Greater Manchester Police brutality

[Gummybear23]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/24/armed-police-officer-filmed-kicking-man-in-face-at-manchester-airport

Sickening behaviour. Surely tasering the man is enough.
He is on the floor tasered so you give him some kickings to the head?

Hope this is properly investigated.
Greater Manchester Police have an awful reputation.

I do think the airport setting is the best (only?) mitigation factor for the violent police officer. It's a high stakes environment for law enforcement. Must be scary when something suddenly kicks off in the terminal building and you're running in blind.

Not that that excuses kicking someone in the head.

It's fair enough for police to use force to defend yourself, no one is suggesting otherwise. But in this case, the man had been tased and was prone on the floor completely subdued, then the policeman decided to stomp on his head. That isn't self defence, it's violent punishment and not what the police are there to do.

There’s your evidence.

The thing is, when these officers are training, they're know they are 'training'. They know at that time, that barring an accident, no-one is really going to shoot or hurt them intentionally.

How often do these officers get caught up in a real-life violent kick-off situation, where there is a crowd of people, in an airport, and everything is unfolding uncontrollably in a few seconds?

The whole thing is over in an instant. No time to politely ask the suspects to submit to arrest if they wouldn't mind. No time to reason with violent thugs who are clearly intent on bashing up these police officers. No time to allow an incident to escalate that could result in numerous people being shot or otherwise injured.

Training can only go so far. What we don't see is the probably dozens of routine incidents akin to this that the police must handle successfully day in, day out.

It's a shame that many police forces have a reputation for being lenient on their own officers. I don't envy anyone dealing with this awful situation however.

This thread really demonstrates why people make such unreliable witnesses. People become convinced of what they think they saw and base all other interpretations of events on that while ignoring anything that may contradict their position.

when I watched the video the first couple of times it looked as though the officer stamped on his head. On watching it again, I just focussed on the light blue guy’s head and the floor area - if you do that you will see it looks more like the officer’s boot comes down on the floor.

Anyway I’m sure the footage is being reviewed in more detail than is possible for any of us so the investigation will determine that.

Some of these posts are mad agree with you and others saying the same. It’s just going internet / mn fodder.

No attempt at engaging how it would be in that situation with that level of violence

The dragging to the floor happened due to being tasered.

The two men were violent and aggressive enough without adding extra "facts".

Agree that if he’d kicked while being attacked it would be acceptable. What the office actually did was to pay back the offender for his violence. It was not necessary at that point, lying on the floor with tasers on him.

I fully support the officer and hope he's back working soon. More of these feral shitbags could do with a swift kick in the head.

Shocked at the level of violence against those police officers; what a volatile situation for the police to manage and in a high security environment of an airport. I hope the injured recover and that the police officers get a fair hearing once all the evidence is collated.

Less lethal tasers DO NOT mean someone is immobilised or under control.

If someone attacks an armed police officer and possibly gain control of their firearm, the police are more than justified to use lethal force.

If this had happened are Charles de Gaulle airport, I'm pretty sure both these attackers would be dead, and everyone would just shrug and move on.

Having seen the footage, I’d like to change my vote please.

It’s definitely less upsetting having seen what thugs the offenders are. However, I still think it was thug-like to kick and stamp in someone’s head when they are down.

What a load of shit @runrabbitruns

Except it was the police who had the shit kicked out of them.

@MauveCrow your appetite for violence is alarming. Advocating for officers to shoot to kill in situations which don't require it and kicking suspects in the head more often, is unsettling.

@runrabbitruns

So why everyone is surprised that another white police man is violently kicking another brown man is a mystery to me.

Dear lord.

Seeing as you're up so early on a Sunday morning, you've got plenty of time to tell us how they should deal with brown people who assault white police officers.

Leave them to it, then pop round for tea in a week's time?

Please.... the only ones with an appetite for violence are the ones who attacked armed police and broke a woman's.

Why are you defending that scum?

On the Polices side here. It is an airport, there is a huge risk to public safety. This could've been a terrorist attack and in most airports around the world they'd have been shot!

The next steps are going to be difficult, racial tensions are rising and its not going to take a lot to inflame people from differing communities here. We can't pander to vilolent thugs attacking our Police and that message needs to be clear.

@MauveCrow I'm not defending them, they are violent criminals. It's possible for two things to be true simultaneously.

1. The perpetrators violently assaulted the police;
2. A police officer used force when a perpetrator was incapacitated

You don't think you've demonstrated an appetite for violence by saying the following:

"The only mistake the police made was drawing their tasers rather than their firearms and putting these violent thugs down."

And

"If the violent scum in this country got a good shoeing from the cops on a more regular basis perhaps we would be living a safer country."

Our police are supposed to uphold the law, not break it. Of course some times a situation requires a lot of force, but that should stop once the suspect is incapacitated, not continue!

Just watched it again. I think I’m changing my mind. Didn’t realise it was right next to the public and children and that tasers don’t keep offenders immobile. I think the officer will get a warning but that’s all.

Again, just because someone has been tased, it does not mean they are incapacitated.

If a firearms officer is holding a firearm, while trying to subdue a violent attacker, they are within their right to shoot them. Especially if there is a risk to public safety. In this case the risk is a violent attacker gaining control of a firearm, instead the officer used a free limb to help neutralise the attacker. Perfectly acceptable use of force.

I think the police have a lot of problems, and a lot of bad coppers have slipped into the force, but this officer did nothing wrong.

I'm fully in favour of all our police being armed with lethal firearms at all times. As they are in most developed countries around the world.

I've looked carefully and agree with you.
I would still say the the police officer was on the receiving end of a brutal attack. He was attacked from behind, was in a headlock and was being dragged backwards. Under thise circumstances a reflex action in the moment is undesirable but understandable.

What do you mean tasers don't keep people immobile? My understanding is that they work on 5 second charge cycles until stopped. In the original mobile phone footage you can hear the taser fire back up right as the perpetrator jolts their head (a movement which may well have been involuntary, but which some believe shows an intention to get back up). He was actively being tased again when he was kicked in the head.

I've also just seen other footage of a bystander recording the incident who explains he is just recording, and isn't displaying any violent or aggressive behaviour. Nevertheless he is pepper sprayed, put in a headlock and dragged to the ground.

I don't think the investigation will cover just the kick, but everything that led up to it, and followed it.