This police officer’s overreaction is shocking

The 15-year-old is screaming and in his rage, he knocks over a trash can in his group home.

Police are called and what happens next ... well, it would be unbelievable if I hadn’t seen the video.

Add to that a few more “uns.” Unacceptable. Unimaginable. Unspeakable.

Except, of course, we must speak of it when a police officer becomes nothing better than a bully with a badge.

The incident occurred on Sept. 26 when a Pima County sheriff’s deputy was called to a group home on a report that a teen resident had knocked over a trash can and verbally threatened a staffer.

The deputy, Manuel Van Santen, arrives and proceeds to ... make things worse.

The cellphone video, taken by another resident, begins with Deputy Van Santen holding 15-year-old Immanuel on the ground in the kitchen while telling him to calm down as the boy gets increasing upset. When he loosens his grip, the boy tries to break free and the deputy wrestles him back to the ground, pressing him into the floor.

I should mention here that Immanuel, who is African American, is a quadruple amputee. He has no legs and his arms are amputated well above the elbows. He was shirtless and thus it was clear he had no weapon, though given that he has no hands it seems unlikely he could employ one anyway.

Yet here is what looks to be a 180pound deputy, wrestling him to the ground and lying on top of him while the teen gets increasingly upset, almost panicky as he repeatedly yells, “Get the f--k off me.”

Eventually, the teen goes quiet and Van Santen lets him up, asking him what his problem is and why he kept moving. Immanuel insists he doesn’t have a problem and asks why he’s being yelled at. The officer gets angry, bending down over the teen and, while inches from his face, yelling, “I will raise my voice to you whenever the f--k I want, man.”

A nearby 16-year-old named C.J. who is across the room calmly intervenes, saying “Hey, you asked him a question and he answered.”

Van Santen’s response was to dial it up another notch. “Shut the hell up,” he tells C.J. “Are you involved in this?” He then orders the kid to leave the room.

“I’m eating my cereal, I’m not allowed in my room,” the boy, who is also African American, calmly replies.

The deputy, still in his wraparound sunglasses, then marches over and starts screaming, “Am I talking to you? You shut the hell up. You have nothing to do with it, you understand? Am I your bitch?”

The exchange continues — with the kid calm and the deputy incensed —

ending with the deputy handcuffing the boy then slamming him into a wall.

Both teens were arrested and taken to jail.

The Pima County Public Defender’s Office released the video to KOLD last week. prompting the Pima County Sheriff ’s Office to launch a criminal investigation. Sheriff Mark Napier, in a statement, called the video “shocking, disturbing and personally saddening to watch.”

Van Santen has been put on paid administrative leave.

“Men with badges should not be acting this way,” Public Defender Joel Feinman told the Tucson TV station.

They certainly shouldn’t yet this is the second video I’ve seen in less than 10 days that shows some of them are. Last week, we watched Tempe police escalate a domestic violence call, ultimately shooting stun guns at a man who was simply holding his baby.

In that incident, an argument could at least be made that domestic violence calls are some of the most dangerous calls the police get and the officers didn’t know what they were facing.

But here, there was no danger to this deputy.

Immanuel, who is living in a group home after having been abandoned by his parents, was acting out. I imagine teens with no arms, no legs and no one who really gives a damn do that sometimes.

I know sheriff ’s deputies aren’t social workers but come on ....

You don’t have to be a cop to know that sometimes your best weapon isn’t an iron fist.

It’s a soft touch.