The Story Behind The Story

The twitter thread behind this bit of video of a – shall we say – “impaired” man clobbering a rather diminuitive female cop in San Francisco…:

…have focused on the, er, less-than-decisive responses by the locals that came to her assistance.

The guys who wouldn’t put down their coffee before trying to disentangle the high guy.

The fellow who bapped away at him with the decisive authority of a Care Bear.

All the half-hearted tugging.

My angle?

In this day and age, and in that place, the part that amazes me is someone came to help the cop.

11 thoughts on “The Story Behind The Story

  1. They are wearing masks outdoors. WTF? Don’t they believe that science is real?

  2. MO,
    Apparently, there are still a lot of people that don’t. I was working in Red Wing yesterday and went into a grocery store to grab something. Despite the fact that the mask signs were not present, I saw at least ten people wearing them. Also observed a fair number of people driving, alone, wearing them.

  3. I would expect that many citizens in San Francisco would remain steadfast in their faith regarding the magic of the mask. When they talk about “The Science” it’s like a nickname for some smart guy they know, probably like “The Situation” on “Jersey Shore”. He was the smart one, right? Sorry, I didn’t watch.

  4. On the one hand, the fact she NEEDS someone to come to her aid refutes the theory that women are just as good as men at everything they do. If the police department minimum was 6-foot 200-lbs, some women would qualify and that’s fine with me. But we wouldn’t have petite officers grappling with knotheads and hoping some civilian risks the lawsuit to come to her aid.

    On the other hand, the fact bystanders came to her aid at all, is heartwarming. In most of the recent “brawl” videos (airports, amusement parks), the bystanders are holding cell phones and laughing. Could be a cultural thing, I suppose: white men jump into a fray to defend a police officer whereas Black people hold police officers in contempt. But it’s nice to see chivalry isn’t dead and respect for law/order still exists, in whatever diluted form, in a few specific areas.

    My real question is: what’s with the bazooka? Holy cow, how dangerous is walking the beat in that part of town; and where the hell is your partner?

  5. I don’t know that this case would have been that much better with a 200lb man–the lady is outweighed not by 50 lbs, but by about 100-150, so the man would still be oughtweighed by 50-100 lbs. I think she did reasonably well in the circumstances.

    I do think though, that there is probably some wisdom in a proposal out of Michigan to require officers to learn some kind of wrestling, and also for minimum size/strength requirements and ongoing physical fitness requirements. I also think that we need to review precisely how much “gear” an officer ought to have–it almost seems that the officer was carrying so much that it got into her way.

  6. The Bazooka looks like a bean bag gun. One of the tools that I might dispense with in this case. Notice the orange; hence it is nonlethal.

  7. I’m thinking that if it’s me on the scene and I’ve got a cup of coffee in my hand, that coffee is going right in the big guy’s eyes first thing. I imagine, though, that coffee in San Francisco is pretty expensive.

  8. bike:
    I know a couple of female LEOs that are into kickball and Taekwondo. Even though they are not large in stature, I wouldn’t mess with any of them.

  9. Boss, there are some soccer players who might do very well at, say, kicking two into the “goal” at once, if you catch my drift. So maybe “kickball” isn’t as bad an analogy as you thought.

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