My experience is more from the other side of such situations. After working over 20 years as a street patrol officer, I think it is safe to say I have “grabbed” someone by the arm hundreds if not thousands of times. Now, as I said before, “grabbed” can be interpreted as covering a wide variety of actions from the guy that gets jerked off his feet over the hood of the patrol car all the way down to the light grasp on the arm of the compliant person who I am escorting into the backseat. A goodly portion of those I have “grabbed” have attempted to pull their arm “free” (as OP says) – some have even done so successfully. A smaller portion have swung their “grasped” arm in an aggressive/assaultive manner. In my experience, a person who merely wants to “free” their arm (with no aggressive/assaultive demeanor) will generally take at least a half a step away from the person grabbing them, raise the arm no more than shoulder level, and swing the arm straight across their own torso – frequently accompanied by a twist of the torso in the same direction (AWAY from the grabber). So, even if the “grabbed” person is directly facing the grabber (unless the grabber is several inches shorter than the grabie – is that even a word?), any inadvertent physical contact would be no higher than chest level.
On the other hand, if the arm is swung up and out (away from the grabies body), that is more than an attempt to “free” the grasped arm. Typically, this type of move is accompanied by a step TOWARD the grabber and/or an extension of the swung arm toward the head/face of the grabber. That is an aggressive move designed to force the grabber to back away or suffer being struck – and get their glasses knocked off their face. I am not saying that such a movement might not be justified in some circumstances, just that it is more than a non-aggressive attempt to “free” the grasped arm.

