Armed officer filmed kicking man susceptible 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 instance of police brutality.
Larger Manchester Police confirmed that the assault on the person occurred at Manchester Airport on Tuesday.
In a video extensively shared on-line, armed police might 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 together with his arms 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.
Probably 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 top. Hit on the top 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 an announcement launched on Wednesday, Larger Manchester Police mentioned that the incident had taken place after three officers have been assaulted throughout an arrest.
“One feminine officer suffered a damaged nostril and the opposite officers have been pressured to the bottom and suffered accidents which required hospital remedy,” an announcement from Assistant Chief Constable Wasim Chaudhry mentioned.
The assertion mentioned {that a} police officer had been “faraway from operational duties” and that the power was “making a voluntary referral of our policing response to the Unbiased Workplace of Police Conduct”.
It acknowledged that the occasion was “actually stunning” and an “uncommon incidence and one which we perceive creates alarm”, however didn’t reprimand the officer for his conduct.
One eyewitness, Amir Minhas, instructed the BBC {that a} man in his 20s had been approached by police and instructed that he was wished, earlier than he was pinned in opposition to 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 Larger 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 cops 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 power in opposition to an unarmed civilian”.
Demonstrators have deliberate a protest in opposition to the assault on Thursday exterior the workplace of the mayor of Larger Manchester, Andy Burnham, denouncing the police as “racist” for the assault.
Burnham has but to touch upon the incident.