One of the young men seen in a YouTube video allegedly showing Victoria, B.C., police officers using excessive force says he was "brutalized" by police.
The video showing police breaking up a fight outside a downtown bar last weekend, viewed by hundreds of thousands of people on the video sharing website, is now the subject of an internal investigation by Vancouver police.
An officer can be seen kicking a couple of the people being arrested.
Tyler Archer, 19, says he was assaulted twice that night -- once by strangers who attacked him, and then by police.
"My ribs are very sore and my nose feels broken but other than that it's just more degrading," he told CTV News.
"I feel like I'm pretty much worthless from everybody seeing that video of me getting booted and brutalized by the police."
Archer and his lawyer, Richard Neary, say this is a clear example of excessive use of force by police.
"It's shocking, it's gratuitous and it's hard to believe that it occurred. It's really something that takes your breath away," Neary said.
Archer is considering legal options against the police, but nothing has been filed.
Victoria Police Chief Jamie Graham said that two of his officers were trying to stop a fight outside a bar when they were caught on video kicking two suspects.
He downplayed suggestions his officers were unnecessarily aggressive.
"I know many officers that have looked at [the video] and they're not shocked at all. This is use of force. This is what we're trained to do," Graham said at a press conference earlier this week.
He says the key question to be answered is whether the force used by the officers was excessive, and that will be determined by an internal investigation that is being overseen by the B.C. Police Complaints Commission.
Watch CTV News at Six for a full report from Jim Beatty
