Officers of your friendly neighborhood Houston Police Department repeatedly punched and kicked an unresisting teenager after he was struck by a police vehicle and lay helplessly on the ground in a prone position. The video has recently been released (warning: violent graphic images):

The Houston Mayor, Police Chief and Houston Police Department (and a Federal Judge) tried to prevent release of the video which is far worse than the Rodney King beating. The cops involved were charged with misdemeanor offenses, not for felony assault charges. More from Alternet about this atrocity.

According to reports, The officers who beat Holley have only been charged with misdemeanors, and many of the officers involved are still working as police officers in Houston. Color of Change is … asking people to call on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Chad Holley’s brutal beating, and the culture that led to it. But Color of Change makes the larger point that this “beating is bigger than just the actions of the four officers most responsible — Houston Police Department (HPD) has a problem. Misbehavior is rampant among Houston police, with more than 14,000 complaints against HPD officers over the last six years — half of which were upheld. But the real amount of misconduct is likely to be much greater, with much of it not being investigated. Because black residents distrust the process — and even fear retaliation due to holes in the process — many don’t ever file complaints against police officers.” The Houston police has portrayed Holley’s beating as an isolated incident. But as the Color of Change analysts suggest, “that’s hard to believe if you watch the video of the incident. Officers attacked Holley simultaneously and without hesitation, as if this kind of violence is routine. There were no fewer than a dozen officers on the scene during the beating, yet HPD leaders didn’t learn of the assault until the security video was mailed to the chief of police and District Attorney — all the officers on the scene were silent until then, willing participants in a cover-up.”

This happens every day in the US of A. And not just in Houston. Even in the “Liberal” city of Seattle, a policeman, who was determined by an official inquest to have unjustifiably fired four shots killing a Native American woodcarver, was not prosecuted by the District attorney. The police officer had fired four shots seven seconds after getting out of his car to confront the man, John T Williams who was killed instantly though the knife he was carrying was folded closed.

Here is the video webcam from the officer’s patrol car which doesn’t show the shooting but does show the time (seven seconds) from the moment the officer got out of his car until he killed Mr. Williams with four shots fired in rapid succession:

The officer claimed Williams had turned on him with an open knife and made threatening gestures, yet the official autopsy report demonstrated that Williams was shot in the side, refuting the officer’s testimony. The Chief Medical Examiner and his associate listed the death as a homicide. Here’s the report from the Seattle Times:

Williams had been standing and facing north when he was struck by the shots, Ford said, citing witness accounts. Birk had approached Williams from the side, in an east-to-west direction, stopping just to the east of Williams, Ford said. Williams was shot once in the right chest, with an exit wound in his left armpit, according to the autopsy report. A second shot entered the right side of Williams’ chin, with an exit wound on the left side of his chin, the report said. Williams was shot a third time in his upper right arm, the report said. The round exited the arm and then entered and exited his chest, according to the report. A fourth shot struck Williams’ right forearm, exiting through the upper arm, the report said. […] The autopsy report also noted that a pair of headphones attached to an AM-FM radio were found with Williams’ body, Ford said. The report didn’t specify where the headphones were retrieved, Ford said. Williams’ family has said he probably didn’t even hear the officer command him to drop the knife because he was deaf in one ear and wearing headphones.

No surprise police brutality is disproportionately aimed at minorities.

On its web site, [Amnesty International] says “Police brutality and use of excessive force has been one of the central themes of (AI’s) campaign on human rights violations in the USA,” launched in October 1998. In its “United States of America: Rights for All Index,” it documented systematic patterns of abuse across America, including “police beatings, unjustified shootings and the use of dangerous restraint techniques to subdue suspects.” Yet little is done to monitor or constrain it, evidence showing that “racial and ethnic minorities were disproportionately” harmed by harassment, verbal and physical abuse, false arrests, and in the case of West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, shot at 41 times by four New York policemen, struck 19 times and killed while he stood in the vestibule of his apartment building, unarmed and nonviolent, victimized by police brutality. Nationwide, driving while black has been criminalized, racial profiling used for traffic stops and searches for suspected drugs or other reasons, the practice is especially common in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Texas. AI cited numerous incidents, including beatings and “questionable” shootings, usually found to be unjustified, yet cops most often absolved. Although most US police departments stipulate that officers should only use deadly force when their lives, or others, are endangered, dozens of cases show they do it indiscriminately, at most being “mildly disciplined” even if guilty of serious misconduct.

And thus it does not no surprise me that the vicious officers who relentlessly beat and kicked Ca=had Holly were charged only with misdemeanors and are still patrolling the streets of Houston. Nor am I surprised that Officer Birk of Seattle was never charges with any crime for his unjustified shooting of a Native American woodcarver, who was peacefully walking down a street while carrying a piece of wood and a closed knife, seven seconds after getting out of his car to confront the murdered man for no reason I can explain other than simple racism.

This is our America after all.