Many videos, from Rodney King onwards, have captured the physical violence of police brutality. Rarer is a video that captures the psychological trauma of someone suffering a complete emotional breakdown in the face of police harassment.

The video below popped up on Facebook yesterday, and has already been shared thousands of times. It shows a man who, according to the person recording the video, was pulled off of a bus in the Bronx by police. He's seated on a low wall, and two cops are questioning him, while holding onto his chest. He protests that he has a bus ticket and an ID, and that he has been stopped for no reason. (The cameraman says this is true, for what it's worth.)

The man grows more and more upset that the police refuse to take their hands off him. Eventually, he tries to stand up. More cops appear, and he is tackled to the ground, protesting his innocence the entire time.

One can argue about what may have happened before the video began, or that the man should not have tried to stand up. But what is undeniable is the raw psychological pain of a man who just wanted to ride the bus, and has now been pushed past the limit of what he can tolerate. The video is painful to watch. How many incidents of police harassment had to happen in the past for this man to reach his breaking point on that Bronx sidewalk?

[There was a video here]

[Photo: AP]