Armed officer filmed kicking man inclined on the bottom of Manchester Airport; shocked onlookers threatened with Tasers.
An armed British police officer has been filmed kicking a person within the head as he lay on the bottom in an incident that has been denounced for example of police brutality.
Better Manchester Police confirmed that the assault on the person happened at Manchester Airport on Tuesday.
In a video broadly shared on-line, armed police could be seen pointing Tasers at a person mendacity on the bottom, earlier than one officer begins kicks after which stamps the person within the head.
An older lady makes an attempt to guard the person, who continues to stay on the bottom, as not one of the different officers try to assist the person or reprimand the officer.
As a substitute, the opposite officers level their Tasers at a crowd of outraged onlookers shouting at them to cease. One other man along with his palms on his head is then kicked and punched by the identical police officer as he seems to observe directions to additionally get on the bottom.
Essentially the most brutal of police assaults on two males. Not in Tel Aviv. In Manchester airport
They’re tasered. Kicked within the head. Stamped on the pinnacle. Hit on the pinnacle with a taser gun after which a knee is dropped into their kidneys
That is thuggery in uniformspic.twitter.com/srZO8zEWzs
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) July 24, 2024
In a press release launched on Wednesday, Better Manchester Police mentioned that the incident had taken place after three officers had been assaulted throughout an arrest.
“One feminine officer suffered a damaged nostril and the opposite officers had been pressured to the bottom and suffered accidents which required hospital remedy,” a press release from Assistant Chief Constable Wasim Chaudhry mentioned.
The assertion mentioned {that a} police officer had been “faraway from operational duties” and that the pressure was “making a voluntary referral of our policing response to the Unbiased Workplace of Police Conduct”.
It acknowledged that the occasion was “really surprising” and an “uncommon prevalence and one which we perceive creates alarm”, however didn’t reprimand the officer for his conduct.
One eyewitness, Amir Minhas, advised the BBC {that a} man in his 20s had been approached by police and advised that he was needed, earlier than he was pinned towards a wall. One other man then started throwing punches earlier than being tasered and falling to the ground. “That’s when the policeman kicked him,” Minhas mentioned.
‘Not Tel Aviv’
The incident has been met with disbelief from many quarters, with the UK’s minister answerable for policing, Diana Johnson, requesting a “full replace from Better Manchester Police”.
Others have used stronger language. British commerce unionist Howard Beckett described the assault as “essentially the most brutal of police assaults on two males”.
“Not in Tel Aviv. In Manchester Airport,” he wrote on social media, earlier than including that it was “thuggery in uniforms”.
Claudia Webbe, a former member of parliament, described the assault as “a gang of serving law enforcement officials engaged in brutal violence”.
“They name this policing by consent, constructing belief and confidence,” she added. “The victims are Muslim. Our silence ensures police impunity. We can’t be silent or silenced.”
In the meantime, a former chief prosecutor, Nasir Afzal, mentioned that he noticed “no justification for the kick within the head” and the remainder of the assault, and native MP Afzal Khan described the incident as one the place police “seem to make use of extreme pressure towards an unarmed civilian”.
Demonstrators have deliberate a protest towards the assault on Thursday exterior the workplace of the mayor of Better Manchester, Andy Burnham, denouncing the police as “racist” for the assault.
Burnham has but to touch upon the incident.
