WATCH: Violent Arrest Caught on Tape During Gay Pride
BY Lucas Grindley
March 06 2013 2:35 AM ET
A police officer caught on video grabbing a party-goer by the throat in Australia during a gay pride event and then violently throwing him onto the pavement has triggered international outrage.
The YouTube video, recorded during Sydney's 2013 Mardi Gras, is titled "Police Brutality," but The Guardian reports that officials claim 18-year-old Jamie Jackson resisted arrest, used offensive language and assaulted a police officer.
None of that appears in the video, which begins just after witnesses say an officer smashed Jackson's head on the ground and left him bleeding and crying out that he'd done nothing wrong.
Another officer on the tape repeatedly orders whoever is doing the recording to stop, though he refuses.
Event organizers issued a statement calling the footage "quite distressing" and described it as "excessive force." They are calling for "a transparent investigation into this issue and into the numerous complaints received over the course of the festival."
Watch the video below.
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