Video appearing to show a police officer kick a man at Manchester Airport has been shared online.

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.

  • Deceptichum@quokk.auEnglish
    73·
    4 months ago

    Can any other Brits confirm you actually crack down on cops? Have you followed their trials until the conclusion to see what ‘punishment’ they actually get?

    • sandbox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      4 months ago

      I’m British, and I wouldn’t say so. In some higher profile cases cops might lose their job, and in extreme cases they go to court, but it’s really rare for the charges to stick. There was a recent case with a famous sportsman - a pair of cop tased him, beat him with a baton, and kicked him in the head until he died. That was the first time in over 30 years a cop had actually been found guilty of manslaughter, but the other cop escaped with no charges. The bastard that got sentenced will almost definitely be released within a couple of years.

      So, yeah, if it’s high profile enough, maybe, to some extent, but otherwise, no.

    • Nurgus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      4 months ago

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/30/police-officers-in-england-and-wales-guilty-of-crimes-up-70-per-cent

      This is a soft-left wing newspaper that’s generally quite critical of the police. The numbers of convictions amd sackings are quite interesting. I think there’s a lot of room for improvement but we’re starting from a MUCH better place than the US or even Aus.

      The 70% increase in convictions does not mean there’s an increase in Police bad actors. It’s an increase in pursuing convictions against them.

      • sandbox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        35·
        4 months ago

        About a third of police officers in England and Wales – 42,854 – received a public complaint about them. About 71% of the allegations made were serious enough that they involved either death or injury, or if proven they may have resulted in criminal or disciplinary proceedings. However, only 1% were assessed to see whether there was a case to answer, 0.3% were found to have a case to answer, and 0.2% were referred to misconduct proceedings

        Read your own fucking source.

        • Echo DotEnglish
          51·
          4 months ago

          Yeah but people complain about police all of the time. Just because only 1% of them were assessed does not mean that the others were legitimate. Sometimes it’s quite obvious that it is legitimate I really don’t think the police are a problem in the UK there’s definitely a few individuals that need their heads examining but mostly people aren’t afraid of them. Stop putting your own biases on everyone else.

          • sandbox@lemmy.worldEnglish
            24·
            4 months ago

            And why do you think it’s acceptable that only 1% of complaints are even so much as looked into? I think you have your own, massive bias here that you’re completely ignoring.

    • soycapitan451@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      4 months ago

      Another Brit here, yes cops do get punished in high profile cases with video evidence such as this.

      The contradictory examples listed above were quite complex cases from what I remember.

      That said, as a teenager a friend of mine was beaten up in a police van in a case of mistaken identity. He was advised by his lawyer to drop the case as there was little chance of proving what happened as the police had smashed up his phone which he had been recording them with.

      Due to the context of police officers being injured prior to what’s shown on tape. I expect in this instance, the cop to get a lenient pushiment.