How can the Police be 'HAPPY' with this officers conduct?????

[tiredemma]

watch the video, the police officer punches the woman FIVE times!

police vid

thank you custardo - at least someone sees it the way i do!

Im really suprised that people think this is ok. the whole point of the police is that they do not react to provocation and use minimal restraint. If we start making judgements about criminals and saying its ok they deserved it, then where does it end?

John Prescott wasnt right to hit the bloke that threw an egg at him.

Eric Cantona wasnt right to kick the football fan who abused him

The Sun readers who go after peodophiles arent right

Just because you are a policeman doesnt mean you can take the law into your own hands and deliver on the spot justice any more than anyone else.

I understand they are only human and of course they may react in the heat of the moment, but it is wrong and should not be encouraged.

yes, 5 blokes and one drunk woman - boy she must have been pretty damn wild/strong/good at martial arts or something for him to need to punch her with all his might five times to put her handuffs on...given that he had 4 blokes helping him

good point kezzaG.

police are there to uphold the law. not decide the law.

In the interview she first says 'I was having a fit', then two minutes later says 'I can't remember anything about the incident so the footage was a shock to me' (or words to that effect). Hmmmmm!

whether she was fitting, drunk or violent or all 3, IMO the police should not punch you to subdue you. Whether she is a liar who will now milk this for all its worth is also irrelevant. The police are there to uphold the law and to do that they must remain within the law themselves.

Yes but if they are hitting her arm to deaden it so they can get the handcuffs on, what happens if they just twist her arm to get the handcuffs on and break it/sprain it??? They can't win can they? If she is being violent, should they just stand back and let her injure them?!?!? She is the criminal here.

It didnt look like punching to me. It looked open handed like slapping,not closed fist like punching.
Also she doesnt have any injuries to show for it so it couldnt have been that bad.

I agree Wilkie, in doing their jobs i dont htink they can win either.

Yes its true of course the police have to stay within the law that it is their duty to uphold But they have rights when going about their jobs. They have the right not to be injured when doing what they are p[aid for dont they? If as the PC states he was trying to get her off him, while she was grabbing/kicking him...does he have to stand there and take it??! Of course not. So how does he get her off him, if some force is needed to stop her aggressive behaviour - what force do you use swiftly that will not hurt her?! Surely the onus is to control the situation, protect her from herself and protect, more importantly in my opinion, others.

I saw this film on Sky, early this morning, and nothing was mentioned about race then so I'm not sure what angle other channels have taken. But, however despicable her behaviour, the police are not judge and jury, that's the courts job. It looked disproportionate to me, with at least two other officers holding her down and others in the vicinity. I agree that antisocial beings shouldn't be tolerated but I don't this is going to improve things. As someone else says, two wrongs don't make a right.

I think she was DRUNK and she valdalised the car was abusive in the club

IMHO it is stupid to go "oh poor me"

I don't have any sympathy with her

If she had behaved in the first place the police wouldn't have been there would they?

wilkie - memory loss happens after fitting.
no -one says they should stand back and let her hot them. but big blokes do not need to punch small women to get handcuffs on them. esp not with 4-5 other blokes to help them.
if the police are to be respected, they must act fairly, responsibly and within the law themselves. they are not above the law.
personally, i think better training and higher entry requirements for that training are key things to change here.

emily - the policeman himself said it was punching, not slapping.

i dont have 'sympathy' for her either; she behaved like a thug. but that is NOT the point.

er, hit them, rather than hot them. duh.

People who are excessively drunk can have incredible force and it's not surprising that several officers are involved in her arrest.

It said in the report that she had some cuts and bruises following the arrest and given that she had just fallen down some stairs I don't think that indicates that excessive forece was used.

She pled guilty and has taken responsibilities for things she absolutely shouldn't have done. BUT the police had a duty to behave responsibly and two wrongs do not make a right. We need to be able to have confidence in our police force and this sort of behaviour undermines it.

Message withdrawn

I have a hard time trying to restrain my 22 month old toddler duting a temper tantrum sometimes, so I could see how it would take several officers to restrain a violent drunk. I don't have much sympathy for the girl

I don't deny there is police brutality that goes on though.

Stories like this make me really angry.
My dh was physically assaulted during his work (PCSO), so no asp, no handcuffs etc. He was in a hell of a state from this attack. I honestly don't feel any sympathy, if she didn't break the law to begin with, it wouldn't of happened

yeah bloody shocking

I didn't know the Police officers were being physically assaulted too (other than the stairs incident). Biting is particularly nasty. Who is to say she isn't infected with something like Hep B which it is totally plausible to transfer through a nasty bite? And many of the people the police deal with (IV drug users) are carriers of this disease. Between protecting himself from the risk of that and punching a woman, I'd rather my DP did the latter for the sake of us as a family.

No doubt she will be handsomely rewarded for her behaviour with a big fat compensation handout.

The officer says he was trying to give her a dead arm after she repeatedly attacked him and tried to grab his bits. Well, if anyone has ever seen a drunk person fight it doesn't matter if they are 5' tall and weigh 6 stones or whatever, they get the strength of Colosseus (sp I know!). So unless faced with that situation it is extremely hard to say that he over-reacted.

Back in the dark days when I nursed we had to literally hold down a patient who was drunk as a skunk. I got kicked in the stomach and punched and my colleague was bitten very badly on the upper arm, both of us were bigger height and weight wise and much younger than the woman concerned but it took 3 of us over an hour to get the situation under control.

So in no way would I stand in judgement over this police officer. If this lovely lady had been taken to a hospital or anything how many nurses and doctors would she have felt no qualms about abusing? She should be ashamed of her actions and embarrassed that the whole world has seen her steaming drunk rather than thinking how much she can make of her actions (and I would bet this is her very next step, said as much on the news.)

was out all day yesterday, posted and then went straight out- so didnt reply immediatly to the other posts.

I also have no sympathy for her, but I do not think that punching a woman five times while there are other men holding her down is acceptable.

I have just watched the video clip.

Firstly you cannot see where the officer punched or slapped the woman, obviously not to the face , otherwise she would have been in a right state.

the woman says she had brusies and cuts to her body - well she has just fallen down the stairs and been in a tussle with bouncers from nightclub.

The police dog issue - nothing wrong with having a police dog there , dog was on a lead and being restrained by handler.

the race issue - what utter crap ! Local guy jumping on the bandwagon. Nothing to do with race- she was out of order in her behaviour. Comparing it to beating of blackman in LA is totally out of proportion and any credabilty that local councillor had ( or whatever he was ) has just gone out the window ! FFS !

the officer has been totally honest in his comments and what he did to her, he has to justify whether this was reasonable force ( which he is allowed to use )

If the woman gets any compensation then it completely goes against what society is trying to do to reduce aggressive behaviour.

The officer could have used his asp /baton, he could have used his CS spray but I dont think either of them would have been acceptable because baton would have inflicted more injury and he was too close to her along with other officers to use spray.

A slpit second decision as to who to dela with her and in view of the other events that night I think he was justified.

I have just watched the video clip.

Firstly you cannot see where the officer punched or slapped the woman, obviously not to the face , otherwise she would have been in a right state.

the woman says she had brusies and cuts to her body - well she has just fallen down the stairs and been in a tussle with bouncers from nightclub.

The police dog issue - nothing wrong with having a police dog there , dog was on a lead and being restrained by handler.

the race issue - what utter crap ! Local guy jumping on the bandwagon. Nothing to do with race- she was out of order in her behaviour. Comparing it to beating of blackman in LA is totally out of proportion and any credabilty that local councillor had ( or whatever he was ) has just gone out the window ! FFS !

the officer has been totally honest in his comments and what he did to her, he has to justify whether this was reasonable force ( which he is allowed to use )

If the woman gets any compensation then it completely goes against what society is trying to do to reduce aggressive behaviour.

The officer could have used his asp /baton, he could have used his CS spray but I dont think either of them would have been acceptable because baton would have inflicted more injury and he was too close to her along with other officers to use spray.

A slpit second decision as to who to dela with her and in view of the other events that night I think he was justified.

I have just watched the video clip.

Firstly you cannot see where the officer punched or slapped the woman, obviously not to the face , otherwise she would have been in a right state.

the woman says she had brusies and cuts to her body - well she has just fallen down the stairs and been in a tussle with bouncers from nightclub.

The police dog issue - nothing wrong with having a police dog there , dog was on a lead and being restrained by handler.

the race issue - what utter crap ! Local guy jumping on the bandwagon. Nothing to do with race- she was out of order in her behaviour. Comparing it to beating of blackman in LA is totally out of proportion and any credabilty that local councillor had ( or whatever he was ) has just gone out the window ! FFS !

the officer has been totally honest in his comments and what he did to her, he has to justify whether this was reasonable force ( which he is allowed to use )

If the woman gets any compensation then it completely goes against what society is trying to do to reduce aggressive behaviour.

The officer could have used his asp /baton, he could have used his CS spray but I dont think either of them would have been acceptable because baton would have inflicted more injury and he was too close to her along with other officers to use spray.

A slpit second decision as to who to dela with her and in view of the other events that night I think he was justified.