The video clips of an incident at Terminal 2 in Manchester Airport earlier this week were shocking and totally appalling.
On Tuesday (23 July), Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had a suspect who appeared to have been Tasered, face down and with his hands behind his back. Then a firearms officer kicked him in the face and stamped on his head.
The same officer then approached another man who was seated with his hands in a surrender position and kicked him, as well as struck him in the head with a Taser gun.
In the meantime, bystanders – who were filming the incident – were pepper sprayed by one firearms officer and another officer started to push a middle-aged Asian woman in traditional dress and head covering. The woman appeared to just be trying to calm the situation down.
In a separate video, we see an officer pepper spray another Asian man and take him down, but it is not clear why this man was detained.
As a former Gold Firearms Commander in the Metropolitan Police – who was in charge of hundreds of firearm operations, in my view all that was needed was for the man to be handcuffed.
End of story.
Any force outside of this was totally excessive.
In the aftermath of this incident, videos surfaced across social media, resulting in hundreds of people protesting outside Rochdale Police Station.
A police officer has since been suspended and removed from all duties after a ‘thorough review of further information’ of the incident.
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham – who is responsible for GMP – said there is ‘understandable feeling and anger’ over the incident, but has called for ‘calm’ and for people not to ‘use situations like this for political purposes’.
From what I can see, he also made much of unseen events leading to this incident – where a police officer had her nose broken and two other officers attended hospital.
Of course, assaults on police officers can never be justified, but I believe he missed the point that the outrage was the firearms officer kicking and stamping on a suspect’s head who had been Tasered, while lying face down and with his hands on his back waiting to be handcuffed.
I also believe that excessive force was used and – although we have to wait for the results of the full IOPC investigation – we cannot dismiss race as a motivating factor.
The family is clearly of Asian heritage and even the middle aged woman in traditional dress was aggressively pushed around by armed officers when she was trying to calm the situation down.
As the protest showed, at this stage there is clearly a perception in the community that excessive violence was used by a team of white officers against an ethnic minority family.
What was needed was a swift response from the Chief Constable Stephen Watson, but instead, the only senior Asian member of what I believe to be an almost entirely white senior leadership team was sent out to deal with the huge public fallout.
Assistant Chief Constable Wasim Chaudhry tried to calm tensions by saying: ‘The use of such force in an arrest is an unusual occurrence and one that we understand creates alarm.’
But I believe this attempt failed and Chaudhry becoming a leading voice in the wake of this incident is completely transparent. It is important for police leaders to face the public directly.
And this latest blunder couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Just over a week ago, Dame Vera Baird gave a damning indictment of how Greater Manchester Police treated women in custody. The inquiry – which heard from 12 women and two men – detailed incidents, like one woman who said she passed out after being choked by her partner, then ended up being arrested and subjected to a ‘demeaning’ intimate body search.
This report from Dame Baird – on which the ink is barely dry – shows GMP have a huge problem with how they treat women. Now this incident – which saw a woman being pushed – will focus on their relationship with the Black and Asian communities.
Unfortunately, it will further damage the fragile level of trust in the police.
This is a shame because – without exception – all the firearm officers I worked with during my time as Gold Firearms Commander were outstanding. Especially in high pressure situations where my officers were being shot and wounded by gangsters.
I was very proud of their professionalism and dedication to making the public feel safe. But now something’s got to give.
We must wait for the IOPC investigation and also respect the wishes of the family who want an investigation into the officers’ actions.
At the end of the day, this is a time for calmness and reflection on how we ensure we have a police service that truly works and respects the communities it serves.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments below.
