Anger as white U.S. policeman filmed punching black girl, 17, in the face

Daily Mail ^ | updated at 4:14 PM on 16th June 2010 | By Paul Thompson

[Niuhuru]

This is the moment a white American police officer punches a teenage black girl in the face after a dispute about how she and her friend crossed the road. Video footage of Officer Ian Walsh lashing out at the 17-year-old in Seattle has shocked the U.S.

The teenager reels backwards in shock from the blow before clutching her face while a bystander can be heard asking: ‘Are you serious?’

Police arrested the girl, Angel Rosenthal, and her friend, 19-year-old Marilyn Ellen Levias, both of whom have criminal records. Seattle Police chiefs have launched an investigation into the alleged assault after viewing the video footage. Civil rights activists are outraged and say the punch was an action of anger not self-defence. The incident comes weeks after another two Seattle officers seen kicking a Hispanic robbery suspect who later turned out to be innocent. James Kelly, who heads the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle group, said of the police: ‘Shame on you. The use of violence in the form of a full-blown fist to the face was wrong.

‘What the 17-year-old did was wrong,’ he told ABC News. ‘I'm not making any excuses for her, but two wrongs don't make a right.’ And a woman with whom the 17-year-old lives echoed his statements.

‘She's not a criminal,’ the woman, who would not give her name, said as she waited for a juvenile court hearing for the teen yesterday. ‘She ran into a situation that maybe wasn't right, but two wrongs don't make a right.’

[DJ MacWoW]

There are posters from Seattle that say the walkway was built because of pedestrians being hit. You can be sarcastic but the odds are if these thugs girls had been hit by a car and the cop was present, there'd be screams because he didn't enforce the law. It would be all his fault.

[ForAmerica]

Get that tail light/license plate light/turn signal fixed! Seriously, have they stated seemingly legitimate reasons for the pullover, or do you believe you are truly being profiled?

If you are it is wrong; I’ve never had to walk in your shoes but I can imagine the aggravation.
___________________________________

PROFILED! There is no legitimate reason, they ask for my license and insurance, check me out, make sure I live in the area and let me go. I don’t give them lip all the time, but I get a little irritated sometimes because there is no other reason but me driving in a nice area and a nice car, (no chrome or tint).

That’s why I can’t understand the illegals aliens getting bent out of shape about getting profiled.

[SkipW]

I am wondering where his back-up was. The guy who took the pictures and others on the scene were definitely working themselves up to do something stupid. As it is they were interfering with an officer in the performance of his duties.

That second little profanity spouting criminal is the one who should have been punched in the mouth. If what she did is not resisting arrest I don’t know what is. Hopefully this video can be used to help convict her and send her butt to jail.

[SkipW]

Are you joking?

[DJ MacWoW]

but I get a little irritated sometimes because there is no other reason but me driving in a nice area and a nice car, (no chrome or tint).

This reminded me of a friend of years ago. Dave happened to be black. Also had degrees. Some kind of nuclear stuff. lol

Anyway there was a specific area that he wanted to move to. He looked at condos and found one that he liked and bid on it. He was told by the owner that he didn't dare sell to him as his neighbors would kill him.

So Dave moved on and found another one in the same complex. Just before he left he came over to tell me that he went to introduce himself to his direct next door neighbor, saying to him "Hi! I'se ya new nayba" to the guy who wouldn't sell to him. I nearly cried I laughed so hard!

[MissAmericanPie]

Let me address the us against them mentality that has developed between the police and the man on the street.

When and where I grew up the cop was like obeying Mom and Dad, you just did it. And the police didn't have this wall of separation. I had the fastest muscle car in my state, challengers would come from all over to take their shot at the title.

A major highway was being built, but not completed, there would be two hundred cars gathered to watch the race, they would pull off to the side and shine their headlights on the road so we would have light. Guess who started off the race? The cops. They were so much a part of our young fun lives and took us with them to do stupid things like lay on the top of their vans and mace pigeons sleeping in underground parking shopping mall rafters.

Today this would be considered appalling behavior I suppose. But when a drunk hit a car and ran inside a closed service station it was my teenage brother, a witness, that walked to that dark door with the officer. When the officer opened the door and said police show yourself, a bullet hit him square in the chest, right in the middle. My brother grabbed him under the arms and hauled him behind the police car, another teenager in the car was hammered down on the microphone screaming officer down. There was never a thought of leaving this downed officer and running away, leaving him to fate.

My brother held the officers arm up so he could keep exchanging fire with the nut owner hold up inside the service station. Everything turned out well because the bullet hit the officers shirt button and traveled right under his skin and out his underarm. There isn't anything we wouldn't have done for our police in that day, in this town, no protection withheld, no sacrifice for them too great.

My point is the question of what happened to that relationship? How is an officer to approach a free citizen, what should be the relationship? What if the officer had said, "Excuse me ladies, you are jaywalking and I wouldn't want to have to live with seeing you get hurt. I know it's a pain to use the stairs and the pedestrian over walk, and I don't want to have to ticket you, so please use the stairs".

Instead of him being seen by them as being a money making machine for the city, or an up tight bully, they may have responded to a human being taking to them as fellow human beings. I think that connection has been lost at great cost. I know I'm not explaining it well, the difference between then and now, I just know there is a big difference and it's sad to see.

[UCANSEE2]

I was hoping it would be taken in the spirit it was offered.

That was, that it was comedy which we could all laugh at because like any good satire, it was partially true.

I did not really mean that it applied to ForAmerica’s described incidents, but I thought it might put a smile on his/her face.

There is nothing like getting prejudice (of any kind) out in the open to help cure it’s symptoms.

[Free Descendant]

It’s time for a refresher on “How To Not Get Your Ass Beat By The Police”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gCCjFbFXn8

[UCANSEE2]

Man, are you late to the party, or what?

[gogeo]

Maybe. No one knows what was in this cops head. Seattle cops have been getting loads of ink lately about racist commentary, and taking cheap shots at handcuffed suspects.

Judging by the girly punch he threw, I'm guessing he's used to hitting a restrained suspect...

You're an @ss with an obvious agenda, and you obviously haven't watched the full video. Go fester somewhere else.

[Jack Black]

I don’t know why it matters what color her skin was, compared to the officer’s.

If it was the first event like this, perhaps you would be right. But there is a long, long trend of out-of-control blacks refusing to follow police orders.

Blacks have a "culture" that includes songs like "F**K the Police", and approves of defiance of police. Talk to any big-city cop and they will tell you that in general young blacks are the hardest people they deal with.

Look at the statistics for US Prisons, blacks are amazingly over-represented as a percentage. Even more so in woman's prisons. This chart is from the US Dept. of Justice web site:

So, sadly, race does have something to do with it.

[gogeo]

Taking a guess here, but I’d suspect a cop is trained to punch a person in the face, near the eyes, mouth, nose, so the pain makes the person pull back, withdraw their hands to their own face. With a choice of clubs, gun, taser, or fist, the cop certainly had to use one or the other...

I have no doubt that had he pulled the tazer, the volume on criticism would have been turned to 11.

[DJ MacWoW]

The difference is an attitude change on both sides and not just officers, Society is degrading and it’s everyones fault.

[gogeo]

But yeah. The law is being broken, and the jaywalking tax collector is within his rights to enforce the law since the city is going broke and all. Sure worked out well for this guy. His replacement will need to write about a million more to cover the costs of the settlement Seattle is certain to payout...

Sure...and the fact that the city went to the trouble and expense of installing the skybridge (I can't think of another in the city) means they're just there for revenue enhancement, right?

Don't you think there should be a limit on posting while stupid?

[DJ MacWoW]

I know. And it was funny. Satire always has a grain of truth.

[DJ MacWoW]

LOL!!!

[montag813]

‘She's not a criminal,’

Yes, she is.

[moehoward]

"There are posters from Seattle.."

And I'm one of them. Anyone who wants to look into this with the slightest bit of effort will see just how unnecessary this whole situation is. The cop was seriously misguided in his opportunism.

[DJ MacWoW]

And you ignore the rest of what I said.

Have a nice day.

[bert]

He needed the tried and true, a blackjack.

One good wack and resistance to arrest ceases. Attitude is gone. Restraint can proceed.

The cop here was acting in self defense to subdue an out of control attitudinal black wacko.