2015/02/10

MALMO — It is not often that we post cases of brutality from outside the United States, but this video is spreading like wildfire and it must be seen.

The incident took place in Malmo, Sweden and footage was uploaded online on February 9.

A child can be seen in the video screaming in agony as a large police officer straddles him.

According to our Swedish translators familiar with the event, the child was accused of “not paying for a subway ticket.”

The officer tackled the child to the ground and sat on top of him.

The cop can be seen pushing the child’s face into the pavement hard, covering his mouth and suffocating him.

The child was in such agony that his screams exhausted his vocal chords, turning his pleas for help into blood-curdling gasps.

At one point the child begins “death” praying — a prayer that is recited when people are about to die, according to our Swedish translators — meaning he believed he was dying.

We do not yet know what punishment, if any, the cop will receive for abusing this helpless child. But regardless of what it is, this is a clear case of trauma that will leave deep scars in the child’s psyche. We can only hope that as he gets older, he will recover from the pain and grow from it.

This serves as a reminder that police brutality is not just a few bad cops in America. It is a worldwide phenomenon. It is bound to occur whenever one group of people are given special costumes and told that they are superior to everyone else.

It will happen any time some people believe it’s OK to initiate violence against everybody else for political aims.

Cops are that group of people with the costumes and beliefs that it’s OK to initiate violence on people for political aims. This is the inherent nature of policing. This is authoritarianism.

If you are from Sweden and have any more details about this case, or if you can help with translation issues, please let us know in the comments.

We must warn you, the footage you are about to see is extremely disturbing. Once you hear this child screaming while the cop abuses him, it’s something you’ll never forget.