[Porsche-O-Phile]

Looks excessive to me. The only possibly justifiable reason a cop MIGHT have used heavy-handed "tackle" tactics was if they thought they were about to be fired upon... From the officer's perspective (disregard the fact he was already running for a moment and had probably already made the decision to tackle the perp), it's possible that he might've been concerned about her right arm being out of view and dropping. I realize this is thin, but also remember cops are trained to think that anyone and everyone is a bad guy out to kill them, everyone is a drug addict with a gun, etc. This guy was supposedly a 6-year veteran and should have known better by then (one would think) but perhaps some never outgrow the programming...

More likely I think this cop was a "tough guy" by nature, empowered with a badge and wanted to thump the girl's skull to teach her a lesson to "respect my authority". It's hard to know exactly what happened looking only at the video but if I absolutely had to pass judgement based only on it, I'd say it's about 80% likely the officer in question overreacted and 20% likely that it was justified.

The girl does sound like she's going to end up in a crack house and/or pregnant pretty soon though. Definitely not a National Honor Society student...