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Sheriffs Gone Wild: Woman Punched in Face on Bus, Citizen Journalist Threatened

One day after Mayor Villaraigosa's emotional interview that described the horrors of watching his mother get beaten, a YouTube video has surfaced showing an L.A. County Sheriff punching a woman in the face on board a Metro Bus.  The officer did this knowingly in view of a man recording the incident on his camera phone and then proceeded to attempt to intimidate the man into handing over the phone.
1:56 PM PST on January 11, 2012

One day after Mayor Villaraigosa’s emotional interview that described the horrors of watching his mother get beaten, a YouTube video has surfaced showing an L.A. County Sheriff punching a woman in the face on board a Metro Bus.  The officer did this knowingly in view of a man recording the incident on his camera phone and then proceeded to attempt to intimidate the man into handing over the phone.

The woman is still in custody, undergoing a psychiatric screening after witnesses claimed she behaved aggressively and escalated the incident by shoving the police.  Witnesses also say that the woman had entered the bus a stop earlier and gave no signs of trouble before the Sheriffs entered the bus.

NBC L.A. has a full response by Sheriff Lee Baca.  At this point, Metro has yet to release a statement and The Source hasn’t mentioned the incident.  The officer’s conduct is under investigation.  Streetsblog will stay on top of this story moving forward.

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