The use of violence by police is once again under scrutiny in the UK, after an officer was suspended from all duties following a video of him kicking a young man in the face who had been restrained on the ground at Manchester Airport. The footage of the incident, which took place last Tuesday and resulted in four arrests and three police officers in hospital, was described by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) as “truly shocking”. The police itself turned itself over to the police conduct regulator the following day for an independent investigation.
After the incident was widely shared on social media, hundreds of people gathered on Wednesday evening in a protest outside the GMP station in the town of Rochdale (in the Greater Manchester area), where the man who was apparently attacked is believed to have come from, according to the MP representing the constituency in the British Parliament. The rally was peaceful, but those in attendance condemned the conduct of the GMP with chants of “shame on you” (‘Shame on you’in English) and allegations of “institutional racism” by the force. The victim of the police assault is a Muslim, according to British media.
The controversial video shows how a man immobilized with a Taser gun is kicked in the face by a uniformed officer while he is face down, and then his head is slammed on the ground. In addition, his colleagues can be heard appealing to witnesses not to approach, and another video also circulating on the internet shows how a woman who tries to intervene to reduce the tension is pulled away by the police.
GMP has already voluntarily made itself available to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) for a full investigation by the regulator. The body has already begun its investigation, aided by, according to the regional director, a “significant number” of videos recorded by cameras worn by officers on their own equipment and images taken through CCTV circuits.
In addition, the GMP has said in a statement that armed officers had previously suffered a “violent assault” when they tried to arrest a person after a fight at the airport in the English city. Up to three officers were punched, knocked to the ground and had to be taken to hospital, one of them with a broken nose, according to this version. Likewise, the Greater Manchester Police has stressed that, since the officers had weapons, “there was a clear risk that these would be taken from them”.
Knowing what’s happening outside means understanding what’s going to happen inside, so don’t miss anything.
KEEP READING
The mayor of Greater Manchester, Labour’s Andy Burnham, has already urged calm to avoid an escalation, although a protest rally was planned outside his office on Thursday. Not in vain has the incident rekindled, once again, the long-running debate about the extent of physical force by the police and accusations of structural racism and other questionable behaviour.
In recent years, successive surveys have shown a dramatic decline in British citizens’ confidence in their security forces, a trend that has been aggravated both by recent and past episodes, as well as by official reports that have condemned a culture of racism, misogyny and homophobia, as did the so-called Casey Report, a thorough review of the practices of the Metropolitan Police, the largest force in the country, published in 2023.
The GMP itself, the force currently under investigation, was criticised just a few days ago for its treatment of detainees, including in a report which denounced that officers used “their power recklessly, unnecessarily and sometimes illegally”, a criticism for which the chief commissioner had to apologise and which also led him to accept the recommendations of a commission that had been previously promoted following the alarms generated by the experience of women in custody.
Follow all the international information at Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.
