police v teenagers

[BlondieJ]

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I was getting pretty annoyed reading comments on this video.
I am interested to see what the mumsnet thinks about this?

AIBU to think these kids should have just moved on like they were asked?

I'm in two minds.

The copper who came charging in obviously escalated the situation but then again, they weren't doing as they were asked. I think a group of cocky teenagers who probably spend a lot of time doing good the opposite of what they're meant to do (( and they weren't all ye stereotypical chav )) learned a valuable life lesson that day.

Well let's see what the police cameras make of this. Sadly they often have "technical difficulties" or footage gets mysteriously lost. Cameras should be recording all the time to protect both parties.

Police are trained to recognise signs of imminent violence including (from national police college):

facial expressions
increased or prolonged restlessness, body tension, pacing
general over-arousal of body systems (increased breathing and heart rate, muscle twitching, dilating pupils)
increased volume of speech, erratic movements
prolonged eye contact
discontent, refusal to communicate, withdrawal, fear, irritation
unclear thought processes or poor concentration
delusions or hallucinations with violent or aggressive content
verbal threats or gestures
reporting anger or violent feelings
blocking escape routes.

At least 6 of these and possibly more were present. And they were fairly certain these people had already been involved in a very violent incident. The situation had escalated far beyond polite request not to point at him.

The fact backup was called means the officers felt imminent danger. Backup isn't called to come and help negotiate.

I have a bunch of youth work staff who get paid £8 an hour who could have handled that situation better than those officers. Serious questions to be asked about their behaviour.

RJ with a group of kids that had just been involved in a racist attack that left two people injured ??

It looks aggressive, but actually one officer expressing physical dominance and an outright eagerness to arrest is one way to get people to go home and calm down in the face of superior numbers of teenagers, resulting in potentially no arrests or injuries.

Two things here are contrary to how it might strike members of the public

1. Groups of teenagers like this are potentually physically dangerous to anyone, even people wearing a magic uniform.
2. Actually if the police repeatedly have an instruction ignored and a public order is developing, it is entirely appropriate to use force and exert authority, this might have looked dynamic but there was no attempt to try and hurt these kids in the act of moving them and using harsh language.
3. he wasnt particularly "testosteroned up" as one of those comments says, a female officer might just as well do the same thing. He was obviously going for an effect. They had the choice to take heed and go home, they were given every chance to do so and then some. They picked assaulting a police officer instead.

We can't judge based on anything before that as we don't know, but just going on the lairy teenagers ignoring police instructions, if the police even apologise for this it is to placate people who are BU and think police work should never involve pushing someone and shouting at them so they will do what they're told without being nicked.

Can't think of a better reason to want to defuse and not escalate the situation TBH.

And yes sometimes they have had to intervene in violent situations bbs. Difference is if one of them slapped away a hand like that they'd be fired. Possibly charged too.

I work alongside a lot of amazing police officers I can guarantee you would never react like that too.

RJ - sorry, don't agree with you at all. And I know plenty of officers too.

I agree RJ. I think they need better training if this is what they are taught to do.

The little bastards should do as they're bloody told. The police have a hard enough job to do as it is without these type of mouthy little shits. If as a parent any of you think the teens are hard done by, I worry about your parenting.

RJ, the double handed fend off is an approved home office officer safety technique. Not he only thing the officer did wrong was close the gap by walking toward the youth instead of creating distance.

The only time i have ended up in hospital was after being kicked in the face by a 14 year old girl. I've been assaulted by youths far more often than I have been grown adult. The fact they are youths doesnt mean they can cause less damage.

And the fact a serious assault had been committed prior to this shows the level of violence that was present.

No one knows how long the first officer had been negotiating with the kids for. How much time are they meant to waste ?? 30 minutes ?? An hour ?? 2 hours ??

I can see why the officer rushed at them.really, probably hoping they'd disband and break up. Would have been job done if the cocky little knob ends had just done as they were asked in the first place.

As I said, no real harm done and hopefully a valuable lesson learned .

RJnomore1
I have a bunch of youth work staff who get paid £8 an hour who could have handled that situation better than those officers.

Given that half the situation is missing you really can't say that.

Did I hear one of the police officers call the kids "Mother fuckers" or am I going deaf?

This was in my home town and where I live now :-(

bella I heard that and thought it was the youths that said it. It would be a foolish cop to do it who knows he is getting videoed!

I thought he said 'you mother fuckers are going to get nicked!'. Talk about winding up the situation.

I will listen again more carefully

Yes 'you're going to get nicked, you're going to get nicked, all you mother fuckers are getting nicked'.

10 years ago my DF who has passed away would have been these officers boss' boss. I am not sure how happy he'd have been about that!

I do I think, I think he'd have been livid at it!

And many gaffers will say "don't do it again"! And if it goes to misconduct he will get a warning.

Unfortunately, many teens are absolute scum, my OH used to have to deal with them and he got assaulted and injured. They are especially bad when they have been drinking/drugging.

The parents don't help the police they generally take the side of the kids even when they have behaved very badly. Many of the little 'darlings' my husband had to deal with have now got criminal convictions now they are adults. The parents need to keep their offspring under control.

I don't hate the police but I've seen clear bias when I was a teenager. We hung out on the road where essentially we all lived and weren't misbehaved. The boys played football between a mixture of a small patch of grass and on a quiet side road and just having a laugh and talking to the girls who also lived on the street. But even in mid afternoon we all got moved on regularly by the police and I don't remember what it was exactly but the police separated the boys and the girls and always took the boys details and left the girls alone. So we'd get moved on from just walking out our door, but there weren't any parks or anything around where I lived . I think teenagers do get a lack of respect from police, and that police do try to take advantage of their power on teens sometimes

( just an observation from my youth s I clicked the link and the page has gone)

I fear that this is mostly true. "What my special little snowflake wouldn't do that?" "Oh you saw him? No it wasn't him, my special snowflake wouldn't do that?" "Oh he's admitted it, it wasn't his fault! they made him do it".