If it weren't for the Arabic-language chyron, you might have trouble telling whether this video—in which riot-gear police beat protesters with batons and drag a protester by the hair through the streets—was shot in Cairo or on a University of California campus. Even the background graffiti is written in American!

To be clear, it's a video taken from today's demonstration in Tahrir Square. The strangest scene comes at :58, when a cop who's beating a protester lying on the ground hands his baton over to some guy dressed in black, who gets his own whack in before returning the baton. How thoughtful of that police officer! Maybe he has some pepper spray he can lend to a passerby who wants to play "University of California Cop" for a while.

According to the BBC, the death toll from this weekend's pro-democracy protests has climbed to nine, while AFP says 11. Nearly 1,000 people have been injured during the crackdown, which has involved the use of tear gas (how Oaklandy) and rubber bullets (just like in Oakland and Denver!). In addition to attacking the protesters, police have also burned down their tents.

"The violence ... showed us that [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak is still in power," one protester, Ahmed Hani, told the Associated Press news agency.

[YouTube]