Sucker Punch Leaves Bus Driver Suspended

The Smoking Gun has a video and recap of a Cleveland bus driver who punches a rude passenger.  He has been suspended and his actions labeled unacceptable.

They're mostly right.

The punch wasn't necessary, but she was aggressive and her behavior was alarming enough that this would have escalated into self-defense shortly.  I'm not saying this excuses his actions, but it does expose a need to hold people in his position accountable while giving them support and resources to handle passengers like this.  Otherwise you end up with what we have here, a story where there are no innocents and no good came from their actions.

A Cleveland municipal bus driver has been suspended after video surfaced this week showing him decking a mouthy female rider with a bolo punch.

The confrontation between the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) worker and the unidentified woman was apparently filmed by another rider. It is unclear from the above clip, however, what triggered the dispute.

[WARNING: The video is peppered with curse words and racial slurs.]

The driver of bus 2802 leaves his seat after the woman appears to strike him. "You going to jail now," the driver says twice before throwing an uppercut that knocks the woman to the ground.