Yes, she needed to be arrested if she was assaulting a police officer. He didn’t need to put pressure on her joint like that, he did press down and pull up, and twist. He also didn’t need to put his shoulder into the blow he landed on her face with his closed hand. That wasn’t a lovetap, and he didn’t pull back only a foot. The motion of his hand is sheilded by her face, but watch his shoulder. He lost his temper, and he shouldn’t have. When she began kicking and punching him, and he deemed it needful to record the arrest, he also should have called in for backup. Even if the backup didn’t arrive in time to prevent her biting him, I’d have felt that at least he was taking steps to help get himself out of being in over his head.
Again, how is he going to call for backup? He’d have to release her. And she was resisting arrest. Cops don’t let go of you under those circumstances. She brought this on herself.
People do get wrongfully arrested, but it is *never *resolved at the scene. She needed to calm down and let it get sorted out at the station.
He was able to get a hand up to his radio at one point. Isn’t there a “hands free” switch on those things? He was able to hold her in place for a bit, just not cuff her. I think he could have called in just after activating the audio recording.
11 or 12th time? You ought to be used to it! 
I like to go in first so I can recover and watch everyone else come stumbling out. But despite the laughs, you’re right. It ain’t a fun experience.
I was stopped by a cop a couple weeks ago. I was speeding, didn’t have my license on me, and I had failed to put my sticker on my plate. I had a beer with dinner, and I assume he could smell it. I was polite. I laughed at my misfortune, and when the cop told me he felt bad about the stop (notorious speed trap) I told him not to, since I was speeding. I mentioned that on this stretch of road, if I did the limit I would have people behind me cursing.
He let me go with a warning.
If I had been an asshole about it, I would have gotten a pile of tickets, maybe even had my vehicle impounded. If I resisted arrest, I would assume I woulda gotten beat up a little.
Anyway, IMHO, the girl was handled the way I think the police should handle someone in this situation. If he hit her over the head with his club, maybe I’d sing a different tune, but he didn’t. If she bit me, I woulda prolly crushed her skull. That’s why I’m not a cop tho.
Or she could have shut up and followed instructions. And do you think that “experienced female officers” are on standby waiting in case a spoiled child refuses to cooperate? For that matter, why is gender relevant here?
Oh, please.
Sure he lost his temper. She bit him, for fuck’s sake, at a point where he had to be already exasperated with her. “I’m not doing anything!” Yeah right, she’s not doing anything but physically resisting arrest. And assaulting a police officer who hadn’t been remotely abusive to that point. In fact, he had been cutting her quite a lot of slack compared to cops in most of these “excessive force” videos I’ve seen. If the girl had drawn that guy who tazed the cellphone idiot in the SUV she’d have been writhing on the ground in the first 30 seconds of the video. (For the record, I have no sympathy for cellphone idiot either, but imo the cops escalated that one too far too fast and didn’t even try to de-escalate things verbally before pulling out the taser, and crossed the line by tazing her a second time when she was still on the ground from the first time.)
I’m sure it would be nice if cops had superhuman restraint and were completely free of all our hardwired psychological tendencies to respond to pain with anger, but it’s completely unreasonable to criticize this guy for briefly losing his temper upon being bitten. Yeah, he pops her pretty good there, but he immediately recomposes himself. You can practically see him going through the guidelines on appropriate force in his head as he pulls out the pepper spray, and he doesn’t treat her roughly at all after he has her cuffed. Pretty much model behaviour on his part imho. Perhaps in the early going he could have done better at “talking her down” instead of just telling her over and over to put her hands behind her back, but he does in fact make a couple serious attempts at reasoning and the girl was clearly being completely unreasonable.
Agreed, and I think he needs to look at this, and next time call for backup instead of letting the situation escalate that way. I think he needs a refresher on how to de-escalate, focusing on youths, so maybe he will be able to talk the offender down next time. If he isn’t the best at psychology, then he needs to admit this and call for backup if he finds himself in over his head.
I disagree. I think he could perhaps have done better, but I doubt it would have helped. Some people just aren’t reasonable. Of course he should review his behaviour and try to become better. So should we all.
I honestly don’t see how having backup present would have helped in the least.
That word, I do not think it means what you think it does.
Keep in mind that a bite wound is a serious threat to a person.
Human bites are notoriously prone to bacterial infection, and generally require fairly potent antibiotic treatment to get any infection which results cleared up.
In addition, being bitten carries the risk for transmitting HIV, and Hepatitis B and C. All 3 of those diseases can be fatal, and at best they’re difficult (Hep B & C) or impossible (HIV) to cure.
Bites hurt like hell, too.
IMHO, an attack involving biting merits whatever firm and swift countermeasures are needed to halt such an attack.
Yeah, I realized that.
I agree. Pepper spray was a completely reasonable response under the circumstances.
Well, I’d love to see cops use a few more suplexes during the arrest of teenage girls.
I have to admit, I was prepared to agree with the general consensus that pepper spray is a reasonable response to a suspect biting, but then I saw the video. Before allegedly being bitten, the officer is quite unnecessarily hurting the girl, ratcheing her arm up her back to hurt her and slamming her head into the hood of the car. When the bite allegedly occurs (and you can’t actually see it happen) he punches her very hard and she’s clearly stunned. As she stands there, half conscious and still punch-drunk from the blow and not resisting any further, he THEN pepper sprays her. It looks like something done just to hurt her.
The video doesn’t cast either party in a very good light, but he took it way too far. He initiated the use of violence, clearly tried to hurt her several times, and continued using violence after she had stopped resisting.
I guess I’ll be told I’m a jerk now who doesn’t support the thin blue line. Sorry in advance.
It’d certainly make these dashboard-cam videos more entertaining.
I deleted my original response. This should be in the Pit. The girl was beyond moronic and deserved what she got. What insane person repeatedly ignores what a cop is saying to them, levelly and calmly?
I’m sure there are lots of families of cops who wish their beloved had called for backup before getting shot. Yeah, cops should always know what’s going to happen before it does. Yeah. Cops should have backup. And backup for the backup. And backup for the backup of the backup.
They have to enforce the law, and they don’t always have the option of calling in Oprah & the doctors Phil & Drew.
Kinda makes you wonder how it would have turned out if she would have just complied and put her hands behind her back as instructed.