Seattle officer punches girl in face during jaywalking stop

Originally posted by alaskan

Originally posted by backwherewestarted

2) I didn't see anything in the video showing the actual stop, so I can't deem it unnecessary, but then again if a law is broken is it truly unnecessary?

You could've just read the news article linked to in the original post...

According to Seattle police, the incident began when an officer spotted a man jaywalking in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S. at approximately 3:10 p.m. The man was some 15 feet away from a pedestrian overpass, police said.

The officer was talking to the man when he saw four young women jaywalk across the same street at the same spot. The officer asked the women to step over to his patrol car, but the women were being "verbally antagonistic toward the officer," according to officials.

One of the women, later identified as a 19 year old, began to walk away from the scene despite the officer's instructions, prompting the officer to walk over to her and escort her back to his patrol car.

The girl then "began to tense up her arm, and pull away from the officer while yelling at him," investigators said. The officer told the girl to place her hands on his patrol car, but she refused. When the officer tried to grab hold of her, "she pulled away and twisted, breaking free of the officer's grip several times," the blotter report said.

When the officer tried to handcuff the girl, another girl, this one 17 years old, intervened and placed her hands on the officer's arm, "causing the officer to believe she was attempting to physically affect the first subject's escape," police said.

The officer pushed back the second girl, but the girl came back at him. The officer then punched her, police said.

Originally posted by backwherewestarted
It's amazing how many people on ATS will post with their mind made up and ignore anything in the video or the facts and shout their outrage.

Try following your own advice before spewing out such worthless rhetoric.

Awww, did you get your feelings hurt? Rather funny that the article makes it clear that she decided to disobey the officer and leave the scene before he tried to do anything.

When the cop asks you to do something. You do it.
The moment the chick was pushing on the cop it was resisting arrest.

She was lucky he didn't mace, batton, taze or pull out his gun.

The cop obviously doesn't know what he's doing and should be off of the street until he's trained on how to properly take down a suspect. He's a dnager to himself and others.

I think the punch was warrented in that situation. Don't disrespect the police and you won't have as big of a problem.

If people weren't so blind as to what was happening then you wouldn't have people complaining about the officer. The girl he was going for first was RESISTING and all he was doing was trying to subdue her. Then you have little miss idiot trying to push the officer away, which is only something a moron would do in that situation. The officer was justified because the 17 year old was trying to get in the way of the officer's job and trying to forcefully free her friend from him.

Like others have said, she's lucky she didn't get her dumb ass tazed or pepper sprayed since those are many times worse than the little punch he gave her. I would consider myself lucky to get a punch instead of being tackled, tazed, sprayed, whatever since he was justified because of how she acted.

To those who call him racist or automatically yell 'brutality', learn what you can do and what you shouldn't when a police officer is trying to apprehend someone. You don't run in and try to break them up even if it is a friend. Let him just do his job and give a simple ticket or whatever he would have done if the girl wouldn't have jumped in like an idiot.

reply to post by elevatedone


Your right he had a normal reaction. This was all happening so quickly that he probably didn't know if it was the girl or if it was the guy with them. Officers are human and they don't always do what is best for situations but for this situation he handled it the best way he could. If you go hands on with an officer you should expect him to come back hands on at you.

Do any of you have sisters?

What if I saw one of them walking with some friends and one of them spits on the sidewalk - something which is illegal in some places - So I tell them to come over to my car.

They come over, but the spitter "gets mouthy" and starts walking away, so I forcibly grab her by the wrist and try to subdue her.
A struggle ensues, and it's clearly one-sided.

Your sister tries to stop me from bullying her friend (which I'm doing for no good reason,) so I sock her in the eye, and continue on with my "business."

Defending my actions would bring you right down to my [disgusting, low] level, no matter what your reasoning is...


[edit on 15-6-2010 by alaskan]

Originally posted by alaskan
Do any of you have sisters?

What if I saw one of them walking with some friends and one of them spits on the sidewalk - something which is illegal in some places - So I tell them to come over to my car.

They come over, but the spitter "gets mouthy" and starts walking away, so I forcibly grab her by the wrist and try to subdue her.
A struggle ensues, and it's clearly one-sided.

Your sister tries to stop me from bullying her friend for no good reason, so I sock her in the eye, and continue on with my "business."

Defending my actions would bring you right down to my [disgusting, low] level, no matter what your reasoning is...



[edit on 15-6-2010 by alaskan]

Speaking of "worthless rhetoric." Of course it's worthless because it's based on a scenario that does not even come close to what is in the video, but what else should be expected by someone who got offended and went on the attack at my first comment in this thread.

reply to post by Tholidor


How can you call that offficer a racist. I bet he would have done it to a white woman if she was in that same situation.This crap is rediculous when everybody wants to start pulling the racist card and not even know the whole situation. All we see is the end of it not the beginning.

just so i'm clear on my position on this subject.

1. i don't agree with how they reacted towards this cop before the video, and during.
2. both sides are in the wrong.
3. i don't agree with any grown man punching a 17yr old girl in the face, no matter what. there's other ways this could have been handled. if he felt threatened, then he could have always called for backup.
4. my reactions towards cops is in no way related to these girls, i have nothing but respect for cops and what they do.

reply to post by alaskan


I have a sister and if she was to do what this girl had done she had better be able to deal with the repercussion that comes with putting your hands on an officer. All it takes is a little common sense and that situation would have turned out different.

Originally posted by HistoryIsOnlyHisStory
if he felt threatened, then he could have always called for backup.

That's kind of a problem, isn't it? He's right in the middle of a physical altercation. I don't think they're going to stop and wait for him to call for backup, much less wait for it to arrive.

It's fairly well known in Western Washington that the Seattle Pd holds jaywalking to be a more serious crime than possession of Marijuana. These girls got what they deserved for being stupid enough to do it in front of a cop

It's disgusting how some of you people talk about cops like they're our overlords, and how childish others' responses are.

I call someone out on bringing worthless argumentative dribble into a discussion and the response is that my feelings were hurt.

Do not reply to me, try to stay on topic. So many threads on here become practically illegible from this kind of back and forth, off-topic crap.



[edit on 15-6-2010 by alaskan]

reply to post by alaskan


I doubt my sister would be dumb enough to illegally spit on a sidewalk in view of an officer. And if she were to help a friend to try and get away from a cop I wouldn't expect the officer to punch her in the eye, I would expect him to arrest her for putting herself in the way and trying to stop him.

All the girls had to do was stop and listen to him. We don't even know what he was going to do since the one girl started giving problems from the beginning of the video. It doesn't matter if people want to think it was a stupid reason, they weren't supposed to jaywalk. I don't have that much sympathy because it could have all been avoided by them walking the extra 15 feet to the overpass.

reply to post by vor78


but i don't think just because you get shoved you have the right to punch a girl in the face. you're a grown man, act like one. he could have pulled out his pepper spray, told her to back off, called for back up, then finished the arrest. but instead he went on the offensive. i just don't agree with that. this should be an example of what not to do. and yes that girl should have been arrested for pushing him, you just don't do that. i am no way supporting how these girls reacted.

This is coming from someone who has no issue with calling out the police when they do wrong, I have my own personal experiences in some threads o ATS so Id be the first to call something if it didn't seem right.

Secondly I'm also a CJ major which will be entering Law Enforcement in the not to distant future So I can see both sides of this issue here.

Its easy to say this officer overstepped his bounds when that's what you WANT to see him doing. the reality of the situation is this, The officer was attempting to make an arrest, whether it was lawful or not would/will be determined by the courts.

On the scene were two males a female, and the female being arrested. The female being arrested WAS resisting arrest, and being HIGHLY uncooperative, the other female was also not making the situation any easier she was INTERFERING with the arrest.

On this cops mind are several factors the two males on the scene, the aggressive female friend, and the women resisting. This officer is ALONE and confronted with obviously hostile individuals.

The woman resisting is a handful as it is and the other women DID in fact assault the officer, there is a GUN present mind you it is the officers, His arrested is not under control and her friend is attacking him. A LEO is constantly weighing and observing his situation and he KNOWS that if he loses control of the situation he may not go home that night.

The female friend attacked him and he lost control of his arrestee, this could be a potentially DANGEROUS situation if one of them goes for any of his weapons, he MUST do what he can to get things back under control and YES KNOCKING the woman out is JUSTIFIED.

NEVER resist arrest, NEVER interfere with an arrest and NEVER ASSAULT A POLICE OFFICER especially while hes trying to make an arrest...


Some people here like to make any police actions seems like its the end of the world and some NWO takeover and loss of our rights and I can assure you THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE SITUATIONS

Some people think they know everything because they sit behind a computer screen but the reality of the situation is that this officer did what he had to do, you may not like it but put yourself in his shoes.

In my schooling and experiences with LE I can tell you that situations like these have on many occasions resulted in the officer getting KILLED because he lost control of a situation.

The officer used an equal level of force to restore control of the situation, he was JUSTIFIED to use the next level of force which I'm sure everyone here would have screamed police brutality had he went to that level.

He was following the correct use of force guide lines for this situation.

[edit on 15-6-2010 by C0le]

Good to see citizens supporting the attack of fellow citizens by LEO over jay walking.

She was resisting arrest, the police officer was surrounded and alone, and her friend interfered with a police officer. She and her friend should BOTH go to jail.

She is an idiot and should have gotten tazered also.

End of story.

[edit on 15-6-2010 by xmaddness]

reply to post by HistoryIsOnlyHisStory


He may have overreacted, but as I said earlier, he doesn't know what her intentions are. If he doesn't act to immediately end the threat, there's a possibility it could spiral out of control.

I don't find his reaction excessive. If he'd punched her for verbal insults, it would be different, but he didn't. If you put your hands on someone in a hostile manner, they have a right to defend themselves. That's especially true of a cop who is already attempting to make a legal arrest on someone else who is resisting.

Originally posted by alaskan
It's disgusting how some of you people talk about cops like they're our overlords, and how childish others' responses are.

I call someone out on bringing worthless argumentative dribble into a discussion and the response is that my feelings were hurt.

Do not reply to me, try to stay on topic. So many threads on here become practically illegible from this kind of back and forth, off-topic crap.



[edit on 15-6-2010 by alaskan]

It's disgusting how people like you will ignore the facts (posted in your post) and the proof in the video in order to rain down hate upon cops. It's also disgusting how you can call someone out but then cry when you get it in return.

The friend should of stayed out of it and there would have been no scene.

IMO the friend got what she deseved for putting her nose where it didn't belong and raring up on the cop.

If you're accused of something and arrested by a cop and feel you were wronged you take the appropriate channels and hire an attorney.