I half-posted it just because I'm half-suspecting that the story is going to gain national traction and I want to get credit for knowing about it before it was cool.
There's no way to know how open-and-shut the cases of police brutality are that don't get picked up by national media. So maybe this is one of many. But it feels sufficiently insane to garner attention.
It probably won't get national traction until they release the video, but at that point it very well might. The circumstances sound really egregious.
Local activists are fighting as hard and loudly as they possibly can to get it released. Hopefully it does, (although that must be grueling for the victim's family. I guess it's grueling either way.)
Also, I don't know if "inmate" is the right word if you haven't even been convicted of a crime. He was just being held because he couldn't afford bail.
This policy brief says "Many of California's jail inmates are unsentenced," so if you're in a correctional facility that might count as being an inmate whether sentenced or not. But I think you can also say "detainee" if you want a different word for this in particular.
It seems even more wrong to call him a California detainee.