Police misbehaving?

I always say that cameras and camcorders are everywhere in 2012.

Accounts for a spectator (or two or three or more) capturing this "take-down" of a man at Folly Beach (near Charleston), S.C. (After you've read this post, turn your sound up and click on the clip at the end.)

Were the police acting correctly here? Listen carefully and you'll hear some of the witnesses to this incident imploring the officers to lay off. "What'd he do, sir? That's not right. He's didn't do anything...," (or words to that effect) can be heard on the video.

By the way, police pepper-sprayed the man.

I've never been pepper-sprayed, but I'm told it's not pleasant.

Here's the first few graphs of a story, reprinted from the Post and Courier in Charleston, that appeared in today's Herald in Rock Hill:

YouTube video of Folly Beach arrest draws mixed reaction
By GLENN SMITH - gsmith@postandcourier.com
FOLLY BEACH --
Bystander video of Folly Beach police grappling with a man on a tourist-filled strand Sunday is racking up thousands of hits on YouTube and sparking debate about the lengths officers went to make an arrest.

The two-minute video, titled “Police doing wrong!?, Charleston, SC,” shows an officer straddling and pepper-spraying a struggling suspect as he tries to place the man in handcuffs. A large crowd surrounds them, shouting questions and taunts.

The man yells that he has done nothing wrong. “I am not fighting,” he shouts, as he continues to squirm. “I am not resisting.”

An image taken from a video of a Folly Beach police officer arresting an unruly man on the strand Sunday is racking up thousands of hits on YouTube and sparking debate about the lengths officers went to to apprehend the man.
The video appears to have been shot with a camera phone. Another video is said to exist, but the man filming that footage was shot with a Taser stun gun and arrested after he reportedly became combative with a Charleston County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said.

The video that surfaced on YouTube had received more than 4,600 viewings since it was uploaded Monday. The video drew a mix of responses, with some viewers alleging police brutality and others commending the officers. Several people said police exercised remarkable restraint given the unruliness and close proximity of the crowd.

“The crowd you hear yelling is a bunch of drunken fools with no respect for the law,” wrote one viewer who claimed to have been on the beach that day.”I just hope Folly Beach hires ten more officers like these two!”

Folly Beach Public Safety Director Dennis Brown said as a matter of procedure his department is conducting an internal investigation into the use of force during the episode. The officers involved in the incident remain on duty, including Cpl. Ryland Reed, the officer seen struggling with the suspect in the video.

Brown said the episode lasted some 20 minutes, and he has called on the person who shot the YouTube video to release the entire footage out of fairness to everyone involved.

Okay, here's the video: