I have been facinated by the coverage of "punchgate." If you have not heard a seattle police officer punched a teenager in the face after she assaulted him. The quick run down is this. Seattle PD officer sees a group of teens Jaywalking across MLK about 100 feet from a pedestrian overpass. He stops them and they get verbally abusive. He then attempts to handcuff a 19 year old woman, who is resisting arrest, when a 17 year old starts to shove him. The 17 year old is pulled away from the officer by a bystander, breaks free from the bystander and shoves the officer 2 more times causing him to lose his grip on the 19 year old woman. The officer then punches the 17 year old and attempts to arrest her when the 19 year old grabs him from behind. At this point the video stops.
So my opinion is that the 17 year old was lucky to have only been punched and not hit with a nightstick, tazered or worse. The 19 year old was lucky to have only been arrested. The officer was lucky to not have his gun taken and to be able to go home that night.
So what is all the controversy about? The 19 and 17 year olds were black and the officer was white.
At a news conference yeasterday so called leaders of the black community blamed the media, the police and just about everyone else for making the children criminals and for "killing "them. They said they were only kids going home from school and we should be glad that they had not dropped out and there wasnt even a crosswalk for them to use in the area. These childern were victims.
So here is my problem. 1. only one of them was under age and thus techically a minor, although not a child in anyones common sense definition. 2. True there were no crosswalks because they were literally less than 100 feet from a pedestrian over pass. 3. Yes I am glad they are not drop outs. I would be even happier if they had learned to obey the law. 4. They media did not make them criminals, the girls made themselves criminals. (both have previous criminal records). 5. They are victims. Victims of their own lack of common sense, victims of their own lack of respect for the law, victims of their own poor choices, and victims of so called community leaders who are using them to forward their own agenda. They are quite lucky that they were not victims of a much more forceful response from the officer.
This situation is simply a case of a violation of the law and officer preforming the duty we pay him for and a couple of young adults acting like they are above the law.
I have a sign in my office that applies directly to this situation and it would be my advice to these 2 girls. It says "Quit your whining and put your big boy boxers on."
The video clip can be seen at http://www.komonews.com/news/local/96413004.html?tab=video
One other interesting fact - the school called the police and asked them to come watch for jaywalkers. Apparently this was a serious issue for the school and they were worried about kids getting hit by cars.
ReplyDeleteMy question: who the hell is raising kids to hit police officers?
I agree. This is really much more about respect for the law and law enforcement officers than it is about anything else.
ReplyDeleteI am disappointed in the parents for not coming out and condemning the actions of their kids. If it was my child who acted this way to a police officer, I would personally call Chief Merryman and see how long he could hold them just so they understand that this type of behavior is completely unacceptable in our society.
It's probably a good thing I wasn't there. I don't have a lot of patience for 'I'm special' and 'I can do whatever I want and you can't tell me otherwise' attitudes.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that if I were the police officer, I would have tazered them both after the second attempt to grab me. Nothing I saw there gave me any indication of a racial motivation behind the punch in the face.
I agree with Bart, I think the officer showed too much restraint. I remember the officer in Newcastle who was murdered with his own gun in the middle of Coal Creek Pkwy when a man wrestled with him and grabbed his gun. I guess you could say the man was jaywalking - he was naked and wandering down the middle of the street. Once a situation has escalated to wrestling with an officer, the officer doesn't have the luxury of responding with force deemed acceptable for the original call. He must protect himself and innocent citizens by subduing the assailant through whatever means necessary. Imagine how this would have ended had she grabbed his gun.
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