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The posting of the footage follows weeks of protests across
the country over recent cases of police violence toward unarmed
black men, including one in which a New York City man died after
an officer placed him in a banned chokehold.
In the eight-minute video posted on YouTube on Wednesday, a
plainclothes white officer can be seen rushing up to several
uniformed officers struggling to handcuff a black youth and
apparently striking him at least twice. Police said the suspect
is 16 years old.
Several bystanders, including the person filming the
altercation, yell at the officer to stop. The footage then shows
a second person, who onlookers tell police is a 12-year-old boy,
being handcuffed.
As the boys are led away to patrol vehicles, one can be heard
asking the officers: "What did we do? Can I hear what we did?"
The boys were being arrested on suspicion of assaulting someone
and using a cane in the attack, police said.
Police did not say when the arrests occurred but the person who
posted the video footage said they happened on Wednesday.
Police said that a review by the Internal Affairs Bureau into
the allegations was ongoing.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Additional reporting by Curtis
Skinner; Editing by Richard Chang)
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