They weren’t dispersing? What fucking video are you watching? All of the people are moving at a reasonable speed as the police are advancing, until of course they start shoving people on bikes and knocking them over and into people in front of them starting a fucking pileup.
So, her reaction to get “pushed” by the police, which is a perfectly reasonable action that the police took in response to an illegally formed crowd which had been actively participating in vanadlism and property damage (all along Forbes- broken windows and damaged businesses), was to assault a police officer. In response, she was subdued and arrested.
The police should ALWAYS look for the least violent way to deal with a situation. In this case, it is OBVIOUS that they did not, prior to and after her actions with the bike. There was no fucking reason to straight go across her skull with a nightstick. Taking her to the ground and arresting her? No problem there, but that cop blasting her in the head was a fucking cheap shot and you know it. Whether or not you think she “deserved” it is one thing. The fact remains that it did nothing to subdue her, which is what they should have been trying to do. It was a vicious, unwarranted attack.
What happened before that doesn’t really matter. If she was doing anything violent she would have been arrested immediately, so you can pretty much rule that out.