This incident — which “has gained extreme national attention” in U.S. media and is being reported in Europe — occurred in Erie, Pennyslvania, at around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, 2020, as a police SWAT team moved protesters away from City Hall about 2 hours after a peaceful protest began to turn violent “as a number of people who were not at the peaceful rally descended upon Perry Square,” the area in front of City Hall.
Hannah Silbaugh, 21, was a non-violent but non-complying protester. She had already been pepper-sprayed and, “When I wouldn’t move, that’s when the cops kicked me,” she said later. Actually, only one cop kicked her. But she feels all the police were in the wrong because, “They were being too aggressive with people who were protesting peacefully.” Read story here.
Some people will say she asked for it; but for others, this cop’s actions will serve to validate their negative feelings toward police. Ultimately, it will be up to city officials to decide what to do about this incident, which could take the form of police training and/or possibly disciplinary action against the cop.
He kicked her in the shoulder, not head, but neither he nor his fellow police were in danger, and it looks a lot more like retaliation than legitimate crowd control. Police have a responsibility to restore order and prevent violence, but actions like this tend to escalate rather than defuse a touchy situation. At the very least, it seems like poor judgment.
Maybe a reasonable trade-off here is to cite Ms. Silbaugh for disorderly conduct and discipline the cop who kicked her for violating department policies and procedures relating to crowd control. There’s an argument to be made that both are at fault. But the greater fault would seem to be the kicking cop’s apparent loss of self-control; and a loose cannon is the last thing anyone should want on a police force.