i see a lot of people saying "jaywalking!? really?" in here but let's be honest here, it's not like that cop decided that day that he was gonna go out and write some jaywalking citations. no, news reports said that the SPD have had problems with that intersection, some people i know in the area have led me to believe that the school there has also requested that police get the problem under control.

so from the get go he was just doing his job. he had to stop everyone (he told 5 people in total to stop, only the one girl ignored him and mouthed off while walking away). he wasn't the one who decided he was going to write that citation, his superiors did. and he is not the person that decided a arrest was needed, the girl decided that by rufusing to just allow the officer to write the citation.

and finally the cop did not decide to escalate the situation further than the 1 arrest of the girl obstructing him from a jaywalking citation, the girls friend decided to escalate the situation by assaulting the officer. the only decision the officer really made was to not use his other methods of force, which as ana mentioned have a much higher chance of serious injury to the girl. in my opinion all the officer did was give her a love-tap to the mouth to let her and the crowd know that he meant business, and it worked. it's not like he hit her with a lot of force, she was still standing after the punch, she didn't have a broken nose or jaw, wasn't missing teeth, wasn't bleeding... LET HIM GO!