I’ve seen no hard facts on what did or didn’t happen prior to this video starting, though some say the girl in the video was merely jaywalking. What you do see though is shocking, a grown man punching a woman in the face and she wasn’t even the one he was trying to arrest.
Another thing that I didn’t see anyone commenting on was the fact that the officer says little to nothing for about the first two minutes. Only then does he state that the girl should stop resisting and that she is under arrest. Why wouldn’t he be saying that the whole time? Why was this guy trying so hard to arrest her himself? Was it to fill his quota?
I’ve also seen comments from folks claiming that the force used was justified because she was resisting. If you seriously think that jaywalking is an offense, since it has no victim and this girl seemed to be old enough to cross the street, that requires police – I feel sorry for you. This is a perfect example of things police could stop doing that would not only help taxpayers but would make police, as well as everyone else, a lot more safe.
I like this site and I believe in what it stands for. And 99% of the time I agree with the articles posted.
That being said, we don’t know what happened before this video started. There was already a group of people assembled, and he had his car parked off the street, so there is no way this occurred immediately after she allegedly jaywalked. Something else had to have happened.
Aside from that, both girls were resisting quite physically. Being a 200 lb man with a muscular frame, if I would have resisted that much I would have been tasered, maced, and probably beaten. Even if these girls were in the right, they were assaulting the officer when he was trying to handle the situation calmly. The officer handled this in textbook fashion. Personally, if I were him I wouldn’t have thrown the punch and would have instead pushed out her legs to get her onto the ground to make the arrest. I’m not an officer, but it just seems that it would have been a more logical thing to do. The one thing he definitely didn’t want to do was increase the violence of the situation without backup and with all of the homies watching.
The cop had all the right to strike the one girl in the face…she obviously, we have video, assaulted him. If a cop is making an arrest you can’t just go up to him and try and hit him or stop him.. ITS CALLED ASSAULT.
You can and should resist arrest if it is an unlawful arrest attempt. We don’t have what was happening before the video started rolling, however, according to the police report he became physical first.
“An illegal arrest is an assault and battery. The person so attempted to be restrained of his liberty has the same right to use force in defending himself as he would in repelling any other assault and battery.” (State v. Robinson, 145 ME. 77, 72 ATL. 260).
“Each person has the right to resist an unlawful arrest. In such a case, the person attempting the arrest stands in the position of a wrongdoer and may be resisted by the use of force, as in self- defense.” (State v. Mobley, 240 N.C. 476, 83 S.E. 2d 100).
“One may come to the aid of another being unlawfully arrested, just as he may where one is being assaulted, molested, raped or kidnapped. Thus it is not an offense to liberate one from the unlawful custody of an officer, even though he may have submitted to such custody, without resistance.” (Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 16, 48 S.E. 910).