Police beating of woman goes viral, rekindles images of Rodney King

Warning: This video contains disturbing imagery.

"This is not just jabs, they are hooks. Those are lights-out punches. Those aren't like taps. You see it, you heard it. It was like 'thump, thump, thump' and then you see her head bouncing 'bam, bam' on the concrete. Then you hear her screaming, 'No, don't, stop.' Then you even—at the end where she has her hands up like this—when it's clear there is no more resistance, he takes another four or five shots."

That's how motorist David Diaz described the incident he recorded with his phone of a homeless African American woman being beaten by a white California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer alongside a Southern California highway.

The two-minute recording—which has generated millions of hits on YouTube and elsewhere—has prompted protests seeking justice, politicians demanding a federal inquiry, threats of lawsuits, and outrage against the CHP. The reaction virtually aligns with what happened in the immediate aftermath of the taped beating of Rodney King in 1991, when King's attack by Los Angeles Police Department officers went viral via a different means: the television.

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