I live in Seattle and know this area very well...not that it matters but the area is very low income and "ghetto" is a termed my friends that grew up there. What should've been a routine jaywalking offense got out of control when the young women did not want to accept the consequence. No one wants to accept the consequences of their actions, kids and adults, alike. Funny thing is, the City of Seattle spent millions putting a pedestian sky bridge for student about 40ft from where they were jay walking!!!!! Lazy much?
The officer was alone and surrounded by a growing crowd of onlookers. He's lucky that someone didn't take advantage of the situation and come up behind him and pull his gun. That's what I saw as a danger to him when the 2nd young woman went after him to make him release her friend. He acted within his personal right to protect himself. The woman brought that on herself, and don't give me that shit about how a man or a cop should not punch someone in the face. The officer responded with necessary physical force considering that the situation was escalating and unfortunately, she didn't protect her face when she went after him
. Fists fly and land where they may. GET OVER IT! It's not a racial issue because he was emotionally contained when he sat them in the car and refered to a young black man approaching him from behind to "Please, stand back "SIR""
THIS IS ALL ABOUT RESPECT. Those girls learned disrespect from the adults around them and it's not just parents kids are watching...Hell even good parents are losing their kids to the influences in media and watching other people around them.
Eventually the problem will solve itself. As more smart ass pedestrians get crippled and/or killed, they’ll learn that the crosswalks and sky bridges are there for a reason and no matter their attitude, will begin using them. Pain is a great teacher and maybe after a few of these smart ass kids get their clocks cleaned, they’ll drop the attitude and use the damm sky bridge that’s well within walking distance.
The police were there monitoring that particular part of a busy road AT THE SCHOOL'S REQUEST to enforce this particular law as the school was concerned for the safety of their students. I've seen it with my own eyes!! The students just don't jaywalk..they slooooowly walk across holding up traffic, no joke. This whole matter would’ve been much different if those two girls would’ve been struck and killed by a driver wouldn’t it?
In my opinion, I think this whole matter has been blown out of proportion by the media.
In viewing the video (the one not edited by the news outlets), those girls were way out of line with the officer from the beginning. If they had simply said “yes officer” and used the crosswalk, that probably would’ve been the end of it (we may never know but I’m sort of an optimist) but because of some over inflated sense of self-importance they escalated the matter into a confrontation. Make no mistake, these girls wanted this and they got it.
The officer on the other hand could’ve simply written it off and let it go but his sense of duty prompted him to follow thru with what he started. That’s the mark of a good officer in my book. And once that young woman touched that officer, trying to pull him off her friend, that’s all the justification he needed. He could’ve reached for pepper spray or his tazer but given the time constraints, the large crowd and the attitude of the women, he made the logical choice for a defensive device and they both wound up in the lockup.
As for the results of this officers actions, this will go either one of two ways.
1. officer get’s minor discipline = anger from the AA community, a civil lawsuit filed by family, family paid to shut up by city = payday.
or
2. officer returns to duty no discipline = more anger from the AA community, civil lawsuit filed by family, family paid to shut up by city=payday.
Either way it goes down, someone eventually will get killed as a result of jaywalking in this particular intersection because cops won’t patrol there anymore. Then it’ll be “Where were the police when we needed them” crowd who will start to go off and sue the City..either way The City of Seattle and it's tax payers lose it seems.
