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As the video spread across the Internet, to mostly positive reviews, Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Claire released a statement after being inundated with calls and emails.

“I am impressed by the professionalism of our officers during this arrest and very proud,” he wrote Thursday. “They maintained a calm response, using the appropriate use of force options during a stressful incident.”

Spectators start filming the arrest as Morelli and officer Chantal Wilson wrestled with the woman outside a store. As she flailed, Morelli held her to the ground as the second officer controlled the woman’s kicking feet.

“I can’t breathe,” she complained.

“Just let her go,” one of several photographers said.

“No excuses! No excuses!” someone else shouts.

“Go stand over there,” the Wilson says.

The video runs for several minutes as the two officers struggle to get the woman to the cruiser.

“Unfortunately, she decided to try to resist arrest … and while it may look and appear to be something much worse than it is, it is only because she is resisting so violently and flailing around on the ground,” Morelli tells the crowd after.

Morelli then goes into specifics about how exactly he confronted the woman, and what techniques he used.

“Our mandate is to effect arrests doing the minimum amount of damage to people as possible. That’s what I tried to do, no matter what it may appear. I can assure you, I used soft hand techniques … I didn’t punch her, I didn’t throw her to the ground, I grabbed her and she began to struggle. I’m not going to get into a long wrestling match with a young girl, because the longer she fights, the more likely that one of the two of us going to get hurt.”

The video was posted on the social-sharing site Reddit Wednesday evening and the incident reportedly took place on Sunday morning.

I didn’t throw her to the ground, I grabbed her and she began to struggle

Social media reaction was mostly behind the police.

“My God the guy filming is an idiot. I could clearly see her resist and start flailing and not listening,” user MattBinYYC wrote. “The cops weren’t even that hard on her to begin with. Good on the cop to take the time to actually stand up for himself.”

Another user who said that he was from an area of Hamilton near where the video was shot also chimed in.

“I’m actually from Hamilton and sadly, a lot of the people in the east end of the city are like this,” user blegg44 said. “The cop did an outstanding job, that’s how all police should act.” Which garnered the response from FutureRocketSurgeon: “It just killed me how defeated he sounded when he knew that no one was listening to his side of the story.”

The reaction was much the same on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/bmoore123/status/411167068457680896