"Listen to the Screams"

Do you think seven years of our political leaders hysterically defending torture as the only way to keep us safe might have something to do with the incidence of police brutality skyrocketing to Bull Connor levels?

A cell phone video shows San Jose police officers repeatedly using batons and a Taser gun on an unarmed San Jose State student, including at least one baton strike that appears to come after the man is handcuffed, as they took him into custody inside his home last month.

The video, made by one of the student's roommates without the knowledge of police, shows that force was used even though the suspect was on the ground, and apparently offering no physical threat to the officers. Several experts in police force said the video appears to document excessive — and possibly illegal — force by the officers. A police spokesman Friday said the department had opened a criminal investigation of the officers' conduct, after police officials viewed a copy of the recording.

The confrontation arose as Phuong Ho, a 20-year-old math major from Ho Chi Minh City, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting another of his roommates. He faces pending misdemeanor charges of exhibiting a deadly weapon and resisting arrest. Ho admits picking up a knife as he argued with a roommate. He was not armed when police arrived.

SNIP

Among the issues noted by the outside experts:

# Ho remains on the ground, moaning and crying, as he is repeatedly struck. He does not appear to offer significant resistance, suggesting the high level of force is not necessary.

# The officer most visible in the sequence stands for much of the time in a casual posture, at one point with his legs crossed. He seems to show no concern that the situation is potentially dangerous — raising additional questions about why force was being used.

# The final baton strike appears to occur after the handcuffs can be heard snapping onto Ho's wrists. That particularly troubled several outside experts.

Read the whole thing. Watch the video if you can stomach it - I couldn't.

Think it can't happen to you? Police everywhere now use excessive force routinely and automatically to punish anyone who so much as looks at them cross-eyed. President Smirky/Darth itself told them that only pre-emptive, overwhelming force can prevent catastrophe. American law enforcement is not about enforcing the law anymore; it's about torturing into screaming agony any miscreant, any suspect, any bystander.