Sure. And if she’s too frightened to make rational decisions, she’s unpredictable and therefor dangerous. The cop did the right thing.
I don’t consider it a “what if” but a “why is she acting that way.” 
I totally agree with this. And that’s the whole point of non-lethal weapons like pepper spray – to get such people to submit without seriously injuring them.
Which is exactly what happened here: She was taken into custody with injury to herself or the cop. Ok, so she had to endure some discomfort. So what? That’s what happens when you resist being arrested and you are lucky.
By the way, I’m gonna guess that people in the “just reason with her” crowd are childless.
I am polite to a fault when it comes to police interaction. I have been given more than one absurd ticket by bad-attitude, compensatey-macho cops, especially when I was in my early twenties. I still believe that they expect hostile resistance from young, extremely handsome young men. And I cannot blame them for expecting that, since they probably do get that nine times out of ten. I responded each time by being professional and courteous. If a cop pulled me over to say the sky was red and the moon was made of green cheese, I would say, “Yes, I’ve been noticing the redness for a while now and I’ve always suspected the cheese thing, I’m glad it is finally confirmed.”
The “to a fault” part comes in when I try to dispute the fine. The officer will say, “He showed no sign of resistance at the time I issued the ticket. He just accepted it and thanked me, so he must have agreed that he was guilty.”
Edited to add that I have gotten deserved tickets and never disputed them.
I would expect them to be afraid of, and angry at, them. Mainly because there have been so many real incidents of racism on the part of white cops against black civilians. Also, the media and cultural attitudes may contribute to that stigma. I would like to see more emphasis in police departments on the behavior of officers affecting the public perception of police everywhere.
My knee-jerk thought when the video started was, “She’s black? Whoa, that officer is in so much trouble for whatever he’s about to do!”
Yeah. I don’t get the complaints about the “race card” being played. It’s relevant. And I also don’t get some of the anger at this girl who’s obviously panicking over being arrested over something as innocuous as a curfew violation.
That said, based on what we see in the video, I don’t have too much of a problem with the way the cop acted. He didn’t exactly handle it well, but his actions are understandable. Still, I’d be interested to see what happened before the video that caused such a panic in this girl.
I’ve found that there’s usually more back story to all these “police brutality” videos that have been cropping up than you actually see on the clips provided. This one, though, I’m not having much of issue to pick. There are other ways he could have gotten her to cooperate, but pepper spray likely is the safest option. Physical restraint obviously wasn’t working too well at the level it was being applied, and stepping that up has a good chance of hurting the girl.
I’m not exactly thrilled with the increasing use of pepper spray, but it’s not too bad.
Tasers, though. Tasing someone is (was) offered as an alternative to shooting them. Remind yourself of that in every “Stupid bitch got tased.” video you’ve seen.
She punched herself in the head?
Right after she was punched in the head. And only then, with her pretty obviously stunned and not doing anything, does he take out the pepper spray.
Not to mention extremely fit, ruggedly handsome middle-aged men. Which is why I go out of my way to appear nonthreatening when stopped. 
How you doing? 
In a manner of speaking, yes. She bit the cop. Not only is it assault, it can transmit communicable disease. He showed remarkable restraint in not going any further, I think.
We give these guys a tremendous amount of authority and trust, but they’re still human beings. He reacted in a perfectly understandable manner, and it would have been just as understandable (if not justifiable) if he had beat the hell out of her. It was a typical human reaction tempered by considerable training.
The pepper spray was the right thing because she had already demonstrated that she was not going to cooperate and was in fact actively resisting. Rather than risk more injury to himself he nipped it in the bud and closed out the arrest.
IME, “extremely handsome young men” don’t refer to themselves that way, even on a messageboard.
:dubious:
I have almost sprayed people for significantly less than this. One of the first things you are taught in academy is “An officer is under no obligation to put himself at risk if he has the tools to reasonably prevent it. It is not a game. There is no fighting fair. There is no winning/losing, there is only doing the job.” She was very lucky to be dealing with this particular officer, IMO. He went very easy on her.
And WTF does Diallo’s death have to do with this girl getting pepper spray in her face?
Besiees the fact that both situations involve a black person and police, I don’t see any similarity. AT. ALL.
Reading anything into my post except the words that I type is counter-productive. Equating a fatal shooting with a teenage girl getting pepper sprayed after biting a cop is dishonest and reveals paranoia and prejudice not that I can’t fathom.
What I don’t understand is why didn’t he just cuff her to the door and wait til she calmed down? He already had one hand cuffed and she was in obvious distress. It doesn’t seem to logical to try to subdue her in such a condition.
Has she been charged with actual criminal behavior? The link above said she was carrying a bag full of clothes, was it stolen? Was there crack in the bag? Was she involved in “positive activity?” Did he even find out what she was doing? If she was involved in some criminal activity, I would be less inclined to think of it as excessive force, but if she was merely breaking the curfew, I would classify that as rather excessive.
I don’t understand that at all. If he showed regular restraint what would he have done, shiv her in the neck?
Off the pig.
I suggest that is a reason for a Black young person to fear a White policeman.
I am glad you haven’t.
Boy, am I naive. I thought that was your purpose; to be injured or die rather than have a member of the public hurt. I should think that persons of authority with clubs and shotguns in their car would be the epitome of fairness.
Glad you can’t use pepper spray over the web.
Yet perhaps the significance of “tools to reasonably prevent it.” is what I should be arguing about.
Hate speech in Great Debates. Lovely.
No, damn it, it would not. We need better people than what you describe as policemen, and we should pay them accordingly.