The more I watch this video, the more violent and out-of-control the cop seems. I am very skeptical of the face-scratching allegation. What really set the cop off, as far as I can tell, is that the woman said something back to him. In my experience of watching Superior cops smash and beat civilians, this is almost always the reason for it: Somebody talked back.

The situation actually seems to be winding down before Officer Dirty Harry shows up. Two cops are leading away a couple of passive guys in cuffs. The woman is yelling angrily, but the cops on the scene don't appear to be very concerned. Then Dirty Harry comes barreling out of his car and beelines for the woman, shouting and shaking his finger in her face in a very diplomatic fashion that I'm sure he learned in police school. Finishing with his tirade, he turns away--and that's when she says something back to him. You see him tense up and turn around and start stalking her. At this point, she is not charging or attacking at all. She's backing off from the predator who's coming after her. That's why they go out of the frame--she's backing away. He had no reason to go after her, but he does, and when they come back into the picture he's smashing her off a car hood, pulling her hair and punching her face, all the while screaming, "That's resisting! That's resisting!" Superior police officers are well aware of how to justify their assaults on civilians: Say they were resisting. I've seen it over and over.

Do you think if there wasn't footage of this event, that Dirty Harry would ever admit to punching anyone in the face? Ha!

Awesome. I can't wait to see the pics and new footage.

A few tidbits from Google and the News Tribune archives:

Officer George Gothner, Jr. is the son of the late George Gothner, Sr., who owned Roby's Bar and the Rustic Bar in Duluth.

In 2004, as noted earlier, Officer Gothner shot a man twice in self-defense. In that case, dash-cam footage exonerated him of wrongdoing. In fact, he was awarded a Distinguished Officer medal for his actions. Check out his heroic profile here.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/image/id/63924/

The earliest reference to Officer Gothner that I found was from 2001, so he has been on the Superior police force for at least thirteen years. His brother Gary Gothner is also on the force, and has served as president of the Superior police union. On May 26, 1999, the News Tribune reported

Some increase in assaults may be due to police responding to incidents, including bar problems and children's fights, that they weren't called to five, 10 years ago, said Officer Gary Gothner , who's been with the department eight years. 

``We're getting problems we didn't see years ago,'' he said. ``We're getting more juvenile assaults -- young juveniles, 10-12 years old, reporting being battered by other 10-year-olds.'' 

Youths and young adults seem to have more violent natures than they used to, and they don't know how to control it, observed Gothner , who patrols the city's North End. 

Even if there wasn't audio, Gothner's body language says everything. From the instant he arrives on the scene, he radiates aggression and contempt for Lancour: The pointed finger jabbing in her face, the contemptuous shoulder shrug when he turns away from her the first time, the explosion into violence at the slightest provocation. It's pretty clear what sort of a lovely fellow we're dealing with.

In his report, Gothner writes this:

I told Lancour that it was time to shut her mouth and go. I was moving Lancour backwards and she was yelling at me not to touch her. I told her again it was time to leave and again told her stop her yelling. I turned and started to walk away from Lancour. She started yelling again about her brother being arrested. I told her to leave. She yelled something to the effect of 'fuck you! you don't know'.

Notice how Lancour is the only one yelling and swearing in the report. It's a nice little fairy tale about the calm cop versus the wild, crazy woman. If the report were rewritten to reflect reality, it would be something like this:

I yelled at Lancour that it was time to shut her fucking mouth and go. I was moving Lancour backwards, shaking my finger in her face and yelling, and she was yelling at me not to touch her. I shouted at her again that it was time to leave and again screamed at her to shut the fuck up. I turned, jerking my arm contemptuously, and started to walk away from Lancour. She started yelling again about her brother being arrested. I told her to shut her fucking mouth. She yelled something to the effect of 'fuck you! you don't know'.

If they admit that Gothner has red flags, they'll have to admit that half the force has red flags. For those readers who are surprised by Gothner's conduct, let me assure you that it is very, very common on the Superior PD. The fact that Gothner is a 13-year veteran of the force, supposedly a role model, should say a lot. 

Late at night on Tower Avenue, the police don't take much notice of the taxicabs that are parked here and there. But I can say, having driven one of those cabs for more than a decade, that I take plenty of notice of the police. 

I am also convinced, though it is impossible to prove, that much of Gothner's reaction was directed at Lancour's skin color.

Also, it bears repeating over and over that, absent video evidence, the cops would have been perfectly happy to send Natasha Lancour to prison for felony assault. Cops on witness stands will say any old thing to get their victims convicted; in "he said-she said" situations, judges always side with cops.

The News Tribune's crime reporting is nonexistent. Every crime-related story that they run is a press release from the police department. There was a time (it seems quaint to think of it now) when a reporter would spend part of each morning looking through the police station's incident log to see what had happened during the night.

Nine months ago on this thread, I predicted this would happen. I must be psychic.

About fucking time.

Duluth News Tribune: Douglas County DA dismisses charges against woman involved in arrest altercation