St. Louis police investigating video showing cop hitting man

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • Police are investigating an incident at a St. Louis gas station after a Youtube video appearing to show a police officer beating a man with his baton was posted online.

The video shows an encounter between an officer and a man near a car at a Shell station at 1815 Arsenal Street at Interstate 55 early on New Year's Day. The officer appears to push the man to the ground, hit him with his baton seven times, use pepper spray on him, and then handcuffs the man and walks him toward the gas station, which contains a police substation.

It's unclear how the incident started and the man is not visible for portions of the video.

"While all of the circumstances of the incident are not known, what is seen on the video is extremely disturbing to us," St. Louis police said in a statement. "Force is to be used only when absolutely necessary and this department takes the use of force very seriously."

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_e28e3c02-1829-11e0-8561-00127992bc8b.html?mode=story

---

more at link. Also link to the video here
http://www.stltoday.com/youtube_09944950-1829-11e0-9c2c-00127992bc8b.html


Wonder how they are going to spin this one?

A clear case of resisting arrest.

I wonder if the cop's name is Brian.

Using his face and the back of his head, the suspect assaulted the baton violently!

If patterns hold true... they'll be investigating the citizen for any hair out of full and perfect compliance with the entire local, state, and federal code, as a warning to others: don't film the cops, they are allowed to do what they please and you may not protest.

... of the police - both during the incident and after the incident (fearing retribution from the police for coming forward).

The censorship has gotten out of control.

I wonder why they did that? Happened pretty fast too. Now, I wish I would have downloaded it.

It's back up on YouTube and also at the Post-Dispatch.

the cop just went crazy on him for mouthing off. I hope the cop loses his badge.