Video footage of police beating unarmed student likened to Rodney King attack

[Honey]

A mobile phone video that shows police officers repeatedly battering an unarmed university student with batons and a Taser gun has sparked fury in the U.S.
The shocking footage shows one officer hitting a Vietnamese student Phuong Ho with a metal baton more than 10 times, including once over the head.

Another officer is seen striking the 20-year-old San Jose State Mathematics student with a Taser gun, in the video posted on the San Jose Mercury News website yesterday.

Violent attack: This grainy footage shows officers surrounding Vietnamese student Phuong Ho lying on the floor as he is beaten

The final baton strike in last month's incident appears to take place after handcuffs have been attached to Ho's wrists.
The sickening footage has prompted calls for a criminal investigation into the officers' conduct, a San Jose police spokesman said.

Watch the video here

Roger Clark, a police expert and a retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, lamented: 'It takes me back to the day I saw the Rodney King video on TV.'
The last baton strike ought to bring a felony (serious crime) charge, Clark added.
Officers arrested Ho, originally of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on suspicion of assaulting one of his roommates.
He was not armed when police arrived and he told the newspaper he didn't resist arrest.

Victim: Vietnamese student Phuong Ho was hit with a metal baton more than 10 times, including once over the head

The confrontation began on September 3 when Ho's roommate, Jeremy Suftin, put soap on Ho's steak.

The two scuffled, and Ho picked up a steak knife, saying that in his home country he would have killed Suftin for doing what he did. Suftin called police and four officers responded.
Officer Kenneth Siegel encountered Ho in the hallway, but couldn't understand the student's accent, police reports said.
Ho then ignored a police command to stand still, reports said.
When Ho tried to follow Siegel into his room, officer Steven Payne Jr. moved to handcuff Ho.

Payne wrote in his report that he pushed Ho into a wall and then forced him to the floor when Ho resisted being handcuffed.
Ho said his glasses fell off, and as he went to pick them up, the officers struck him.
Another one of Ho's roommates, Dimitri Masouris, captured the events on his cell phone. Ho can be heard on the video moaning and crying as he's struck.
Masouris said he considered the police response excessive. He sold the tape to San Jose lawyer Duyen Hoang Nguyen, who is representing Ho.
The Mercury News showed the video to Daniel Katz, San Jose's assistant police chief.
The department is taking the matter very seriously, Katz said.
Several other police experts said the video raises serious concerns.
'Once he is handcuffed, then he is helpless,' said Frank Jordan, a former San Francisco police chief and mayor.
'If you can show that his hands are behind his back, and he is handcuffed, that is where you get brutality. That would be excessive force.'
Siegel and Payne didn't respond to written requests for comment sent through department officials and their union.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1222836/Video-footage-police-beating-unarmed-Vietnamese-student-likened-Rodney-King-attack.html#ixzz0V1ALafYU

[buttmunch]

Why do cops keep beating on people when there is all this technology about? How thick are they?