I've had my head smashed against brick walls, have had blocks of wood smashed against my head, you name it, it's happened to me, but there is a difference, for starters, it was a POLICE OFFICER, someone who is suppose to be PROTECTING the general public, not killing them for ****s sake. The protest was mainly calm from what I have read, only a few idiots making violence because as it's a protest, they take advantage of it, I bet they didn't even care about the protest, they just wanted to smash windows, period. Like you said, "mates", you treat the public the same as your mates? No I didn't think so. I'm stating what has been brought up, it was covered up before the video, and thank god the video came up, otherwise we would have never had this discussion, and the police would of just said "He had a heart attack". If you think a fairly old guy getting smacked from behind is fine, then you need your head checking. If the ****** protesters being vandals want to be a**holes, then they can, but it doesn't mean the police can do the same to an innocent father. If it was your Dad, you'd be ****ing fuming to the brim.
We are not talking about a child though are we? We're talking about supposedly responsible adults. I am not defending the actions of the police officer, but I am pointing out that this is not quite a "police thug beats on innocent victim" scenario. A police officer is indeed held to a higher standard, which is why he has been suspended pending investigation, with a possible prosecution to follow. If he was my dad, I would be fuming that his inebriated self was seeking out confrontations with the riot police. He was not entirely innocent (even though some other people who got hit were). I think this is one of those interesting arguments like: "If a woman walks down a rough neighbourhood alone wearing revealing clothes, is it her fault if she get raped?" or "If someone leaves their front door unlocked, is it their fault if they get burgled?". Well, no, we all know who the criminal is. But we also know what world we live in and there is such a thing as personal responsibility to keep onseself reasonably safe. Responsibility is not always something that lies either with one party or the other. Neither is it a zero-sum game: if one person is fully responsible for his actions, that does not mean the other has none whatsoever.
quite shocked by the video and every day im thinking this country is going down the drain. Funny how when he died, the police said they made no contact with him - then bam, a video showing him getting pushed in a brutal way....then "oh yes we did have an incident"...load of ****ing liars thats what they are - there were about 20-30 police officers and witnesses there, you telling me not a single one didnt see the push? The Police are a bunch of pricks, Gordon Brown is a fooking idiot too, the whole labour party needs to be hanged. God, I cant believe I voted for these a55holes....an innocent man is killed and the police try cover it up - If I were PM, I would seriously be pissed off and have heads on platters, not brush it off. Im voting Lib dems this year, because tories will probably dig us a bigger hole, labour have destroyed everything decent in this country and the Lib dems probably couldnt do worse than either. So annoyed with the country and what its turned into...
Not so much a higher standard as a lower standard then because if it had been another member of the public hitting the victim and then pushing them they would have already been arrested for assualt at the minimum just based on the video evidence.
Is that copper proud? Thank God for our brave British Bobbies eh? All they have is a club in their hand and all they have for protection is all over body armour, steel capped boots, elbow, neck and knee protectors and a crash helmet with a reinforced visor and they have to go out there and face the likes of that newspaper vendor! Ok so he was unarmed and had no such protective attire but I’ll bet he shouted at the police or something equally terrifying for them! If this was France we’d all be protesting and aiming to get this cowardly bully who struck down that poor bloke, sacked as he should be and more. Fortunately the incident, or a lot of it, was caught on video. I’m sure that each time these protests occur many such crimes, and that is what they are, are committed by a small element of thugs who are in the police “force”. We have to stand up and get justice for the recipients of such outrages! My thoughts are with the family of the man who died. I wonder if the bully who no doubt caused the death sleeps well! He should be prosecuted for manslaughter at least. Perhaps the son of this bully boy may one day in the future be involved in a lawful protest somewhere in the world. Let him hope that his son doesn't get picked on by another like bully with a club in his hand, there are a few out there and until we have the guts to recognise it they will always be there. I'll bet that there were other police who witnessed what happened, who were just as disgusted at what they saw as I was when I learned of it but of course to step out of line and speak out wouldn't do much for their "careers" would it! Please don't double-post, especially in the same forum
I would imagine there are some who join the police service who have feelings of inadequacy and look to this job to raise their confidence. Put such people in riot gear and we have a potential problem. There has to be something wrong with someone who would hit another human being forcefully on the head with a baton. Perhaps they don't have the intelligence to realise the possibile dangers of such an action. (There were apparently at least 10 reports of baton strikes to the head during the protest) And there's an 'edit' button if you want to add to a recent post...
A member of the public would have got off with a slap on the wrist, perhaps one year probational for manslaughter. Ironically if the assailant was drunk himself he would probably get less. Does point out how he contributed to the situation though, does it? Not an innocent dad, but a belligerent drunk who should have known better than to provoke a conflict with riot police during a protest march. What did he think was going to happen?
Did you register just to have this rant? Because you are wrong on both counts. First, the newspaper vendor did more than just shout at the police. Second, the French riot police make the British one look like pussies.
G20 hello, I would like to know why the police officers involved have not been named, if it had been members of the public doing this their names would be all over the newspapers. also why were there numbers removed from uniforms and clothing. If you go back to the miners' strike, the police the was told to go in heavy handed just like this demonstration. Their names and addresses should be posted on website, these officers are nothing but bullies and should be named and shamed. They have been currently suspended but on full pay.
I don't even see the point in protesting and riots, why don't those people be the change they want to see in the world, rather than just pass the resposibility over to someone else. At least g20 is a steep in the right dirrection. As for the case of the guy who had a heart attack, it's clearly not murder, but manslauter could be a possibilty. I feel sorry for his family at this time. As DXR pointed out the police officer needs a fair trial not a public hanging.
Because people like you who follow the media's every word are sad enough to believe he is guilty without trial.
Again, did you register just to have this rant? Only one accused police officer did not have his number on his lapels, and this has been noted by the IPCC as a breach of conduct. The behaviour of some riot police has indeed been debatable at best, highly objectionable at worst. But if you think that justifies another "All cops are pigs" rant, ask yourself who tries to preserve some semblance of law and order in the city centres every ****ing weekend night when the general public drinks itself rat-assed, getting puked on, spit on and bled on by the aggressive drunks they are trying to keep safe from themselves. Ask yourself who you call when your house gets burgled, your car stolen, or you get mugged.
My problem with the police is initially they tried to cover up the whole thing denying any contact with him in the first place - ONLY when video footage was released showing him get attacked did the police come forward and say "oh yes that...er...ok...there was a "slight" incident yes" They were clearly trying to cover up the fact that moments earlier they had attacked him physically, why wasnt that worth a mention? Especially since he died from a heart-attack? How many officers did we see in the video? easily somewhere in the region of 10-20 minimum, why did no one come forward mentioning this? why did it take a leaked video to make them address that? Why did they deny any contact at all first? My experiences with the police havnt been great - Yes we call them when were in trouble but that doesnt mean they are all behaving the way they should - They will act like any normal worker would and cover themselves if their necks are on the line (as shown here) We call them and they respond - Thats their job and they know full well what to expect. I am greatful for a cleaner cleaning my desk and say thank you to them but if they lie about doing it properly or cover it up - Im not going to say "well I rely on them so much to do a great job il let it go this time" - its what they sign up for, its expected. Thats probably a poor comparison but let me tell you a little story about my experiences with the police: We moved to our house over 15 years ago. About 8 years ago we were one of the only asian families on the street. Opposite there lived a woman who had this boyfriend that was a police officer. He would always delibrately park his car outside our house for about 2 months. We asked him politely to move it as its causing us difficulty, bringing the shopping in and walking up and down over the weeks was becoming quite tiresome (we couldnt park next to his because the other neighbours used that space and were forced to park further down the hill we live on) He flashed his badge at us despite being off duty and his responce was "im a police officer, il park where I want" And he did delibrately right outside our house for about another month, many times there was space outside the house he was visiting - but you know what? He still parked outside ours. We asked him on 3 occasions further if he would move, all politely and he refused with a smirk. Then my brother snapped and did something, the result was he never parked anywhere near our house again. He asked him to move this one time and he refused - My brother told him "Either you move your car now or you wont ever move it as its getting blocked in betmeen my car and my moms - and you can call the police - Lets see how that turns out. He refused and watched as my brother drove his car right behind his about 1cm away. Then he got in my mothers and reversed right near the front, another 1cm away. Looked at him and Said Your move. less than 10 minutes later, I **** you not, less than 10 minutes! and a police car comes knocking on our door. Now before I continue - Let me tell you something about the history of our street and past incidents. You could have a car crash (and being a swervy hill, many have happened over the years), a fire, an emergency of some kind - anything, and the police would take about 25 minutes always getting here, they always have - Their responce time was that bad and for something as minor as this a police car arrives in less than 10 minutes. Now we fully expected him to call his other police buddys and we knew no way it was a "legitimate" that they responded this fast. They asked us if they could come in - We said no you can wait here outside. They asked us to move our car and we refused saying we want to findout this callout incident number, their names, whether they know the policeman across the street and what station they were from and that we were fully willing to be arrested to raise a racial allegation against him because he has been parking outside our house for months delibrately to aggrivate us - We pointed to his car and the acres of space he could have chosen to park - Yet he chose outside our house - The only asian family. Does that sound a little suspicious we asked them? They didnt want to comment. We told them we werent moving it and if they want to arrest us thats fine but we will be asking for inquirys into them turning up so fast and whether this is legitimate as well as a complaint against the police officer. They said "let us go across the road and talk to him, maybe we can sort this out" While they went over, we took pictures of their police cars and their license plate numbers (and they were watching us while we did this) and 3 minutes later... the two officers on the callout as well as the dick police officer come across apologising promising to never park outside our house again, his smirk whiped off his face, the two officers didnt look too pleased either that they were dragged into this whole affair as they could tell we were deadly serious. Thats left a pretty nasty impression with us about the police, and I work at probation now, alongside the police and my impression hasnt changed much as many people in power will always try and find ways to exploit it/abuse it to gain advantage in matters.
