Apparently it's open season for this kind of behavior:

Two North Carolina police officers were placed on leave after at least one of them was shown on video throwing punches at a Black man who was taken to the ground after a foot pursuit.

A roughly 17-second video clip from a bystander's cellphone during the arrest Monday night in Kinston appears to show an officer standing over David Lee Bruton Jr. and throwing multiple punches while he's on the ground. The leader of the local chapter of the NAACP called the video disturbing and the man's mother said she's grateful he's alive.

Bolding mine, because it's a damn shame when simply surviving a police encounter is considered a blessing. A woman called 911 to say she had been threatened by somebody (not even sure if it was him), and I'm very curious to see what that threat actually entailed:

Kinston Police Chief Tim Dilday said during a news conference Tuesday that officers were called to a business after an employee tripped a silent alarm during a disturbance. A police report said a 911 caller told police that Bruton had threatened her, according to The Free Press newspaper in Kinston.

Officers were questioning people and had detained Bruton, 36, when he walked away and a foot chase ensued, Dilday said.

Dilday acknowledged that “punches were thrown” by at least one officer. He said that neither Bruton nor any officers were injured. He said two officers shown on the video were placed on leave pending an investigation.

Apparently we have learned nothing since the Rodney King incident, which happened thirty years ago.