There are a lot of details yet to come out, but I am slightly skeptical that this story indicates wrongdoing on the part of the police. There is a YouTube video (violence, profanity) of an LAPD arrest where the cops hold a suspect down and hit him in the face. The “victim” is a known gang member. (Disclosure: My father is a retired police officer.)

In the video, the officer throwing the punches says “let go of me” several times, though it’s unclear how the criminal is grabbing him. The arrestee is possibly biting the leg the officer is using to hold him down. The criminal says “I can’t breathe” repeatedly (amusingly, indicating he can).

At first glance it does look pretty wanton and brutal, but the “let go of me”s and the fact it happened in broad daylight and on camera lead me to think the video doesn’t show the whole story. The article reveals, in addition, that (A) the suspect ran at first, (B) the officers described facial blows in their report, indicating they were not afraid of consequences and (C) “A Superior Court commissioner who viewed the video nearly two months ago and heard the officers’ testimony has already found that their conduct was ‘more than reasonable’ under the circumstances because Cardenas was resisting.”

And like most police brutality videos, the camera clip begins after the entire pursuit and takedown. For example, Rodney King led cops on a 100 mph chase, ran afterwards, got tasered and kept charging at officers. When they finally got him down, they kept hitting him while he feebly tried to get up — perfectly within the realm of normal human reaction, though unnecessarily harsh and probably in violation of police procedure. The camera, of course, went on once he was down and helpless and they were still kicking.

Similarly, in California, Donovan Jackson wouldn’t deny grabbing an officer’s testicles before being slammed into a car and punched in the face while handcuffed. Again, the tape went on right as he was getting thrown against the car.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.