Surveillance video posted to YouTube shows a Mt. Edgecumbe High School student stripped to his underwear and restrained by three Sitka Police Department officers while one shocks him point-blank with a Taser at least 10 times, leaving him crumpled and limp on a holding cell mat.
One officer can then be heard yelling that the teenager is a "douchebag" as he leaves the cell.
Since the video of the incident from Sept. 6, 2014, was posted last week, it has been viewed more than 11,000 times, with hundreds of people sharing it on Facebook.
Some of the viewers have called it a disturbing example of excessive use of force by police against Franklin Hoogendorn, an Alaska Native who was attending Sitka's celebrated Mt. Edgecumbe boarding school at the time.
"I just don't understand and see what brought them to do that to me," said Hoogendorn in a phone interview from his home in Koyuk, a Bering Strait village of 300 people.
"I would be the first to admit that it doesn't look good," said Sitka Police Chief Sheldon Schmitt.
But, Schmitt says, he stands by his officers' actions.
The video doesn't tell the whole story of what happened between officers and the teenager being arrested on disorderly conduct and underage drinking charges, then an 18-year-old high school wrestler, he said.
What's not visible on the video is that the teenager had already tried to fight with police in the street and was being "noncompliant" in the holding cell, Schmitt said.
The department investigated and found the three officers involved -- including one who was cleared of culpability for his involvement with an in-custody death of a New Mexico man the year before -- did not use excessive force, said Schmitt.
Still, the video and resulting conversation has brought an already fraught national discussion about policing and proper use of force to Sitka.
Video becomes public
Surveillance cameras record countless hours of police interactions with suspects behind closed doors, in interview rooms and holding cells.
But it is rare for such videos to become public.
The video of police restraining Hoogendorn became public when a Sitka middle school teacher posted it online Oct. 29.
Hoogendorn said his attorney gave him the surveillance footage of his arrest, which was evidence in the disorderly conduct and minor consuming alcohol charges police were arresting him for.
Then Hoogendorn gave it to Alexander Allison, a longtime Sitka middle school teacher, former port commissioner and charter boat captain, who has been waging a public campaign against what he sees as police overuse of force in Sitka.
Allison said he's been anguished about whether to air his complaints on the Internet but was compelled by an experience he had earlier this year in which he says he was handcuffed and detained overnight in a jail cell by Sitka police after he tried to observe a DUI investigation.
He posted a video of the beginning of that incident along with a statement on the YouTube channel.
While Allison is a teacher, he's never had Hoogendorn as a student. Other students of Allison's told him about what had happened to the teenager.
"I find what happened to myself and Franklin repugnant and unjustifiable and blatantly in violation of our constitutional rights," Allison said. "That these sort of things could happen to a student breaks my heart. There was no way for me to say nothing."
'Put your hands behind your back'
The incident started when two police officers encountered Hoogendorn walking down the street apparently drunk with a Styrofoam container of takeout food he threw on the sidewalk, according to a criminal complaint filed at the time.
He then ran into a bar.
When officers approached him, he tried to fight with them and was arrested, according to the complaint.
The video, captured by surveillance cameras at the police station, begins with officers leading what appears to be a handcuffed Hoogendorn to a windowless holding cell.
The officers undress an unsteady-on-his-feet Hoogendorn, uncuffing him to take his sweatshirt and pants off.
They were trying to "dress him down" into a jail jumpsuit, standard procedure at the Sitka jail, but apparently abandoned the effort, Schmitt said.
Then, they yell for Hoogendorn to lay down on the mat and put his hands behind his back. A struggle ensues.
With one officer sitting on his back, another warns "put your hands behind your back ... or I'm getting the Taser."
Then an officer fires the Taser directly on Hoogendorn's bare skin, a technique called "drive stunning," according to a motion filed with the court by Hoogendorn's attorney. He screams and writhes while it's happening.
The officers were trying to get Hoogendorn to follow orders through "pain compliance" techniques, said Schmitt. It's not entirely clear what they were trying to accomplish.
A motion filed by Hoogendorn's public defender, Jude Pate, says Hoogendorn was shocked up to a dozen times.
"They just kept on Tasing me," Hoogendorn said in the interview Monday.
Eventually, his legs are wrenched backward in a hog-tie position and he can be seen sprawled face down on the mat, floppy and unresponsive.
Finally, the video ends with the door to the cell slamming. Someone can be heard exclaiming "what a douchebag!"
"The whole thing is a series of bad decisions," Schmitt said. "He's underage and he's drunk and he's in the middle of the street. He decides to run in the bar. He decides to fight with police officers. Police officers bring him back to the jail. They decide to Tase him."
Sitka police have carried Tasers for about a decade, said Schmitt. Force is supposed to be used sparingly.
In this situation, the use of the Taser was "within policy" but probably not the most effective route, according to the chief.
"It doesn't tend to gain compliance," Schmitt said. "It looks like it pisses him off."
The officers involved weren't disciplined for the incident, but Schmitt said he had a discussion with them about better ways to approach such a situation.
"They probably could have done things differently. They could have just left him. He's not complying, just let him take off the clothes."
Officer's history in New Mexico
The officer doing the Tasering was Jonathan Kelton.
He'd been hired by the Sitka Police Department in 2013, just months after he was involved in the death of a New Mexico man who died during an encounter with police.
In that case, officers in Roswell, New Mexico, were called to a scene where a 34-year-old named Cody Towler was found "beating on a trash can with a baton," according to the Roswell Daily Record newspaper. He died shortly after a struggle with officers.
The autopsy report found that Towler had high levels of methamphetamine in his system and had been Tased at least five times, including at least twice by Kelton.
His death was officially blamed on "excited delirium," a controversial syndrome in which people high on drugs or mentally ill die suddenly in police custody.
The death was classified by the medical examiner as a homicide, according to the Roswell news account of the case. No charges were filed against the officers involved.
The Sitka department knew about Kelton's history when he was hired.
"(Kelton) was involved in an unfortunate incident but he didn't do anything wrong," Schmitt said. "He was considered a good officer by their department and a good officer by us."
In January, Sitka public defender Jude Pate, Hoogendorn's attorney on the disorderly conduct and alcohol charges, filed a motion asking for Kelton's personnel files from New Mexico, saying the officer's history showed a pattern of excessive use of force.
"Officer Kelton ... participated in the homicide of an in-custody defendant under circumstances disturbingly similar to those in Mr. Hoogendorn's case," wrote Pate.
Two months later, the district attorney dismissed all the charges against Hoogendorn.
It's not clear why. The supervising district attorney for Sitka was not available Monday or Tuesday to answer questions about why the charges were dropped.
Kelton is no longer a police officer in Sitka.
He left the police force on Sept. 19 for a job in Mississippi. His departure had nothing to do with the Hoogendorn incident, Schmitt said.
Fallout in a small community
In a Southeast Alaska community of fewer than 10,000 people, policing is personal.
Already, the video has become the object of intense discussion and scrutiny on Sitka-centric Facebook groups. Putting it on YouTube throws the door open to a vast Internet worth of scrutiny.
And that's the point, said Allison.
"There are some police officers in town who are very good police officers. There are some who are dangerous," he said.
Police are increasingly being judged by videos taken of stressful, fluid situations, said Schmitt.
"We're asked to do difficult jobs. It's tough to look at one little thing out of context and go, 'Gee, they should have done that differently.' Put yourself in that position some time," he said.
Still, he favors body cameras, which the department is in the process of buying and implementing.
Both Schmitt and Allison agree they hope the video stokes "community dialogue" about relations between police and citizens in Sitka.
"We're not a large community. It's not anonymous. This isn't Ferguson. My door is open," Schmitt said.
Hoogendorn left Mt. Edgecumbe soon after the incident but graduated.
This week he was at home in Koyuk, hoping to hunt caribou. Lots of people have been contacting him since the video became public, he said.
Watching the video of his arrest was "really intense," he said.
"I hope something good can come of it."