A Texas sheriff’s deputy attacked a videographer Wednesday, grinding his face into the asphalt, claiming to do so to keep him from getting hit by a car.
But the man’s live streamed video shows the San Jacinto sheriff’s deputy was only trying to teach him a lesson.
The victim is an auditor who runs the “Concerned citizens where is the constitution” YouTube channel where he posts his interactions with law enforcement while recording in public.
He was standing outside the Paradise Grill in Cold Springs after the restaurant had closed because four San Jacinto County sheriff’s patrol cars were parked outside with four deputies inside the restaurant.
The owners of the restaurant told him to leave so he stood at the edge of the parking lot which may or may not be part of the restaurant property but an image from Google Maps shows the only other alternative would be to stand in the street, which would also be illegal as well as unsafe.
And the deputy, who earlier identified himself as “Beltran,” claimed he was concerned for his safety, claiming the man had almost been struck by two cars but the video shows that was not true.
Deputy Beltran also accused him of being drunk, claiming he had smelled alcohol on his breath, but even if that were true, the man was showing no signs of impairment.
But like all cops, Beltran believes he has a unique insight to determine if people are drunk by just observing them, even if they are not stumbling or slurring. Not much different than they can claim you are “suspicious” because you are recording. It’s typical cop manipulation.
Beltran used all those excuses; the trespassing, the concern for his safety and the accusation of drunkness to pounce on him and grind his head into the asphalt, leaving the man with a serious laceration to his forehead which can be seen in the final frame of the video.
While he was getting arrested, the man blurted out the phone number to the San Jacinto Sheriff’s Office, 936-653-4367, and they have apparently been getting flooded with calls, according to commenters on YouTube where the video was posted.
It appears as if the videographer is still in jail because it does not appear as if he has been commenting on his video, which remains posted because he was live streaming.
“I’m going to see if I get fucked with on the way out of town,” the man said at the beginning of his video, which can be seen in its entirety here. A shortened edited video is posted above.
