Girls Gone Wild

The clip of the video event -- short and sweet but not encompassing the entire episode -- shows a white police officer cocking his fist and punching a 17 year-old girl in the face.  A black girl.  The viewer sees only these few seconds in the teaser leading up to the news story.  That was this morning.

My first reaction was instinctive.  Natural.  Reactive without the facts.  How brutal and unnecessary.  Excessive force.  He surely could have subdued her without such an action.  There must be training for these kind of moments.  What was he THINKING?

But, I try to take the time to step back and clear my head.  Hear the facts.  If there is video involved, wait for the fuller story.  Television is very sensationalistic.  They intentionally GO for the gut reaction.  Ratings are won and lost based on our very visceral responses to what we initially experience with our five senses BEFORE our intellect and common sense are engaged in the process.  That's circumspection.  We are losing that as a society but I digress.

About the officer on the video.  He was attempting to cite another girl for jaywalking as I recall.  This girl starts pushing him around and resisting his efforts to execute his job.  A crowd is gathering.  Someone starts capturing the excitement on their phone or camera.  Just off camera, another girl (our lady of the right hook), the cousin of the jaywalker, is being held back as she pinwheels her arms in wide circles, itching to jump Mister Policeman.  She breaks away and joins in the assault: an ILLEGAL assault, mind you.  So, two crazy girls are pushing on, yelling at, and resisting the attentions of a representative of our law.  He has no partner.  People are all around.  There is a loaded gun in his holster.  To this point, he has held out on using physical strength.  His voice and posture have been calm.  But, I imagine he is thinking that this is a situation with the potential to go very wrong, very fast.  Instinctively, he makes a split decision. 

One hit.  While she is stunned, the officer quickly takes control.  No further punches or screaming or inappropriate displays of anger on his part.  Though he is being watched, he maintains his decorum.  He does his job. 

I don't condone violence for violence sake.  I'm not down with power trips.  But remember, this was all over jaywalking.  These young but strong-enough girls were not respecting the officer or what he stood for.  The moment they pushed and shoved him, they broke yet another law.  By choosing to treat the situation as they did, they chose the outcome.  There are instances where the race flag has to fly, but I don't think this is one of them.  I realize there are bad apples in law enforcement.  BELIEVE me, I do.  But from what the longer video reveals, this man is not one of them.  At least not in this incident. 

I'd like to see one of the experts who come on shows like "Today" and "Good Morning, America" shed a little bit of light on the behavior of these young ladies.  If there needs to be an activist agenda here, then these young women did NOT represent the 'cause' well.  Highly uncouth.

Agendas aside -- which is how I like to operate -- adults in any segment of the society should be concerned with the attitudes of our youth.  Regardless of skin color, the actions of these girls were uncalled for.  Disruptive.  Lacking self-control.  Rude.  And, really, dangerous in this public setting.  They need to think before they act. 

I've heard that a time or two.

(*see video link below)