I don't make this stuff up, you know.

What's fascinating about this is the thing that will, if anything, sink these cops: they got taped.

I've always been curious about situations like this. Do you wait until the trial, when you have the officers' testimony, getting them to (probably) perjure themselves good and proper before springing the tape on them and getting the charges (hopefully) dismissed and the officers (hopefully) canned? Or do you bring it out early on to get the prosecutor to drop all the charges?

Waiting until trial means that on the one hand you have the splendid possiblity of getting your assailants to commit perjury, balanced against the possibility that the judge and prosecutor will get pissed off enough to push it to a verdict, and some box-checking moronic jury will follow the judges instructions to convict you.

Your lawyer will probably tell you to 'for Ghu's sake get the prosecutor to drop it', but that personal satisfaction of being able to listen to the testilying and knowing that those self-righteous SOBs are digging their own graves with each falsehood that they utter on the stand is tempting.

My Tibetan Buddhist sister would tell me that I should be compassionate instead of vindictive, but when I read about yet another 'isolated incident' like this it just makes my blood boil.

I scrolled through the comments along the video. The first few comments scared me! I couldn't beleive that so many people saw this as the homeowners fault. At what point did any of what I saw need to turn into a front yard brawl?
Even if you speculate that she said something mean to an 'officer' how does that rate being sucker-punched? Everyone is lucky that it didn't turn worse. I can't imagine my family being attacked by any group of thugs without someone coming out badly injured.

Yup. There's a reason I advocate folks talking to cops through the door, or on the phone, when it's necessary to.

I don't know how common this sort of stuff is, and I'd rather not roll the dice.