A viral video out of France shows police brutally beating a woman with a baton and spraying tear gas in her face in a violent arrest that has gotten upwards of a million views on YouTube and sparked nationwide outrage in France..
The video, which comes from Joué-lès-Tours in central France, shows one cop attempting to subdue a man accused of drunk driving while another grapples with a female passenger. The cop is then seen hitting the woman with his baton and later spraying tear gas in her face.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the incident.
HuffPost Live's Ahmed Shihab-Eldin reports on the video, which has prompted a strong reaction on social media, with users divide between outrage and support for the police. Below are translations of just two polarized examples:
"Police officers hit a woman, then leave her handcuffed on the ground. Shameful, shocking, revolting!"
"[They] refuse to comply and bite police officer. Then they dare to say, 'Shame on the French police.' I must be dreaming!"
#bavure refus d'optempérer face aux forces de l'ordre et mord un policier non mais je rêve et ça parle de honte à la police Française !
-- solis (@GabySolis59) August 20, 2013