Seattle Cop punches teenage in the face

Seattle cop punches teen in the face after jaywalking stop

Some of the raw footage here:


While I'm pretty sure the girl didn't deserve to be punched in the face </sarcasm>, wtf was she thinking? Her friend is already clearly trying to resist arrest, is jumping in really the brightest idea? I guess her previous arrest taught her nothing.

Maybe he went over the line, but the fact remains: you don't put your hands on a cop. Ever.

I love it when she said she didn't get her rights read, if i was the cop i would have replied...

"You have the right to shut the fuck up and not resist arrest..."

Girl one should be arrested. Girl two is an idiot. Cop was an idiot for going into a crowd without backup.

No innocents here.

Yeah, I'm betting she's one of those who doesn't know the difference between being arrested and being restrained.

So it's not like on TV at all???

Jaywalking? Really? They still enforce this?

Everyone I talked was questioning the girls even being stopped for jaywalking and was slamming the cop for that calling him racist and every other name in the book.

If these uniformed individuals have seen some of the street crossing at busy streets I have then they would understand, usually the only time people get stopped and cited for jaywalking is when they go to cross a busy street with no crosswalk and then try to frogert their way accross.

I have had to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting people who have done this a few times.


As for the cops reaction, if there is no history of this kind of thing in the guys past, then I say its just an instance of a cop not handling his frustration well enough and not thinking through the situation.


If there is a history of the cop going off like this on other suspects or people he has stopped then the guy shouldnt be on the street period.

Seems like everyone handled that well.

No sympathy. Girls were getting cited for breaking the law, decided to start some shit, got served.

In my later years...I've tried to refrain from making too many assumptions when it comes to videos like this.

Here's what I DO see based only on the video. BOTH of those women were acting incredibly stupidly. WHATEVER happened prior to the attempt to detain by the police officer...it is NEVER a wise move to struggle with a cop. Both of them elevated the situation.

The police officer.....at best, it appears he's guilty of some sloppy police work. Where was his backup? Why was he not calling for more assistance over the radio? More importantly...why was he pussyfooting around with the second woman? Take her down...using an approved, trained takedown. The only reason I can think that he didn't...was that perhaps he though an aggressive takedown would further incite the crowd..

As far as the punch to the face.....I don't know what the SOPs are for Seattle PD as far as officer self-defense......but...as mistersatan said....you do NOT...put your hands on a cop. Regardless that it was two woman against a male officer.......it was two people aggressively resisting a police officer in the performance of his duties.

If a closed-handed punch is NOT part of Seattle PD's approved self-defense training...the matter needs to be (and probably will be) reviewed by superiors. If the officer does not have a history of this kid of thing....I think a written note in his file...and some re-training in self-defense is in order. If he DOES have a history of this.....possibly a few days rip without pay.

When you try to look at it objectively...this is not a police officer gleefully teeing off on somebody. I see...a police officer who has lost control of a scene...trying desperately to regain control of the scene...

The cop was ticketing someone else for jaywalking before the girls jaywalked. He called the girls over and then the crowd formed.

I don't think the punch to the face was out of line girl two was interfering with the arrest of girl one. BTW grabbing the cop was at minimum assault.

Would people here be happier of the cop tased or maced either girls. The cop showed restraint.

Jaywalking in a one horse town may seem like a silly offense to write up. In a major city...or a crowded area...it's a legitimate public safety issue.

I guess I've never heard or seen of this here in Denver. Your point of public saftey is valid completely. Maybe it is because our laws (last time I checked) were that pedestrians have right of way at all times. Whatever the reason, procedure should be followed and while maybe punching is out of line, the girl pushing the cop will charged with assault.

The big misconception...is that pedestrians have the right of way "all of the time". That's just not true. Pedestrians have the right of way when following the law.

Simply being a pedestrian does not give you carte blanche do run willy-nilly through the streets. While I'm sure many state laws vary.....you have to cross at a designated crosswalk. You must also follow the "Walk/Don't Walk" signs...or in the absence of them...announce your presence to motorists ahead of time and cross safely.

Now...I know I sound like a grade school hall monitor in this post....but jaywalking & crosswalks are a HUGE public safety issue. Hundreds of people die each year by crossing a street unsafely...or a driver driving irresponsibly through a crosswalk.

I might be. The video would've been shorter and funnier, and he may have gotten the scene under control more quickly. But mostly the shorter/funnier thing.

It's pretty well enforced here in LA. I remember when I moved from New York I was walking with a friend and crossed a street on a red. He looked at me like I was insane.

The ticket is somewhere around $300.

If a pedestrian gets hit and killed by a car in this scenario the response would be "Where were the cops? Why didn't they do something about the jaywalking?" It's a no win situation for the police.

I understand Philly is not exactly the cheapest place to get jaywalking either.

I dunno. Seemed like a reasonable response to me. If someone decides to strike an officer, the officer's job is to make them not want to do that anymore while causing as little injury as possible. The officer here did that. He could have maced her, I guess, but having experienced tear gas myself, I have to say I'd have a hard time choosing between that and being punched in the face. And tasing her would have been an inappropriate response--being tased is way, way worse than getting punched.

Damn, I'd have punched the other girl too. I think he actually showed considerable restraint, when you take into account that he was alone, being filmed by several people, being heckled and harassed by several people, and trying to cuff a bitch.

Maybe it should have been an open-handed slap and people would feel better?? But hey, maybe she should have just kept her hands off a cop trying to do his job.

Quick question; why is anyone saying it's racist? I see a single cop trying to enforce the law while two extraordinarily stupid people try to get in the way of that...

No sympathy for the girls involved. You jaywalk in front of a cop, you're stupid and shouldn't be surprised to get ticketed.

If you escalate and grab the outnumbered cop, a single punch to the face is about the least you could expect. Sure, the cop should have called for backup (maybe he did?) but on balance he regained control of the situation and did his job without causing excessive damage or having things devolve into a riot.

It may have been, or may not have been. Some people pull the race card and try to play the victim even when they're caught red-handed doing something stupid and illegal. I saw it first-hand many times when dealing with shoplifters and other troublemakers during my retail days.

What surprises me the most about the video is how much difficulty the officer seemed to be having in subduing the girl. She wasn't a small person, but she didn't seem to be putting up enough resistance for it to take that long to get the cuffs on her.

I just didn't see anything in there that would imply he was motivated by racist sentiments. He was motivated to punch her because she being an annoying bitch and deserved it.

And yeah, it took a while to get the cuffs on her. But I guess he was doing his best not to hurt her because he was maybe beginning to get pretty concerned that things were not as under control as he would have liked.

Edit; Roethke I didn't think of it that way.