Seattle officer suspended for ‘magic number’ of punches

A longtime Seattle officer was suspended without pay for 10 days for punching a restrained man in the face 14 times in less than a minute.

The Associated Press reports David Bauer, 55, also kicked the man in the video-recorded incident in South Seattle in 2010, before punching him numerous times.

Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole wrote in a disciplinary report that Bauer used excessive force and violated department policies on lawful conduct. She also wrote that she would have fired the Seattle officer if it had happened during her tenure or under their current policy on use of force. O’Toole became chief in 2014. Because of the two-year statute of limitations, no misdemeanor charges can be filed, The Seattle Times reports.

The incident came to light last year as city attorneys prepared to release the video as part of a request for videos by a media outlet, the Associated Press reports.

AM 770 KTTH’s Todd Herman says while he doesn’t want to see an officer use excessive force, he questions whether this particular incident was worthy of suspension.

Should the Seattle officer be punished?

Todd Herman: Would 11 punches been OK? There’s some magic number.
The driver makes the decision to get out of the car and he didn’t need to do that. Then he continued to approach the Seattle officer’s gun hip while the officer was trying to control the suspect. Anyone trained will wonder why he wanted to be near the officer’s firearm.

I want to say I have a problem with this, because I want cops to be held responsible. But I don’t think he should be fired or suspended.

Tom Tangney: The driver stayed in the car for a while. When he got out, he wasn’t doing anything in a confrontational manner. I didn’t think there was any sense that the driver was attempting to go for the officer’s gun. That’s not what he was trying to do.

After those three hits on the ground, the guy was subdued. He had one hand behind his back. The only reason the officer kept hitting him, I think, was to beat him into submission to get his other hand behind his back. The officer was just irritated. His fatal admission: he admitted he was riled up, which O’Toole jumped on.

Herman: So he should have been dishonest? I don’t want an officer to be in a position to have to lie. O’Toole has arrived at a magic number of punches. But those are little rabbit punches. When you resist cops you are signing up for a beating.

Tangney: The Department of Justice sees that differently.

Herman: Police deserve more scrutiny because we give them a job that allows them to use deadly force. In the same token, they also need more respect.

Tangney: If these were hardened criminals, it wouldn’t be as much of an issue. Turned out they weren’t and it looks bad.

KIRO 7 contributed to this story.

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