A rabid pig is on the lose in Toledo.

Over the weekend a cellphone video surfaced showing a Toledo Police Department officer manhandling a teenage girl, jacking her up against a vehicle, and body-slamming her to the ground. The TPD has not released the officer’s bodycam or police vehicle camera footage yet, but did release a statement calling for the community to be patient as it investigated the incident.

I’d like to know what there is to investigate? The events leading up to the police/civilian encounter don’t matter as much to me as the cellphone video footage that was recorded in the moment. It’s been alleged that the teenage girl and her teenage girlfriends were walking in the street and that is what precipitated the encounter. Even so, that doesn’t help explain the conduct recorded on video in the moment.

Jay walking is a minor misdemeanor offense in Toledo. It is not an offense for which you can be arrested and go to jail, or serve any time in jail. The penalty for jay walking is a citation and fine. Other teenage girls, and the victim’s mother, were present, and that was sufficient reason enough for the TPD officer to remain calm, ask for the girl’s name, address, and DOB, and issue a citation if warranted.

A citation was not warranted.

Now all the cop lovers are coming out of the wood shack. “What was the officer supposed to do, just let her walk away?” Yeah, tell the group of teenage girls to get out of the street and move on. Hit that yelp button a few times and go make the city safer.

“But she clearly tried to pull away and resisted arrest when he was trying to handcuff her.” Under Ohio law she was under arrest when she could not freely walk away. Cops may have had probable cause to make a momentary Terry stop when they observed a group of teenage girls walking in the street. But what probable cause did the cop have to single out one girl to manhandle, snatch-up against a car, handcuff, body slam to the ground, and take to juvenile detention?

I submit the cop had “probable-angry-cause” over something the teenage girl either said or did. Maybe she asked the TPD officer how much he had to drink before coming on duty that day. Maybe when the victim flipped the cop the middle finger to let him know he was #1, he mistook the gesture as a sign of disrespect and decided to teach that insolent, disrespectful teenage girl a lesson.

I’m a big, bad, Beta-cop, and I can take you down!

“It looks like she spit on the officer and that’s a felony, so that’s why he arrested her.” Not exactly. The TPD officer had already arrested the girl when he touched her, threw her against the vehicle, and slapped a handcuff on her. Then the officer slammed the girl to the ground, finished cuffing her, and kneed her in the back. And because the officer was frothing at the mouth like a rabid pig, he apparently wiped his own raving spittle off his face.

Just my opinion. Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments.