He didn’t pick him up and drop him hard? He didn’t sucker punch him at the end? Granted... it wasn’t much of a punch and it probably didn’t hurt, but it was an unnecessary PUNCH and could have caused injury. In no way am I exaggerating the principles involved here, and whether the guy was actually hurt or not from the encounter is completely irrelevant.
It is hard for me to take what you are trying to argue seriously. I have no idea what your actual situation is, but you speak like someone who has led a completely sheltered life. Have you ever been in or around a situation like this? I said that we would not have treated someone this way and would report others who did. In fact it was our department's policy to coddle them. And personally I did not mind that. My crews and I even did what we could to try and help down and out people sometimes to extremes that you would most likely make fun of. And we got to know who was good natured and harmless and who was just plain nasty. Who knows what the situation with this person was?
But I do understand the frustration of dealing with people like this day after day and how this type of incident developed. From the video it didn't look to me like the person laying on the ground probably did not receive injuries from the encounter, you play stupid games and sometimes you win stupid prizes. And in the real world whether someone got hurt or not makes a big difference. If the guy had some real injuries the follow up story would be about the transit cop getting fired and charges with a crime. If the cop wasn't black he would be fired immediately anyway.