Harrowing video shows New Jersey cops beating up pinned teen

Three cops in New Jersey were filmed repeatedly punching a teen in the face. They demand he rolls over onto his stomach while clearly pinning him on his back, as they beat him for "resisting".

Early Sunday morning, police attempted to restrain Cyprian Luke, 19, outside a convenience store. Video recorded by someone with Luke at the time shows the police pinning him down and punching him, with one officer putting his hand around Luke's throat.

The officers are seen on camera demanding Luke, who was on his back, roll onto his stomach, while one officer had his knee on Luke's stomach.

One of the cops involved, Sgt. Michael Pier, has a reputation for similar violence, with the city paying off an earlier victim after a 2015 incident.

Punishing prisoners for following orders, or for being unable to due to their restraints, is undeniably malicious. But consider too how bad at their jobs the officers must be to get themselves into the situation here, punching a teenager over and over in the face until he is blooded and semi-conscious. Surely even the authoritarians would prefer their agents of order be less chaotically incompetent?

The trend toward bare-knuckle violence is a reminder that you can't fix cops with cameras or use-of-weapons policies. They'll just find the least accountable method to do what they want, and then do it all the same.