The video is horrible quality but some YouTube viewers believe it shows her spitting on the cop.
Other viewers believe it shows the cop using an open hand to strike her, which they define as not a punch.
But the cop struck her hard enough to cause her to fall down. And it looks as if he balls his hand into a fist before striking her.
What the video doesn’t show is any of the officers wiping spit from their faces.
The incident took place Thursday in Cleveland, but Cleveland police are claiming they are not sure which agency the cop worked for because they were conducting a multi-agency operation.
The differences in opinion as to what took place can even be noted by the reporters writing about the video for Cleveland.com.
On Friday, reporter Chanda Neely never mentioned the woman spitting, saying it only appears as if she said something to the cops.
However, she believed it to be a punch.
Video surfaced Friday showing a police officer punching a handcuffed woman in her face in Cleveland.
The video shows plain-clothes officers in bulletproof vests with the word “police” on the back holding 21-year-old Ciara Perez Rodriguez, with her hands cuffed behind her back, against the back of a police car. The punch comes at the 11-second mark in the video embedded in this post.
The woman appears to say something to one of the officers, and another officer slugs her in the face.
However, on Saturday, reporter Adam Ferrise – who had interviewed the Cleveland police union president – wrote that the video shows the woman spitting on the cop.
He also wrote that it only “appeared to show a police officer punching a handcuffed woman.”
A bystander’s cellphone video appears to show the woman, Ciara Perez-Rodriguez, spitting at police officers while she’s handcuffed and pressed up against a police cruiser.
An officer then lunges with his hand and connects with Perez-Rodriguez’s face. The video garnered widespread attention.
Perez-Rodriguez’s family members, including her father, Louis Perez, said the officer punched the 21-year-old woman.
Cleveland Police Patrolman Association President Steve Loomis said the video clearly shows the officer using an open hand to prevent Perez-Rodriguez from spitting on more officers.
Ferrise also said it was unclear if the incident was captured on police body cam, even though the department was issued 1,500 body cameras last year at a cost of $2.4 million.
At that cost, any footage should have enough quality to put the debate to rest.
But we’re curious as to what you see. Did she spit at the cop? Did he punch her in return?
