And you may be right, his actions may not have been justified.
But the point of the entire post is that we don’t know ALL the facts. The video doesn’t reveal them.
But we can address the facts that we do know: among them, that a government employee punched a woman.
Yeah something like that. quoting from http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/19682950/pur
“That video shows the woman — who has a small flag of Puerto Rico in the back of her pants and is carrying a water bottle — jumping up and down, shouting and pointing near a group of officers. Then, someone else sprays water on the officers from behind the woman. She turns around after apparently getting wet and, as she starts to move away from the approaching officer, is struck in the face by his right hand and in the back of the head by his left as she goes to the ground.”
It is very clear when the video is played in slow motion that the officer was reacting to getting sprayed with a liquid. He saw the woman retreating from the scene and thought it was her. The video appears to reveal “ALL” the relevant facts. The officer's instincts got the best of him. He is the one who reacted without “ALL” the facts. Anyone who grew up in a large family experienced this type of mistake when their parents blamed the wrong kid for starting a fight. Fortunately the punishment from our parents didn't generally come from the clenched fists of a 250 lb brute smacking us first in the face and then in the back of the head.
One thing is for sure... the woman can take a punch; even most men would have been knocked unconscious by those kind of blows. There is no doubt that the Lieutenant just cost the Philly police department a not so small fortune. And his fellow officers will be watching videos and going through endless boring PowerPoint presentations for years. Thanks a lot Lt. Moron. His dark complexion will probably keep him from getting fired, but his fellow officers will never forgive him.