I don’t think we know what happened, until we hear what words were exchanged.
Think of yourself in a policeman’s shoes - you’re in a highly charged situation, someone comes at you saying who-knows-what, and then reaches out as if to grab, poke - whatever.
These guys have seen their brethren injured and even killed in recent days.
The armchair prosecutors and judges here should wait until they have all of the evidence.
All I know is what I saw in the video - it looked to me as if the cop who actually did the shoving probably hadn’t meant to knock the man over but just to push him away. However, the bad thing was that he didn’t stop even when it was clear that he had pushed the guy too hard and the man was unconscious and bleeding. Also, he prevented another cop from stopping.
But other cops did stop and help, although now of course the press is hysterical and they’re all being blamed. Even looking at the video, you can tell that they were trying to help him, and I read that EMS was there almost immediately because they were already on the scene and at the ready.
The press is just waiting and drooling over the idea of getting something they can use to make all cops look bad. This afternoon the cops all resigned from this unit, btw, because they felt that the brass wasn’t supporting them.