Ciudad Juárez police are investigating a video of a cop kicking a woman , the El Paso Times reports.
It’s not clear why the cop lashes out at the woman. In the video, the woman who gets kicked is surrounded by police. One cop lunges forward and kicks the woman in the stomach, then retreats – fists up in a boxing stance -- as the woman lashes out.
The other police try to break up the scuffle.
“You come here to defend her and you hit her,” the woman behind the camera says in Spanish.
“I’m not hitting her,” the cop says, obviously lying.
“It’s been recorded,” the woman behind the camera replies.
The Juárez police department’s Honor and Justice Commission is reviewing the video, according to the El Paso Times.
It’s not the worst scandal Juárez police have faced.
InSight Crime wrote in a report published in February that Juárez Police Chief Julián Leyzaola leads a force that routinely violates human rights -- using tactics including torture -- in order to boost arrests and bring the city, once among the most violent in the world, under control.
“The police cannot become too nice just yet,” one unnamed policeman told InSight Crime. “We are capturing killers. They don't think about human rights.”
Drug cartels have targeted police. The city’s entire police force of 2,500 had to leave their homes for safety last year after drug gangs killed five cops and threatened to kill one per day until Leyzaola resigned. More than 60 Juárez cops were killed in 2008 alone.
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