Security video shows deputy's alleged assault on girl, 15

KOMO TV NEWS ^ | 27 Feb 2009 | Komo Staff

[mefistofelerevised]

I watched the video again. That cop could have broken her neck spinning her around and throwing her to the floor by her hair. It looks to me that he has trying to hit her in the face with his fists. Then he pulls her off the floor by her hair, trying to break her neck again. 4th degree assault? I don't think so. He could have killed the kid. He needs to pay and pay big. Oh yeah, some bratty teenage girl steal her mothers car. I don't think that deserves possible permanent injury or death, but I'm not muslim.

[Hulka]

Good point, but given today's culture of violent women, this is upsetting that old adage about not hitting a woman. It doesn't always apply.

Just last week in shopping center in Springfield, VA, I witnessed a young woman using the crosswalk in the parking lot and a beat-up old clunker sedan raced up and darn near hit this young woman (me too).

The young woman yelped loudly as the car passed by. Scared her a lot. Me too.

The driver of the vehicle (with DC plates), turned around and pursued the young woman and stopped behind her vehicle (she was not yet in it). The driver lumbered out (all 200lbs of her) and lunged at the young woman. The driver was screaming, yelling and saying things like, “I'll whup yo’white ass!” “I'll cut you ho!” “cracker beat down, cracker beat down, cracker beat down.”

The young woman, your basic 20-something little thing, was terrified and started running, pursued by the enraged animal. She ran toward me, one lane away. You could see absolute terror in her eyes. The young lady hid behind me and when the animal started to slap/punch around me to get at the young woman, I simply knocked the poo out of the animal. After the enraged animal got up, she tried to attack me and again I knocked her down. All the time the animal was spewing the most foul and racist language you can imagine. The animal then went away, never once stopping her rants.

I am curious, according to your Granpa, was I a coward to act the way I did.

(Never did call the police, too much of a bother.)

[muawiyah]

You just never know ~ could be some "relationship" issues in this one ~ who is this cop, who is the mother, whose daughter is this. All kinds of things out there are possible.

She should not have kicked her shoe off.

[Fire_on_High]

Long as she understands taking a car without permission is going to result in Very Bad Things Happening in the future, I don’t care if she likes the law or cops...it’s that she BEHAVES that matters.

My mother always made it bloody clear that if I so much as touched the car without permission she’d have me picked up for stealing it without any hesitation and press charges to the fullest extent of the law. Sounds to me like that’s the mindset this girl’s mother has and girlie thought she was just kidding.

Furthermore, does a minor even HAVE standing without her parents backing her? I don’t think they’re gonna.

You don’t have to LIKE the law, you merely have to OBEY just laws.

I don’t think missy here will ever think about putting her grubby paws on something she doesn’t own or have permission to again, do you?

[A_perfect_lady]

Until you deal with foul mouthed, Godless teenagers every day, please hold your comments.

I'm with you. I'm not saying kids should be beat like this every day, but there are some individuals out there who need it just once in their lives.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Fu[&ing retard.

You should not talk to me or anyone else this way. Very foolish on your part. You exhibit WHY this girl probably was handled roughly. A large percentage of students in school today have the very same attitude you just showed and it can not continue. Wait patiently and watch what happens next. Profanity never won an argument.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

I'm with you. I'm not saying kids should be beat like this every day, but there are some individuals out there who need it just once in their lives.

Same here...but a semblance of order MUST be returned to society or we are headed for anarchy. Individuals cursing me for my views are representative of the very problem about which this thread is about. It is really sad to see things falling apart like they are. Everyone thinks they can rule by force and each man thinks he is the law.

[microgood]

I am curious, according to your Granpa, was I a coward to act the way I did.

You defended a woman and yourself. Grandpa would have been proud of you. There are always valid exceptions to every rule.

[Slings and Arrows]

If King Count fires this guy, he should easily be able to find employment with the sheriff’s department of a number of Florida counties.

Of course. Those quadreplegics aren't going to beat themselves up.

[fr_freak]

Once again, people who have never been in a fight or done police work, are looking at a video of police doing their job correctly and passing judgement.

Ern, you cannot be seriously saying that the same procedure you would use for a 250lb man is appropriate for a skinny 15 year old girl, even is she were putting up her dukes (and I have no doubt she was saying some really, really nasty things to the officers). Anybody with any real street experience would laugh at the idea that a girl like that was a threat, even if she took a swing. I'm not a cop, but I guarantee I could have gotten her into handcuffs without needing to slam her around. The only risk of assault from her would have been spitting.

If the person in the cell had been a 250 lb man, or even a 150lb man, I might see the reaction justified, but a 100-110 lb girl? Bah. What if the person in the cell had been a 90 year old lady putting up her dukes? Do you think the standard procedure would have been justified?

By the way, I am not one of those "no real man ever hits a woman" people. Those were the days when women generally behaved like women. Those days are gone. If a woman begs for a beat down in this day and age, I have no problem with her getting one. But a 15 year old girl kicking off her shoes? Nope.

[marktwain]

“Oh, you know that to be a fact, do you? You examine her, did you? Are you a Doctor? Did you know that a mild subdural hematoma can stress capillaries that can then cause DEATH a month, or a year, after the initial infliction of the cranial trauma? Did you know that trauma to the base of the skull (brain stem) is the injury most likely to result thus?

Know what you're talking about, and then speak as with authority, you freaking dunce.’

---

So, you are a doctor and did examine her, correct?

Your level of self control does not help your argument.

You might note that I did not condone the officers actions, I only commented on the video.

[fr_freak]

She was treated a LOT nicer by both men than my now deceased WWII Navy Vet father would have done to me for what she probably said and did to them...a LOT nicer. If we don’t get back to a respect-for-authority society pretty soon, we are doomed.

I agree with you completely, but using cops to get this done is a really, really bad idea. What we need to do is get nanny government out of the household so that parents can give their kids the whoopings they need without fear of CPS or assault charges. Of course, there needs to be actual parents at home for that, so perhaps we should end the welfare state which has destroyed the family, etc. etc.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

The case will come down to whether the deputy had a lawful right to enter the cell?

Yes, she threw one shoe at him and was preparing to throw the next.

Did she put her hands up in a fighting stance?

Yes.

Is he required to wait for a person to throw a punch or is it reasonable for someone to assume a person “putting up their dukes” might throw an actual punch?

I say a reasonable police officer (note, the standard for excessive force claims is what a reasonable Police Officer believes, not what a reasonable newspaper reader believes) would believe that she was getting ready to throw a punch, scratch his face, etc..

If he believed that the punch, or other form of assault, was coming then he has the lawful right to use force.

That kick is trained in the academy to create distance and halt someone from punching you.

Head and hair hold takedowns are standard fare when trying to get someone on the ground and into handcuffs.

She received two blows once on the ground and while her hands were beneath her body, where they can’t be cuffed, and once the hands came out from under her, she received no further blows.

If he was just pissed off about the shoe hitting him he would have done a lot more to her than a kick and two strikes...

But since it’s a “girl” it looks worse....had it been a grown man nobody would care.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Very good points...all.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

No threat outside losing your eyesight from stupid 15 y.o. girl who you think can’t hurt you ‘til you get a fingernail shoved into your cornea.

15 y.o. girls shoot, stab, punch, scratch, every day in this state.

But the size difference on camera is such that it plays into people’s perceived notions of how boys and girls are supposed to act.

Nothing changes, ever, you’re not supposed to make the girl cry in grade school or police work.

And yes, I know someone who has had eye damage from this sort of thing.

This deputy had a guy try to strangle him with his own portable microphone cord before. He knows how bad it can get in a hurry, even from a person smaller than himself.

If you have to use force, you have to use reasonable force and end it quickly.

He did that in my opinion.

Again, I’d question why she was not in cuffs in the holding cell, but since I wasn’t there I don’t know the reason why.

I once thought a 15 y.o. girl couldn’t harm me and then I got punched twice before I figured out it can happen to me too.

I did the dance with her trying to be nice because I didn’t want to scrape her up on the pavement and it lasted 5 minutes instead of 10 seconds.

And you know what happened? The NAACP demanded I be fired after I used zero force.

So which is better? Going through the media telling people you should be fired for getting punched? Or going through the media and a prosecutor accusing you of assault and you didn’t get punched?

Get an application and pick you poison.

[patton]

Note then before he throws the two punches, her feet are moving. After, they immediatly stop.

He definately hit her.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Did you get your glasseye from a 15 y.o. girl’s fingernail? I know a cop you lost his vision like that?

[rednesss]

Go back to your village, they are missing you.

I say a reasonable police officer (note, the standard for excessive force claims is what a reasonable Police Officer believes, not what a reasonable newspaper reader believes) would believe that she was getting ready to throw a punch, scratch his face, etc..

From 10 feet away, all he would have had to do was, SHUT THE DOOR!!! I doubt she would be able to scare the pants off this jackboot through a 2 inch thick steel door. And if she could, this guy needs to find another line of work, like selling used cars.

I will not excuse this behavior and give this guy a pass. This is just another small incremental step towards a totalitarian police state. It needs to be stopped in its tracks. Before rebellion is necessary.

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams