Four people have been arrested by the Chicago police after a Facebook Live video showed a reportedly mentally disabled man being brutally beaten with the attackers shouting obscenities against President-elect Donald Trump.
According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, the video showed a group of people, including a woman, cutting the shirt off a white man with his mouth taped shut, cutting his hair off with a knife and pushing his head with foot and using profanity against Trump and "white people".
The police believes the victim had disappeared from his residence and then met someone he mistook for a friend, leading to his involvement with a group of people who also allegedly stole a van.
"Not long after police found the man on Tuesday, officers were called to the home in the 3300 block of West Lexington about 5:25 p.m., and found signs of a struggle and property damage that they linked to the man," the report said quoting the police.
"The man was taken to a local hospital for treatment and later discharged," the report noted.
The original video had been removed by Wednesday evening but it was re-posted widely by people on YouTube and other sites.
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"It's sickening. It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that. I have been a cop for 28 years and I have seen things that you should not see. It still amazes me how you still see things that you just should not," said Eddie Johnson, Superintendent, Chicago Police.
Police is questioning the four accused and has taken videotaped statements from them.