Teen in Mardi Gras arrest video speaks out

The teenager at the centre of police brutality claims believes he could have died during his violent arrest at the Mardi Gras parade.

An investigation has been launched into Jamie Jackson's treatment, after video of it went viral on the internet.

But in an exclusive interview with 7News, the 18-year-old says he has nothing but respect for the police.

Jamie Jackson was subdued, handcuffed, arrested and in distress in front of an angry Mardi Gras mob.

"It was so dangerous. It was just dumb," Jamie said.

"I didn't deserve to be treated that way, that's for sure."

A witness is heard yelling at police in the video posted online; “We just saw you whack his head against the ground, his blood is on the ground because of you!”

Police told the man who videoed the incident not to.

"What are you filming for?”

“Because I'm allowed to,” the man replied to the officer.

“No you're not," he said.

A police internal affairs investigation will determine if the force used by officers was excessive.

Eighteen-year-old Jamie says the amount of force that was used was ‘completely unnecessary’.

“It just got pretty heated and I'm just completely in shock about the whole thing, it could have been dealt with so much easier," he said.

He's also embarrassed by the attention, saying that he was just mucking around in the street and officers took it the wrong way.

"I completely just thought what's done is done, I'm just going to have to move on from it and then all of a sudden it's just plastered all over the media [it’s] just like a massive shock."

Senior police sources concede the vision doesn't look good, but they also say it needs to be in context of what happened beforehand, and what the cameras did not see.

"But we need to just wait and see, take a deep breath wait and see what our investigations show so we can take action which is commensurate with what we find out," Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Murdoch said.

Senior police sources have told 7News Jamie wasn't an angel on the night, and there was a reason why he was handcuffed.

What the video doesn’t reveal is why Jamie Jackson was arrested in the first place.

It will be alleged he threatened to kick a woman in the shins and was reprimanded for it, before screaming the worst of profanities at police.

As they arrested him, he allegedly kicked and punched officers.

"I have nothing but respect for police officers. They do their job, they make us feel safe. Without them where would we be?” Jamie asked.

“So I've got nothing bad to say about them but that one police officer that was just standing on me in the video treating me like a piece of meat, that was just wrong."

A spokesman for Sydney Mardi Gras said he'd like to think the damage can be repaired quickly.

"Providing of course that this gets addressed and we are asking for a full, open, transparent investigation," the co-chair of Mardi Gras Peter Urmson said.