'Death by Cop mauling' video

This was featured on CNN.com earlier today…

Trial ordered for 2 California police officers in beating death of homeless man

Thomas was beaten by police during the July 5, 2011, incident and died five days later, prosecutors say. The FBI is investigating civil rights violations in the case, as well.

Rackauckas has said that Thomas suffered brain injuries, facial fractures, rib fractures and extensive bruising and abrasions. The county coroner listed his manner of death as a homicide and said he died because he was unable to breathe after having his chest compressed.

Thanks to the vast Internet, the following is the surveillance camera video that is being used against the officers in this case.

The audio and video get better as the video plods along. The odd thing is, it’s obvious somebody was repositioning the camera as well as tweaking the audio as the incident unfolded.

I found the entire video interesting, but it turns physical just after the 14-minute mark iffin’ you want to skip the run-up and just watch someone being pounded to death.

You can clearly hear one of the cops claim "he's on something," which would explain the prolonged resistance a la super-human strength. But the story made no mention of any toxicology results just yet.

Back in the midnight shift era, I scrapped with a couple of different guys who were hopped up to the stratosphere on uber stimulants. Eyeballs about THIS wide, jumpy and easily agitated. It didn't go too well for them, but they did put on one helluva show before the eventual bloodletting, subsuquent arrests and rides to the emergency room.

Ugly stuff.

Later