A remarkable piece of videotape in the news this week reminded me how pictures can simultaneously communicate and confuse. Take a moment to look at this disturbing dashcam video that shows a Fort Pierce police officer restraining a 15 year old girl arrested for curfew violation and suspicion of other crimes.  How would you write the headline or lead sentence for the newscast?

A) Officer Punches and Pepper Sprays 15 Year Old Girl.

                 or

B)  Teenager Resisting Arrest Bites Officer on the Arm.

Most television stations that carried the story leaned toward version "A" emphasizing the brutality of the officer and the vulnerability of the teen. One version of the story described the suspect as "a 15 year old girl crying for her mother."  My problem with this approach is that  it doesn't even hint at the motive behind the officer's actions suggesting the attack was unprovoked and undeserved. The use of the term, "punching" is also questionable.  To me the officer reflexively strikes the teen once in reaction to being bitten. Punching implies multiple blows. You might be struck by the size disparity of the two and  how the officer holds the teenager's arm far up the middle of her back  as he struggles to put on the cuffs. That would be excruciating to me, but to a teenager? Not so much.

Version "B" strikes me as a more dispassionate charactarization, though it puts all the onus on the girl. Resisting arrest and biting people are illegal, but if the arrest is baseless and the officer deranged, aren't both those behaviors justified? 

The very existence of the videotape is exculpatory to the officer.  He's obviously aware of the camera and, at least until he is bitten, keeps his cool. The crucial piece of information in this story exists not on videotape but in the mind and conscience of the officer.  Did he believe it was in the interest of  public safety to arrest a this skinny kid rather than issue a citation for curfew violation? Did he believe he had even more of an obligation to restrain her once she began to hysterically fight back? Ugly things happen  when you decide to bind someone's arms behind their back. The decision to do so should never be made lightly.