to think that dragging a disabled man out of his wheelchair is appalling behaviour?

[lowrib]

Protester Jody McIntyre - who has cerebral palsy - being pulled from his wheelchair onto the road by police at the recent protest.

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Disgusting behaviour.

It is difficult to tell what the protester was doing from the footage. Disabled people can break the law too, you know.

scurry

No suprise to me at all, a good few of the Police are just thugs in uniforms. I doubt any action will be taken though.

Still at least the Police managed not to kill anyone at this demo although they gave it a good go with Alfie.

YANBU - appalling! The policeman responsible was finally dragged away by his colleagues, but they could have stepped in earlier rather than standing and watching.

Jody McIntyre was dragged out of his wheelchair earlier in the day as well, and police told him to go home or he'd get hurt

It's why I don't go on protests! I would be terrified of that happening. Just being made to sit on a hard surface, eg the road, a hard chair on a police cell, instead of a nice soft wheelchair would have me in agony in quite a short time and I doubt they'd pay much attention to my protestations. It's just not worth it to me.
I feel appalled on his behalf. Disabled people can break the law, but even someone who breaks the law should be treated with dignity and treated in a way that makes them really vulnerable.

also with this f*king awful govt giving the green light for water cannon (what next rubber bullets) the police will feel even more entitled to act in this way.

I find teh met commissioner rather sinister tbh.

And the whole way this is moving completely depressing.

There's no suggestion he broke the law at all! Awful attitude to immediately blame the victim in order to excuse police behaviour.

and alarming.

Why else would someone be removed from the highway?

I don't get the "disabled people can do no wrong" attitude. Very insulting.

If he was breaking the law, he could have been arrested. Which would not require being dragged from his wheelchair onto the road.

And if he wasn't breaking the law, WTF?

At the end of that clip it looks as if one police officer(or maybe two) is actually dragging another police officer (the one who had been dragging the disabled man?) away.

I think the verbal reaction of bystanders says it all.

Well, short of him having a gun Scurry there is no way it is acceptable to tip that guy out of his wheelchair.

He's in a chair FFS. The cops are really pissed with what he's doing, they can go behind him and pull him back. I am aware that disabled people can break the law but in a demo situation there isn't a lot he can do that can't be dealt with in a manner that doesn't involve laying him out on the ground. Helpless.

Absolutely disgusting behaviour by the police.

I agree with ThisIsANiceCage

He admits he was asked to move and he shook his head no

I don't think anyone is saying that disabled people can do no wrong. I think they are saying that you shouldn't drag a disabled person out of his/her wheelchair. A subtle and nuanced difference but a difference nonetheless.

Bathbuns, that is quite on of the saddest posts I have ever read here. That you feel you cannot protest in a democracy because you are afraid of the police is appalling.

How fucking dare the police make law abiding citizens feel like that.x1000

Twas not Jody Mcintyre twas Frankie Boyle just trying to see things from a different perspective

YANBU

Jody's account of what happened is here

Disgusting behaviour by the copper. But sadly not a surprise.

Even more appalling that anyone could try to justify it. The 'officer' isn't trying to make an arrest, he's abusing his power.

The video doesn't show what he was doing before he was dragged out of the chair, do we know what he was doing from another source?

I haven't read about this so I don't know, but he could have been throwing glass bottles or doing something equally threatening or dangerous.

I'm not excusing that officer, but someone is not immune to rough treatment from the police if they are breaking the law just because they do it from a wheelchair. Every criminal could get themselves one otherwise.

Fucking hell, I'm just open mouthed at that.

Of course people who have disabilities are no more or less likely to break the law than any other person, but the indignity of dragging that bloke out of his chair and then across the road is...I can't even put it into words.

I'm so glad the cameras have been turned on the watchers, the police hate that, no more just taking the medias slant on things at face value.

At last people are starting to realise that the Police are just the Tories political bully boys (and girls).

They were during the miners strikes.

They were at the peace camps where they broke the law with no come back.

To be a copper takes a right wing authoritarian mentality.

I saw a lot of it during my hunt/sab days in cluding a copper snatching a cam corder and throwing it into a field to stop him filming the violent actions actions of the hunt followers. When he was asked to arrest a hunt follower for assault he said "I didnt see anything" and "your fault for being here"

In what world is dragging someone from their wheelchair an appropriate response to anything, short of the wheelchair being on fire?

And the police aren't entitled to hand out 'rough treatment' when they feel like it. That's called assault and it's breaking the law. They aren't allowed to go round duffing people up, you know.

Yes, scurryfunge, what do you think he could have been doing to break the law? Scaling a building? Throwing a petrol bomb? Maybe he was threatening the policeman by nodding his head in an aggressive manner or something ... Anyway, even if he did break the law, what the police did to him is equivalent to chaining up able-bodied civilians to a railing or tying their legs together with manacles or something, since a disabled protestor is effectively immobilised if he's been dragged out of his wheelchair. So no matter what Jody McLaren did, nothing justifies dragging a disabled man out of his wheelchair onto to the ground. Also, what if the crowd had stampeded? He could have been crushed trying to crawl away. The whole scene is like a macabre Frankie Boyle-style joke.

It's interesting that most of the stories of police violence involve women, children (14 year olds that were kettled by police) and disabled people. It doesn't seem like the hard men of the Met have the guts to take on anyone who can take care of themselves e.g. a man who's 6'4" and built like a brick shithouse. It's the classic sign of a bully to target the weak and defenceless and it's disgusting. They should be reminded that the defenceless public that they beating up are actually paying their wages and that they are there to serve the public, not their own rage and aggression.