Shocking (but not surprising; those aren’t the same thing) video of a four year old assault on a young man in custody by three Seabrook, New Hampshire police officers has resulted in the officers being placed on leave pending an investigation. The man was arrested for drunk driving and the officers slammed his head into a wall and pepper sprayed him while smiling and laughing. Here’s the video:

The local CBS affiliate reports:

Disturbing video has emerged on YouTube showing a police officer throwing a teenager against a wall at the Seabrook Police Department following an arrest. “The chief and I were both made aware of it when it was put onto YouTube yesterday,” said Seabrook Town Manager William Manzi III. “And the chief tells me he had no knowledge of the existence of the tape.”

But the victim in this case says in the text that accompanies the video that “there was no lawsuit made due to the fact I found a lawyer and the lawyer took the tapes and disappeared for 2 years.” Which means his lawyer had to make a request to the department to get the video and inform them that there was a potential lawsuit on the way. And that means the department has known about this for at least two years. So why did it take this tape going public for them to do an investigation? I think the answer is obvious. The police protect their own, always and in every case, until it becomes impossible for them to do so. Brutality is accepted and excused.

These officers shouldn’t just be fired, they should be charged with assault (at least the one who actually slams him into the wall). It would be assault if there were no badges on their chest and it’s still assault with them.