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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
They’re not superheroes…