Seattle, Washington Beating

Right. Lets get some legalities out the way. I know some people don't realize it but ANY unwanted contact with a person is legally assault. I have given advice to students having sit ins and the first thing I tell them is DO NOT touch ANYONE who is not part of the sit -in. And usually that contact with a police officer, trustee or other member of the university administration is the pretext for mass arrests. I say that so that the reader/viewer will understand that the girl here legally assaulted the officer when she kicked off her shoes at him. You will see in the video that the shoe did in fact hit the officer's foot and it was after that contact that he proceeded to do his illegal act.

The police cannot use any more force than is necessary to subdue a "suspect." It is clear that that though the officer was legally assaulted, that the girl did not pose a physical threat to the officer: she was already in the cell/room and had her hands crossed in front of her.

We cannot hear anything on the video but the question is, why did they feel that they had to cuff this girl given that she was not a physical threat. Clearly since they could have easily charged with assault on a police officer there was no need to have any further contact with her. Secondly, even if they did want to make a point by hand cuffing her and booking her for assault, there was no need for the bum rush, the hits to the head, the throwing on the ground or pulling her up by the hair.


So legally both the girl and the officer are on the hook. Morally it s clear that the officer is out of order. Being "lippy" with an officer is a constitutionally protected activity even though many police officers don't think so.