Police Brutality or Resisting arrest you decide

Police in Seattle are under scrutiny after an officer was caught on camera punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during a jaywalking stop. Now I've watch the tape and from what I can see the police was within his rights to act the way he did. I know many might disagree with me on this but it things like this that have cause the moral decline of our society. People not having respect for authority and thinking that they can just step up on cops and hit them. I'm even shocked by the people with the cameras and cell phones who were witnessing the event yet calling the policeman unfair. To quote one of them "are you kidding me?" Where were you raised? The girl not only lashed out at a police officer she resisted arrest.

Some rights groups said the jaywalking incident was another clear example of police brutality.

"This is another case where we are standing here, saying 'Shame on you' to the Seattle police," James Kelly, head of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, said at a news conference Tuesday.

But Kelly also said Rosenthal was wrong to resist the officer and told reporters that the teenager's behavior "only helped escalate an already tense situation." Still, he said, "two wrongs don't make a right."

Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers' Guild, said the officer was in the right. "He did nothing wrong," O'Neill told The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Let's put the accountability where it needs to be: They escalated the situation."

O'Neill also dismissed claims that the incident was racially charged.

"The race issue gets old after a while; it really does," he said.

Rosenthal and Levias are expected to be charged today in Seattle, Levias with obstructing an officer and Rosenthal with third-degree assault of an officer, which is a felony.

Both teenagers have criminal records. Last year, Rosenthal was charged with second-degree robbery when a 15-year-old boy said his cell phone and $20 were stolen after he was punched in the face; and in 2008 she was charged with theft of a motor vehicle. The robbery charges were later dismissed,The Seattle Times reported.

Levias was charged with third-degree assault in 2009 after pushing a sheriff's deputy and was given probation.