Cleveland bus driver punches passenger in graphic video

[alp227]

Video is in the plain dealer story.

By Brandon Blackwell, The Plain Dealer
on October 12, 2012 at 1:00 PM, updated October 12, 2012 at 4:18 PM

Subtitle (couldn't fit in the subject line): "Uppercut leads to suspension after fracas with female rider goes viral"

Artis Hughes, a 22-year employee of the Regional Transit Authority in Cleveland, was named this afternoon as the bus driver in the now infamous "uppercut" videos showing him punching a female passenger and throwing her off the bus.

Hughes has been suspended pending the investigation and he and his union president have been notified, an RTA spokeswoman said.
The female passenger was identified as Shidea N. Lane, 25.

The RTA released the police reports on the incident, including statements by both combatants (see the full public report in the document viewer below).

Hughes told RTA police that he had been assaulted by the young woman, but declined to press charges, RTA officials said. Transit Police and Beachwood Police were both called to the scene. Lane also did not file a report or charges against Hughes at the scene.

full: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/10/cleveland_bus_driver_punches_p.html

A local TV station also published this exclusive story:

New video has surfaced showing a physical confrontation between an RTA bus driver and a passenger on Sept. 18. The new video appears to show Shidea Lane, 25, grabbing the driver, Artis Hughes, 59, during a verbal altercation.

That led to the driver stopping the bus near Chagrin Boulevard and Green Road and delivering an uppercut that knocked her to the ground.

“I’m still in pain, you know what I’m saying, my face still hurts, like it does, you know what I’m sayin … it was swollen for like … it’s still probably swollen,” Lane exclusively told Fox 8 News reporter Melissa Reid.

She says the argument started as soon as she boarded the bus.

“He didn’t think I had any money to get on the bus and I was looking for it, trying to tell him I have money to get on the bus. Can you just let me find it? And from there it just escalated,” Lane said.

“He said ‘I’ll drop you off here,’ she didn’t want to get off and he said ‘I’ll drop you off at the first stop I get to.’ She wouldn’t get off there and he said ‘well, you have to pay,” said passenger William Matthews.

[Atman]

1. Ouch!

I hate getting punched in the graphic video. It really hurts!

[XemaSab]

2. No "Make my day" law in Ohio?

He shouldn't have hit her, but she shouldn't have hit him.

[pettypace]

3. Artis Hughes is my homeboy

I will donate to that man's defense fund and I hope thousands of others will follow suit.

You act like an asshole you gonna get treated like one.

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. Really?

1-There was a great deal of verbal exchange between the two. The bus driver kept taunting her.

2-He should have stopped the bus and called the police. He is the person in charge, and he wanted it to escalate IMHO.

3- Her punch, while wrong, was a shove. That would hurt him minimally, if at all. He responded with a vicious uppercut that was guaranteed to hurt.

4-He was not responding to protect himself. There were other physical measures he could have taken if he needed to. He used the worst response first.

5- She probably will sue and should win. Just using some reasonable force to actually protect himself would be expected. He went waaaaay beyond reasonable.

6- This is in some ways the same actions that we complain about when the police use force. There have been many examples of officers going directly to the harshest method of control when others should have been used first. The driver is not a police officer, but he is the authority on that bus. He misused it.

7- She wasn't right and should be cited under the appropriate statutes. However, the driver bears the responsibility for making a bad situation worse instead of trying to defuse it.

8- If you are in a position of authority, no matter on what level, you are the one who is responsible for trying to control a problem. You should take the confrontational aspects DOWN, not up. The authority you have comes with responsibility. If you want to use your authority at a maximum level, you better be damn sure it's necessary.

[trumad]

10. Really?

Do you hit women? Would you upper cut a woman as hard as you can on the chin?

Answer the fucking question.

[jsr]

5. He should have stopped and called 911 to have her removed.

[TeamPooka]

6. IMHO this story hinges on that fact that as she grabbed his throat while driving and spit on him too

and as she presented a danger to him and his passengers he disabled her and removed her from the the bus.
that's the official story.
My real reason in that moment would be 'This person spit on me!"
It is the basest insult used throughout history.
Nowadays with spitting you as assault you are dealing with a lot of different potential diseases.
I'm not a violent person by any means.
But if there were any situation where a person is grabbing my throat and spitting on me they stand a good chance of winding up knocked out too.

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. Really?

Spitting is horrible. However, this is not a football field without referees. He should have called the police way before the punch.

She backed off, and he took his time to get up, set himself, and belt the hell out of her. That punch was not for restraint or to protect the passengers. It was to prove he was not going to take it.

While that is a natural human wish, if you are in a position of authority, your job supersedes your own personal desires. What could have followed that punch could have been an escalation by her if she was armed or by other passengers.

I am not saying what she did was right at all. However, he went up the escalation scale instead of trying to calm the situation. He knew she was volatile. He was never disabled as can be seen by his actions before and when he punched her.

That driver was also responsible for the other passengers. They were already getting riled up. She was not at any point a proximate danger to them. Once he started escalating the confrontation, he was making the situation more unstable and increasing the possibility that there could be a bigger mess.

This was not an MMA cage match, but they all acted like it was.

[TeamPooka]

8. actually I would have rather seen a pasenger intervene at that point instead of filming it. nt

[woolldog]

9. The passenger is completely to blame.

Shouldn't go around assaulting people and not expecting a response. Nor would the passenger win a dime in a lawsuit if I were on the jury.

[trumad]

11. God the assholes on this thread

A man upper cutting a woman as hard as he can and assholes on this thread are defending it.

Oh---so if a woman spit on you you'd upper cut her?

[woolldog]

12. Personally?

probably not.

But, male or female, I don't think you can go around spitting on people and putting your hands on them and not expect there to be serious consequences, like the person you're assaulting to fight back.

If a woman wants to be treated like a lady, she should act like one.

[jtuck004]

13. Why? Are women so weak they can't protect themselves? Makes no difference. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

14. He overreacted, instead of keeping calm and professional, it sounds like--

however, sometimes we're human, and the primal urge to punch someone (male or female, makes no difference in the heat of the moment) who is grabbing you/spitting on you takes over.

[pettypace]

15. The girl that was hit

She's a fox.