks ago that would push public outrage and they see an opportunity to keep it in the forefront with this one, so screw the facts. It's not a "big conspiracy"; it's the media being a buisness and trying to make a profit, just like they do on.. geez, practically everything else.

s to the comments about police procedure, no, the problem isn't police procedure. If anything it's jaywalking laws. For that, the public has elected representatives who can change them. However, there is nothing wrong with jaywalking laws, and no reason they should be changed jsut because some people think they'r too inconvenient to obey.

Frankly, I wouldn't write someone a ticket for jaywalking unless they caused or almost caused an accident, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the laws as they stand. If you want to be a scofflaw and ignore them, go ahead. If it ends in a ticket, that doesn't mean you got a bullshit ticket; it means you gambled and lost.

The real problem here though, isn't the teenagers, the cop, or even the media. IT's the "community leaders" trying to make hay with it. I particularly like the one who says she "doesn't condone being disrespectful to the police" but then says she can't support th epolcie using violence. Talk about selective memory of what happened. Shoving someone is assault, not just "disrespect", and using violence in order to control violent people is part of the job of the police. Excessive violence is a problem sure, but there was no excessive force in this case. Not a single one of the people complaining had anything other than vague ranting about being sick and tired, or a version of the incident that doesn't fit with the video.

I'm glad the police commander had the balls to come right out and say "this video justifies the officer's actions and that sort of behavior will be met with force." and the assistant chief, thankfully, came right out and said "we don't want officers avoiding appropriate action and then getting hurt out of concern over how it will look on video."

[jcow79]

Here's a Seattle Times article that has some more details on the incident. It appears that there is a pedestrian bridge right at this location so people don't have to run across traffic. The officer had just finished dealing with another jaywalker as 4 other women jaywalked at the same location and then became antagonistic when he called them over. I've quoted the part that describes the incident.

Police said Monday's incident began about 3:10 p.m. when the officer was driving north along Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The officer saw an 18-year-old man jaywalk across the busy street about 15 feet from a pedestrian overpass.
After the officer stopped the man, he saw four women jaywalk at the same location and ordered them to come over to his patrol car, police reports say. At that point, the women became verbally antagonistic, and one turned and began walking away, police said.
When the officer approached her and began escorting her back to his car, the report says, she tensed and pulled away, ignoring his order to put her hands on the patrol car. By then, a crowd had gathered.
Police said the officer then began trying to handcuff her.
A 2-minute, 46-second version of the video posted on KING 5's website appears to begin at this point, and shows the younger woman approach the officer.
After the officer punches her, a witness in the crowd can be heard exclaiming "Are you serious? Are you serious?" Another man in the crowd finally pulls the 17-year-old away from the officer.
The officer continues to wrestle with the 19-year-old for a few minutes before finally handcuffing her and placing her in his car. He also later arrested the woman he had punched.
Whitcomb said no one was seriously hurt, and he didn't see anything in the officer's report that would suggest he handled the situation inappropriately.

[Atlan]

Here's a Seattle Times article that has some more details on the incident. It appears that there is a pedestrian bridge right at this location so people don't have to run across traffic. The officer had just finished dealing with another jaywalker as 4 other women jaywalked at the same location and then became antagonistic when he called them over. I've quoted the part that describes the incident.

Police said Monday's incident began about 3:10 p.m. when the officer was driving north along Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The officer saw an 18-year-old man jaywalk across the busy street about 15 feet from a pedestrian overpass.
After the officer stopped the man, he saw four women jaywalk at the same location and ordered them to come over to his patrol car, police reports say. At that point, the women became verbally antagonistic, and one turned and began walking away, police said.
When the officer approached her and began escorting her back to his car, the report says, she tensed and pulled away, ignoring his order to put her hands on the patrol car. By then, a crowd had gathered.
Police said the officer then began trying to handcuff her.
A 2-minute, 46-second version of the video posted on KING 5's website appears to begin at this point, and shows the younger woman approach the officer.
After the officer punches her, a witness in the crowd can be heard exclaiming "Are you serious? Are you serious?" Another man in the crowd finally pulls the 17-year-old away from the officer.
The officer continues to wrestle with the 19-year-old for a few minutes before finally handcuffing her and placing her in his car. He also later arrested the woman he had punched.
Whitcomb said no one was seriously hurt, and he didn't see anything in the officer's report that would suggest he handled the situation inappropriately.

Apparently it's a major thoroughfare, with two lanes one way, two the other, and one turning lane, all 40 mph. Using the pedestrian bridge isn't just the law, it's good sense. Jaywalking is just fucking stupid over there.