OK, so I'm an old school guy, but I don't think the BART officer who grabbed a rowdy passenger by the scruff of his neck and removed him from a public train at the West Oakland Station on Saturday night did anything wrong.

All I saw in the video of the incident was a police officer doing his job.

It's unfortunate that a glass window on the platform shattered as the suspect tried to resist the officer's efforts to subdue him, but things like this happen sometimes when a suspect resists a law enforcement officer's efforts to establish physical control over him.

What is mind-boggling to me is that the incident - which is little more than a tense moment between a police officer and an unruly passenger - is drawing questions about the use of force and the transit agency's police department. Because the incident was captured on video by a passenger and posted to the Web, it's being treated like the New Year's Day shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle at a train platform in Oakland.

But this time it's the transit agency - not the general public - who pulled the fire alarm well before anyone reported smoke. Almost in anticipation of negative public reaction, and before the YouTube video had recorded 300 hits, BART officials held a news conference promising a quick, thorough investigation of the incident and the officer's actions.

By Monday, Oakland defense attorney John Burris, who represents the Grant family in a $50 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the agency, announced that he will file a lawsuit on behalf of Michael Joseph Gibson, the man arrested Saturday.

Considering BART's troubles over the last year, the reaction can't be surprising. But if the video is a complete record of the event, there seems little to fret over.

The video captured the arrest of Gibson, 37, but it thankfully also showed his behavior right up to the very moment the police officer placed his hands on him.

Gibson was boisterous, profane, appeared to be intoxicated and was undeniably confrontational.

The video shows him standing in the aisle with his arms spread out yelling, "Who wants to play? King of the mount-." His words trail off, but he is apparently challenging other passengers.

One passenger approaches him and tells him that he should get off the train, then another voice - apparently the officer's - can be heard demanding: "Please get off the train now!"

The officer, who has not been identified by name, promptly grabs Gibson by the collar and physically forces him from the train, to the distinct sound of applause from passengers.

It's difficult to tell from the video how much force was used to push Gibson forward or how hard he resisted.

There is a moment when the officer puts a little extra effort into shoving Gibson toward the glassed wall of the platform.

Given Gibson's behavior and hostile attitude, I think the police officer was wise not to engage in a verbal discussion with a clearly irrational person. I don't think he had any other choice but to act in a forceful, assertive manner. It's his job - and legal duty - to remove someone from a public train if he presents a potential danger to himself or other people. The officer did his job.

The police officer never struck the man, he didn't throw him to the ground, smack him with a nightstick or gun, or launch a verbal tirade at him.

The officer struggled with the guy, pushed him against a wall and arm-wrestled him to handcuff him.

Police officers sometimes have to get physical with suspects, and while it may not be pretty or deemed socially acceptable in an enlightened place like the Bay Area, it's very much an essential part of a police officer's duty.

If that videotape represents the width and breadth of what happened Saturday night at the West Oakland BART Station, to rule the incident an improper use of force is to misunderstand the very nature of police work itself.

Suit threatened: The lawyer for Michael Joseph Gibson (above), whose arrest by a BART police officer resulted in injuries to both men, says he will sue. C4