Like most cities in America, Seattle has racial tension, much of it revolving around the relationship between the black community and local police. Racial tension and the selection of a new Seattle police chief are backdrops to a new controversial video showing a police officer punching a teenager in the face. As a result of this video, racial tension has come to a head.


Attorney Nicole Gaines is one of many members of the Seattle community calling for a new chief of police. "It has become clear to us that under recent events, it's time for a change," said Gaines.

The head of the NAACP, James Bible, says that this situation is indicative of the relationship that Seattle police have with the African American community. "This is the relationship that people of color have with law enforcement. This is the relationship that needs to change," said Bible.

Assistant Seattle Police Chief Nick Metz said that the department is withholding judgment for now, until the investigation is complete.

"The issue here is going to be, and that we have to investigate, is whether or not the force he used was reasonable given the kind of combative resistance he was facing," said Metz.

Some officers are saying that the use of force was justified, due to the fact that there was a significant amount of resistance by the two black women seen in the video. Seattle Police Officers Guild President Rich O'Neill says that the officer's actions were called for.

"Seattle is losing credibility as a community when they call this kind of thing brutality," said O'Neill.

I watched the video yesterday, feeling both shock and curiosity as I watched it. Obviously, the sight of a police officer punching a woman in the face is quite disturbing. Additionally, it was clear in the video that the officer didn't have control over the situation. Some of the questions that went through my mind as I watched the video were the following:

1) What were the women being charged with? I am hopeful that the charge was serious enough for the officer to spend so much of his time engaging with the women in the video. If the charge was something as simple as jaywalking, as some have reported, then that's a problem. I jaywalked today and I hope I don't go to jail for it, getting punched in the face along the way.

2) Why did the officer have so much trouble getting the woman under control? Was it a matter of him being exceedingly patient? If that's the case, then I can't help but wonder if a good police officer couldn't have gotten the situation under control much faster. But presuming that the woman he is trying to arrest possesses super-human strength, I can imagine that the officer's hesitance to use additional force (like a stun gun or a billy club) might actually be applauded. Personally, I would not have had the patience to fool around with this person for as long as the officer did, so I have a difficult time defining this as pure police brutality.

3) Was this case a matter of racial profiling? If a group of white college students had gathered for spring break, would an officer be attempting to arrest them for jaywalking (assuming that was the charge, as reported)? I think the answer is no, at least in the minds of many black Seattle residents. So, in this case, I see the potential for racial profiling, and there is the remaining question of whether the officer should have punched the woman in the face in order to gain control of the situation. I argue that he could have gotten control without punching her, but she should never have resisted.

Here's the bottom line: If there are pre-existing tensions between the black community of Seattle and the police department, those tensions should be dealt with independently, without the use of any one event as a catalyst for much-needed dialogue. The other lesson here is that it is a very dangerous game to fight with police on the scene of an arrest. Officers carry guns on their hips, mace in their pockets and the benefit of the doubt in their badges. The women had no business whatsoever fighting with the officer as much as they did, and fighting like this could cost you your life. If you've got a beef with an officer, get through the situation and file a report. Interfering with officers doing their jobs can be costly.




Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.