Adele Ferguson - Cop punches girl: do pictures tell the whole story

IT’S BEGINNING to look like Seattle police officers just can’t do anything right. What doesn’t make sense is why they never seem to remember that there is a high likelihood that whatever they do is going to be caught by a camera, either one on a police car or a building or in the hands of some witness.

Cameras are all over the place now. I was against the cops in the kicking of the Mexican man on the ground, especially when a woman cop added a couple of kicks for good measure after the men got through. I was against the security guards in the tunnel who stood by and watched while one teen age girl kicked the crap out of another one.

But I found myself on the side of the cop in the latest hoorah, where two teen age girls, 17 and 19, resisted arrest for jaywalking and the youngest got punched in the face by an officer. The girls were black, the officer white or there wouldn’t be such a fuss about it. The film of the incident taken by a witness went around the world on TV so far as I know with outrage expressed at treatment of the girl by the officer. But not from me. My first thought was, well, girls, you want to be treated as equals to men. How do you like it? How come nobody taught you at home or school that unless you are ordered to do something illegal, law enforcement officers are to be obeyed?

THESE WEREN’T little wisps of girls either, but husky gals, who if he hadn’t socked one in the face, might have taken him down. I felt the cop was in danger from the girls or any of their friends or sympathetic witnesses who might have grabbed his gun.

This is a very tender subject because there is plenty of proof that officers in uniform exist who have let their badge and the gun on their hip go to their heads.

Example: Years ago, my husband and I were driving home from work when we heard a siren behind us. We hadn’t done a thing except turn from a side street onto the main drag and so far as we knew, all our lights were working.

We pulled over, and who should get out of the sheriffs car but a young man we knew because his parents were our neighbors. He was a brand new deputy sheriff. “What’s the problem?” my husband asked.

“I didn’t like the way you turned the corner back there,” said the deputy. He was grim. He didn’t call us by name and we had done nothing to warrant a pullover so it was obvious he was simply using his newfound authority to throw his weight around. His intent was to show a couple of neighbors who was boss when one was in uniform and they weren’t. “Watch it in the future,” he said, turning and going back to his car. As I recall, he didn’t last long in the job.

THE OUTCOME of the latest Seattle police incident was that the officer and the girl he punched met and in the presence of a handful of big shots, she apologized and he accepted. I hope she meant it since I suspect the apology was promoted by her lawyer who persuaded her that penitence goes a long way in limiting punishment.

I am very sympathetic to law enforcement. A cop or a deputy sheriff or state patrolman never knows if the next car stopped for a tail light out or call to a home for domestic violence will end in violence.

Early exposure to police authority can be useful for youths, however. I remember when my young brother was pulled over by state patrolman Kenny Webster, not much older, and who knew all the young guys. Webster drove my brother home, leaving him with, “Robin, if I ever catch you drinking and driving again, I am going to whip your butt.”

To this day, my brother is the most law abiding driver I’ve ever seen. Good police work.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. B ox 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)