Remember that old saying, “Big Brother is Watching You?” Well, guess what Big Brother? It looks like someone’s watching you too. Smartphones and inexpensive hand-held video cameras are everywhere these days, and people are using them. Just like the private citizen who filmed this video of two police officers brutally beating an unarmed man.

The beating was allegedly brought on by a misunderstanding when a fellow officer fired his gun during a pit bull attack and bullet fragments struck two undercover officers on the scene. The first officer began repeatedly punching the handcuffed man in the head, and then his fellow officer joined in, punching and kicking the man on the ground. You can see in the video that two other officers, NYPD sergeants, stood in the background observing the incident, but did nothing to intervene.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was dismayed when he saw the video, stating, “We simply are never going to tolerate something like that.” The two officers who committed the act were suspended, while the two sergeants who witnessed the brutality were put on desk duty.

The victim, Jonathan Baez, and his lawyer are currently preparing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the New York Police Department.

Knowing that private citizens everywhere could easily record and expose incidents like this will probably not deter the behavior, at least not at first. There is hope that as more videos like this begin to surface, police officers who take advantage of their position of power will think twice about abusing those in their custody.