Dude, this made me laugh hysterically. The whole Punch in the face or something. LOL

But yeah...I'm 6' and 230 lbs...with almost 20 years of martial arts experience, and NOBODY has EVER hit me as hard as when that taser hit my chest. I'd rather wrestle a pissed off Grizzly then to ever have that shit happen again.

Ah, all the good news has been coming from seattle lately :p

But, honestly, she assaulted an officer. She should go to jail. Did he need to punch her? Probably not. But if a man had interfered, he probably would have been tased.

I have actually heard of a cop tasing a 17 year old boy for the exact same thing that the 17 year old girl was doing in the video.

I just watched the video, and kudos to the police officer. Here's the thing....if he used Mace, considering it was in a public place, other people would have caught the mace as well. It was not in a secluded area. Taser...he could've. But I've known police officers to be in severe trouble, because the person they maced was using a drug like cocaine, and their heart exploded. He could've shot her, if he felt like she had a weapon and was going to assault him it. But I think that would have been a tad extreme.

In other words, I've been on both sides. And there has not been one incident where I felt like I had big enough balls to manhandle a police officer. She assaulted a police officer...he acted back. The bitch deserved it. No "poor" girl here.

Agreed! They were totally fighting back and deserved it. He could hardly control them both, and I think he was justified in what he did.

Wait, so everyone saying that officer was in the wrong for punching her in the face, what would you of done in his situation? How would you suggest when he was trying to control 1 girl and a 2nd one got involved.. Enough is enough, he had a big struggle with the first girl, then had to struggle with a second..

I'd have punched her in the face too. It looks like he was trying to shove her off before he even swung.
I say she totally had it coming, the other girl too, for that matter.

Absolutely..
Half the post on here proves though, that officers don't get the respect they deserve anymore.

Exactly. My brother right now is a police aid. He like, goes out with the police and shadows them. If he was there trying to talk to someone who was jaywalking (Which, hello, illegal?) and they put his hands on him like that, I'd have been damn proud of him if he just cold conked her. Even being left-handed, I've seen him knock someone out with his right hand. Chick would have been gone ;D

You're proud of your brother because you've seen him knock people out? Will you be just as proud if one day the person he's knocked out dies?

I'm proud of him for defending himself. He's never hit someone who didn't put their hands on him first.

I'll always be proud of him for defending himself, no matter the outcome.
If someone gets hurt by him by that then they shouldn't have put their hands on him.

i'm sorry but why the hell was the 17 year old wrestling the cop away when it had nothing to do with her? the other woman that was wrestling him too should also have known better. perhaps he probably shouldn't have punched her, and he may have lost his cool, but you do NOT start pushing and shoving a police officer. it's an offence and i think both of those women are idiots. the cop probably would've just let them go if they had stayed calm and not acted like a pair of little shits.

Having watched the video I have to say I really don't think this is acceptable. Obviously the friend should have stayed out of it while he was trying to restrain the first girl, but she'd only been jay walking! And she was trying to defend her friend. She wasn't even being THAT aggressive, and certainly didn't deserve a fist to the face from a man much bigger than her. That wasn't self defence, it was aggression. And the police themselves have admitted it was a step too far and I completely agree.

So what you're saying is that 1) it is o.k. to jaywalk? *which depending on the county, it is illegal* and 2) Because she wasn't being "THAT" aggressive, she still has a right to put her hands on a police officer?

I'm sorry, but what would YOU have done in the situation? I'd love to hear it.

I actually never said she had the right to put her hands on him (obviously that was wrong and he'd have been well within his rights to arrest her), but someone doing something outwith their rights should not automatically earn them a punch in the face! He could have done her some serious harm, and that is assault, it is not self defence or restraint.
I have been taught self defence and how to restrain someone aggressive and he had other options. He chose to get violent instead.

And actually I do think this was an overreaction to jay walking (here it is not even illegal).

And in answer to your question I'd have used other methods to restrain her and if I couldn't cope with the situation I'd have called for back up.

This was a clear cut, textbook case of self defense. He didn't continue fighting, and the punch happened within milliseconds of a grab at his Batman-esque utility belt, containing his mace, taser, gun, and baton.

She didn't try to grab his belt! She just pushed him off of her friend. Which was of course the wrong thing to do, but he could have grabbed her arm and restrained her. He did NOT have to punch her in the face. And at the moment when he raised his fist and struck her she was stood there still, she wasn't going for him in any way. And he chose to hit her. Like I said earlier, I've had self defence training and "punch them in the face" is NOT a means of self defence. It is assualt.

Again, anything else he could have done to subdue her would have been much worse. Also, yes, a punch to the face when there's an opening is a very practical tool in self defense. There's not only one form of "self-defense," there are hundreds of thousands of forms. I'm thinking this is simply a cultural difference, but the police here have to be very, very careful with who they're dealing with, because anybody could be holding anything, or could be doing very sneaky things in order to grab at the officer's belt. I didn't say she DID grab at his belt. I'm saying had the situation escalated, she could have, and he needed to subdue her without the use of any of his weapons, and he did a good job of doing that.

I wasn't referring to using tazer or mace to restrain her. There are plenty of means of restraining someone with your hands without resorting to hitting them in the face.

In fact if there wasn't, then we'd be hearing stories like this all the time and we don't (and here people are often restrained by police officers without punching them or using tazers) .

And particularly given she wasn't even going for him at the time, he had other methods of restraint he could have used. He just chose not to.

So? There's no hierarchy of restraining methods. He picked a perfectly legitimate method of restraining a person who ATTACKED him first, which is a felony in the state of Washington, and she was being arrested because of it.

What programme of restraint training was it that taught you punching someone in the face is an acceptable INITIAL method of restraint?

I have never disagreed with her arrest. But it is perfectly possible to arrest someone without punching them in the face!

Hey, it worked.

I think the reason I'm responding so nonchalantly about this whole thing is because being punched in the face simply isn't a big deal. Like I said, anything else he could have done would have been potentially more dangerous to the girl, and the punch clearly didn't do a second of damage, because it barely phased her. She was right back up at trying to wrestle the officer.

Do you REALISE the damage that a punch to the face can do?!? Let me tell you...broken nose, broken facial bones, airway obstruction, bleeding in the brain (potentially leading to death) optical damage and blindness, brain damage, concussion and long term neurological problems. It is by no means a benign or harmless measure. It can cause serious harm, disability or death. Particularly with the force with which you can see him hit her in that video. It's amazing she wasn't knocked unconcious! (And she was certainly stunned by it. We don't KNOW what injuries she sustained because no-one has closely examined her)

And there are means of restraining someone WITHOUT punching them OR using tazers or any other weapon. There are other SAFER methods than punching someone in the face. Being punched in the face is certainly NOT "not a big deal".

I agree that I think to some extent this is a cultural difference, but it's one more thing I can add to my long list of reasons why I'm glad I live in the UK and not in America!

I find it very hard to believe, in my opinion, that if someone was pushing you from behind and taunting you, that you wouldn't react in that same form. Either way, we are fortunately in the U S of A, and here if you lay your hands on a police officer, you better be ready for any action that may hurt you. And because the assailant was in the United States of America, she knows her rights and I know that she has knowledge of some basic law enforcement. Anybody with a brain knows that police officers work at their own discretion.

Now an assault is to make an assault upon; attack; assail. Now if I'm not mistaken, the woman was manhandling the police officer.

Now self defense is an act or instance of defending or protecting one's own interests, property, ideas, etc., as by argument or strategy. Now let's look at this again, the woman had her hands on him FIRST. The police officer then acted because he was protecting himself. Too many police officers have been killed in the line of duty because an incompetent individual didn't want to be arrested or given a ticket.