A police officer has been filmed kicking and stamping on the head of a man lying on the ground at Manchester Airport.

The uniformed male officer is seen holding a Taser over the man, who is lying face down, before striking him twice while other officers shout at onlookers to stay back in a video shared widely online.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said firearms officers had been attacked while attempting to arrest someone following a fight in the airport’s Terminal 2 on Tuesday. It said it had referred itself to the police watchdog.

Anger has grown over the video and a crowd of what appeared to be several hundred people protested outside the police station in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, on Wednesday evening.

  • twinnie
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    4 months ago

    I’d like to know more context about this whole situation, apparently there was a big kerfuffle and another police officer had to be treated for a broken nose.

    This guy looks like some dumbass kid who got himself over-excited after being given a gun and a badge though. He’s probably set his career back by 10 years after this dumbass move.

    • Pirasp@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      That shouldn’t be a setback of ten years, it should be an automatic attempted manslaughter charge and exclusion from any job that gives immediate power over strangers.

      • copd@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        What is with internet comments being obsessed with attempted manslaughter?

        No this is ABH/GBH at best depending on injuries which should go with an immediate suspension. Attempted manslaughter is not possible to convict

        • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 months ago

          Attempted manslaughter is not possible to convict

          Convicting is not the point. Bullshit charges and intimidating maximum sentences are there to force a plea deal and rob defendants of their rights.

          The cops taught us that.

        • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          In fairness… regardless of what the guy did before this.

          The officer deserves to absolutely lose his job. Without doubt.

          The target.tis face down int be ground… not moving… and he stomps his head.

          • lemonmelon@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I heard the guy boiled a pot of water earlier in the day, so, you know, clearly it’s justified…

            /s

          • copd@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            although this video is definitely cut early to make the police officer look especially bad I have to completely agree with you. This isn’t warranted even if the perpetrator was a child rapist, let the courts do the punishing.

        • Pirasp@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Idk about where you live, but “versuchter Totschlag” is very much a thing in Germany. Translates to attempted manslaughter and is in essence an extension to aggravated assault for cases where it should be obvious to the perpetrator, that their actions are significantly likely to cause death.

          Specifically kicking the head of a person who is already on the ground is one of the things that is basically guaranteed to get you charged with that .

          • copd@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Yeah sorry I got bubbled. I live in UK, this video is shot in the UK and I did the American thing where I forget other countries exist

            • Pirasp@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Don’t worry, I did the same. Just assuming that legislature would be the same and all…

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Hitting someone’s head with effort repeatedly is in general attempted manslaughter, no?

          Humans are not battle droids. This action has a sufficiently big probability to result in death.

          • copd@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Attempted manslaughter not convictable in the country this crime was committed. Attempted murder you must prove intent to kill, which is difficult to do but entirely possible. Manslaughter you must not have intent to kill but still actually kill them. Attempted manslaughter is no death and no intent to kill, so in the UK this would be grevious bodily harm or attempted murder

          • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Do you believe the guy that punched the cop on her head should be charged with attempted manslaughter as well?

    • febra@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      “Set his career back by 10 years”

      Nah. I’d rather he rots in jail 10 years. I don’t want that guy walking freely around, let alone with a fucking gun and authority.

    • TimeNaan@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      What context could possibly make brutally kicking and stomping a man lying on the floor acceptable? It doesn’t matter what happened before, this is supposedly a trained officer in an intervention, not a drunken street brawl.

      Cop should immediately get fired and charged for aggravated bodily assault if there was any justice.

      • twinnie
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        4 months ago

        Context is everything. Police officers are police officers but they’re also humans and they get stressed and do things that they wouldn’t do if they were thinking clearly. For all we know this guy might otherwise be an upstanding officer who immediately regret what he did.

        It’s the UK, not the US. They don’t just let all the police walk around with guns. This guy’s a firearms officer and if they’re called to an incident at an airport then something pretty serious is kicking off.

        If you got really stressed at work and made a split second decision that you immediately knew was a bad idea you’d want people to know the context.

        I’m not defending kicking the guy in the head, I’m just wondering what it takes for someone to get to that point where they think that’s a good idea.

      • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        According to an article in the Guardian, the guy and a couple of his friends were called by one of their moms who had an argument on a plane, so they went to the airport to beat up some people. Cops arrive to arrest them and they start fighting the cops.

        Sure he’ll be fired and charged. But it’s a bit of a stretch to expect someone who’s just had to fight off a group of lunatics to just flip the adrenaline switch and turn into an office clerk in two seconds

    • wolfylow@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Setting his career back 10 years?! I’d expect him to be booted from the force at the very least.