Residents throughout Pittsburgh issued support for city police today after video evidence from last weekend revealed an unruly bar patron using his own face to strike an officer 19 times mercilessly in the fist.
“I could barely get through the video; it was just so gruesome,” said South Side resident Larry Kowalchuk, who lives near Kopy’s on 12th Street where the incident occurred. “You can only watch so much of that monster lashing out with his cheeks, nose, mouth, and forehead right into the closed, innocent hand of that officer before you start to feel sick to your stomach. Even with another officer trying to hold him down. He must have been on drugs or something.”
Linda Rossetti, founder of local support group Pittsburgh Hearts Police, shared her sympathy with the officer who must now start the long road of rehabilitating the wounded extremity.
“That poor officer,” she said, planting a “Blue Fists Matter, Too” sign in her yard. “I’m keeping him in my thoughts and prayers in hopes that his children will still want to hug him despite the bruises and swelling that beast wrought upon his defenseless knuckles.”
“God, that doesn’t even include the time he already had to spend away from his wife and kids to clean off all the blood that hooligan maliciously spread all over his firmly clenched hand.”
For Brookline native Pat Wallace, who stated he visits Kopy’s on occasion, the message was one of confusion and sadness.
“I don’t get why someone would act out like that,” he said. “Those officers were trying to enjoy a stiff drink or 15, like any well-meaning, law-abiding citizens would, just protecting the public from these drugged-up psychos. To think that you could look the wrong way at a bar and next thing you know, some lunatic is repeatedly beating his eye sockets off your fist — scary stuff.”
Further controversy may emerge as sources also claim that bar personnel purposefully sprayed themselves in the eyes with pepper spray to pretend they were too incapacitated to see what actually happened during the fight.
