The San Francisco public defender will argue that an African American man charged with battery and resisting arrest in connection with a scuffle with BART officers had every right to fight police — a legal strategy that comes amid heightened scrutiny over police use of force and issues of race.

Videos of the July confrontation that were posted on social media showed one of the officers apparently punching a handcuffed Michael Smith, 22, whom police had detained in response to reports of an armed man trying to rob someone on a BART train. Prosecutors say the videos tell an incomplete story and that body cameras worn by police show that Smith was kicking and spitting at BART officers.

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Another potential barrier is that the judge would instruct jurors to consider the situation from the perspective of a reasonable, objective observer in Smith’s position, said Robert Weisberg, a Stanford University criminal law professor and co-director of the school’s Criminal Justice Center.

“You could make the argument (for a reasonable fear of excessive force), but it would be very, very hard,” Weisberg said. Defense attorneys seldom attempt it in court, he said.