The brutal aftermath of a violent confrontation last Friday between the police and a man in Salinas, Calif., was captured on camera, uploaded to YouTube and shows what the police chief there described as “horrific” and “inflammatory.”
The video, which was shot in a shaky minute-and-a-half, does not show what caused several officers to repeatedly strike the man, Jose Velasco, 28, with batons while he writhed on the pavement in the middle of the street.
Just a few feet away, several lanes of stopped traffic watched the scene unfold; the video appeared to be shot through the rolled-down window of one of those cars.