What is wrong with these Atlanta men?
A minor disturbance at an after hours restaurant in Buckhead quickly turned into a national debate when an Atlanta police officer, who forgot both his professional and home training, punched a woman in her face while attempting to restrain her.
According to online reports, the unidentified, off-duty police officer was wearing full uniform at his second job at the Buckhead International House of Pancakes around 4 a.m. Sunday, when he got into it with a woman who was sitting in a booth.
Witnesses say the officer began shouting at the woman and then he lunged at her. As the two began tussling, another officer joined the fracas, which prompted the woman’s friend to throw a roundhouse punch at him. The 2nd officer retaliated with a hard right to the friend’s jaw before wrestling her to the floor and cuffing her.
The startling video, which was filmed by an iHop patron, was quickly uploaded to YouTube, and now iHOP and the Atlanta police department find themselves in the same predicament as the McDonald’s organization. If you recall, McDonald’s waited 5 days to condemn a brutal assault in one of its restaurants in Baltimore, MD.
We haven’t heard from iHOP yet, but the APD didn’t wait that long.
It only took 2 days for a red-faced Atlanta PD spokesperson to release the following statement to the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Tuesday:
“The Atlanta Police Department is aware of the incident that took place early Sunday morning involving one of its officers attempting to arrest a patron at an IHOP in Buckhead. The matter has been referred to our Office of Professional Standards to determine whether department policies and procedures were followed. Further comment at this time would not be appropriate.”
But, according to the AJC, Roberta Caban, the friend of the woman in the black dress who was punched by the officer, said the officer went too far. Caban, who was arrested along with her friend, told Channel 2 Action News:
“I felt so bad for her, for anybody to go through that. It was very obvious that the first officer had contained her.
“No one would tell us why we were arrested, no one would tell us anything. And we wind up spending over 24 hours in jail.”
