The incident was captured on video, which you can view here.

As a former law enforcement officer, I probably would have done the same thing or “worse.” In fact, I was trained to strike the offender in non-lethal areas with a metal baton when he/she could not be subdued by less violent means and use deadly force when justified. Think how that would have played out on Youtube!

Before you criticize the officer, consider the following:

1. There is ALWAYS a gun at the fight. Many police officers have been physically overcome, then shot with their own weapon. For that reason, an officer CANNOT afford to lose the fight and is justified, in a legal arrest, to use whatever force is necessary to complete it.

2. A female, even a teenager, is just as capable of causing physical harm, and even death, as a male. Women are just as capable of concealing a deadly weapon like a knife or box cutter. Personally, I would rather fight a man.

3. Two-on-one is never good, especially when one offender attacks from behind while the officer is occupied with the other. The officer is particularly at risk during an attack from the rear.

4. Every citizen has the right to resist an illegal arrest, even to the point of using deadly force. But, if the citizen resists, he/she takes full responsibility for the immediate consequences of his/her resistance. However petty you might consider the offense, jaywalking is apparently illegal in Seattle. (Incidentally, the law is intended to protect the pedestrian.)

5. A police officer is permitted to use only that level of force necessary to effect the arrest. Obviously, the two females did not respond to verbal commands.  The women resisted the initial physical effort to restrain them, even helping each other to escape the officer’s grasp. Given the options left to the officer, the teenager is lucky, frankly, that he only punched her.

6. All other considerations are irrelevant. Specifically, the color of the offender or the officer is not relevant when considering whether or not any involved party acted correctly.

Finally, some have said that the officer would have drawn his gun had he truly felt threatened. To the contrary, a weapon out of the holster is a serious and, sometimes, irreversible escalation of force. That the officer defended himself and continued the arrest by hand while facing multiple offenders, alone, in a hostile crowd, is evidence of great control and restraint. By leaving his weapon in its holster, the Seattle cop jeopardized his own welfare to protect the lives of the offenders and bystanders.