Via Heather Shaw, here's a video clip of protesters and police in San Francisco recorded by Lisa Rein.

Toward the end, police are arresting someone they've got on the ground, around a cluster of toppled newspaper racks, and as a young woman moves toward a policeman he hits her with the baton.

Is this police brutality? I admit being taken aback by seeing a policeman in riot gear whacking an unarmed girl with a baton, but I'm not sure whether it was an inappropriate use of force. It certainly seems like he could simply push her back. I don't know.

Have a look at the video and let me know what you think.