common assault of a police officer: will he get a custodial sentence?

[meanie]

my partner was dragged out of his car by police officers, he resisted arrest as they did not tell him why they were doing so. he was pushed onto the floor by two officers and was taken to the station.

He was charged with two assaults on both police officers, driving without a license or insurance. first of all he has a license and insurance. when he attended court they threw out those charges, but persisted with the assault charges. he has to appear in court at a later date, what is the likely outcome for this case?

[ethandron]

Where the police in uniform? if so why did he resist? Has he got a previous record? Why was he stopped in the first place? was there anyone else in the car who could be a witness or maybe a passerby? Otherwise it sounds like your partners word against 2 policemen. Who do you think the courts will believe?

[New Judge]

If the officers were in the course of their duty the offence is not common assault but assault on a PC. This is a more serious offence and magistrates' sentencing guidelines suggest a starting point (for a first time offender pleading not guilty) of custody.

[meanie]

to ethandron, they were in uniform. he resisted as he was trying to show them his license and insurance details, as he is often harassed for the same reason. but they did not allow him to get them, instead, they were attacking him. we took pictures of his injuries and the hospital said his muscles were definately pulled.

sorry i didnt make myself clear, he was charged with common assault and assault on the police officers. there were'nt any witnesses, i guess it will be just his word against the two of them.

would it help that, their reason for stopping and holding him down were thrown out. or, is it now a seperate case of his alleged attacks?

[meanie]

what do you mean by that noknowledge?

[randyraven]

Happens to me all the time.
Police drag me out of my car for no reason ...push me to the ground and charge me for nowt.
NOT !

Hope he goes down to be honest. Assault on the police.
I saw animals like him on tv the other night in Manchester.

[ethandron]

Why did he resist? In your reply you say he was trying to show them his insurance etc yet in your original question you said that the police did not tell him 'why they were doing so'
If you cannot get the story straight on here your partner has no hope in court.
If you don't tell us the full story we will only jump to conclusions and at the moment it sounds like your partner is so stupid he deserves everything he gets.
All he had to do was get out of the car and then show his documents to the police, be polite and no doubt he would have been on his way very soon afterwards.

[meanie]

Im unsure if you have a opinion on the case before understanding what i am trying to say. he has been stopped on a number of occasions and is always asked for insurance and license, SO HE KEEPS IT IN THE CAR. so in this case he assumed it was for the same thing and tried to resist and explain that he has his details in the car.

as for the previous person, i really dont appreciate your comments, maybe you dont get harassed like some people and dont like to wish things onto people, but i hope that one day you get to experience how injust the police can behave!!

[randyraven]

I obey the law and I have been stopped by the police in the past. I showed them my documents and that was the end of it. I have always found the police , polite and professional.
They do a hard job (Just look at the video from Manchester the other night !). I have to ask why your partner keeps getting pulled over ?

P.S. I have only ever got done for speeding once and this was in Florida 5 years ago. I also found the American police officer understanding and patient with my ignorance of the US motoring law. I was given a fixed fine, that I paid next day and that was the end of it.

[randyraven]

I think a court will take a dim view on someone who assaults a policeman, for whatever reason.

[beck07]

MEANIE-

If the police in your local area are anything like mine, than theres is a BIG chance they did attack your partner for NO reason! The y know they can get away with it so they take the p?ss..

This is why people like your partner dont report it because no-one belives them! Just because they are police officers doesnt mean they are perfect!

Hope it goes ok for your partner!

[meanie]

Now do you believe that police make unforgivable mistakes?! And can be malicious, spiteful and unneccessarily VIOLENT??
You can check youtube for several videos of met police (UK) doing worse. ( I only put this up, cos it's sky news, so no-one else can accuse me of being a liar/exaggerating. Also randyraven, i did not ask for your opinion on police, i explained my partners case to get a professional opinion on the outcome of such a case. Also our lawyers are in the process of obtaining cctv footage.

beck07 - thank you I hope it does too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?vy_PmSDA1HNc&hl=en

sky news covering the case of police officers unlawful behaviour

[ethandron]

I am still at a loss to understand why your partner resisted.
If I was a police officer having to approach someone in a car who refused to get out and then went to reach for something (in this case documents) I would drag that person out of the car as quickly as possible. How was the policman to know that your partner was reaching for documents and not a gun??? After all even if thats what your partner said he was doing I would not have believed him. He is not likely to say I'm reaching for a gun.
I'm afraid thats what a court will most likely think as well.
What time of day was this? and is your partner known to the police?

[meanie]

he had stopped trying to get to the documents when they began running to the car and dragged him out immediately. from my research on stopping people for whatever reason, it is not carried out in that manner. He wasn't speeding or driving reckless. so there really isn't an initial reason for asking him to pull over let alone drag him out the car. as far as im concerned i thought police had a system which could check licence plates to see if the car is insured or not - which it is. so what were their reasons for this aasualt on my partner, he is in every right to resist as they did not explain their reasons for stopping him, as if they did he would of produced his full uk driving license and insurance certificate.

[ethandron]

There is something that you are not telling us. Is your partner known to the police for violence, drugs etc?
Police do not randomly stop someone then run to their car and drag them out. There is a reason that you are not telling us.

[randyraven]

So you are saying ...
He was simply driving his car.
Got pulled over by the police.
They ran over to the car.
He is then pulled from the car and wrestled to the ground.
During this , he defended himself and is now being done for assualt.

So this was a random attack, by the police on an inocent man.
The police have put their careers and freedom on the line , just so they can rougth up your partner for not apparent reason.

OK.....Mmmmmm....Yes sure

[nic121]

I'm sorry meanie, but most of the posters are correct in questioning why your partner resisted arrest in the first place. If he has been pulled over several times he should know the drill by now:

When you are signalled to pull over, do so in a convenient place, turn off the engine, open the driver side window and put both hands on the steering wheel. Do not move unless they they tell you to do so. The reason for this is that they don't have a clue what you're going to pull out of your glove box or off the passenger seat...it could easily be a gun. This has happened in the past.

From what you've said, it seems like your partner was just upset at having been pulled over again so decided to be awkward and resist. If he had stayed calm he wouldn't be in this situation.

[meanie]

to nic121, i totally understand what your saying, he shouldn't of resisted. the police seem to be getting away with things like this too often. they treat innocent people any way they like and when their trying to get a point across they arrest them and charge for assault its unfair. the point i made at the beginning still hasn't been addressed. everyone is trying to say he must of done something wrong firstly - when really he hadn't.

and to ethandron he is not known to the police not for drugs or anything. he is a hardworking man and father, so i would appreciate any assumptions to be dropped now, because it seems as though most people are making them and i have actually had enough of trying to find out a simple answer of custody or not, it just seems to be upsetting me more than anything. i have noticed that people have been prosecuting my partner, but no one is talking about the system police have to check for insured cars and why that was not used. police are not completely innocent, they are human just like the rest of us. the same way you have made up your minds that my partner must be a criminal, you could have said that the police are not using facilities available to them and are stopping people for no reason. i didnt know that the answers will be so stereotypical and one sided on this answer bank.

in saying that thank you to the realistic people, who have an open mind who should be answering questions on this site.

[ethandron]

Like everyone on here I cannot understand why your partner resisted. Even you agree that he should not have resisted. Thats why I felt that there had to be something else.
the system that the police use to check vehicle insurance is a computer database and like all computer systems it relies on correct and up to date information, in this case from insurance companies. Maybe your partner's information was not correct (not your partner's fault but the insurance company) but that is enough of a reason to stop your partner.
I have been stopped by the police on quite a few occasions over the years (including 2 negative breath tests) and have always been polite to the police and they have been very polite back. I have even joked with them and them back to me.
So what we are left with is that your partner claims to have been pulled over by the police, they ran to his car, dragged him out and assaulted him for the fun of it.
Seriously - do you not see how hard it is to believe you.

[meanie]

i am not on this site to make you believe me that was never my intention. i explained the story exactly how it is and frankly i cant be bothered to defend my partner against your stupid alegations. at the end of the day your not going to decide what happens to him so i really don't care anymore about what you think.

if you lived in my area it is not uncommon for idol police to wait to start trouble over nothing. so you will never understand and to be honest you don't seem to be living in the real world because police are not perfect. i have spoken to a friend of mine who is a police officer, and she even said that some treat people like that because they know they can and that they wont complain. also about the database, if they know that it is prone not to be updated (although he has been insured since last year) they should not treat as if he has commited an offence and could of simply asked for proof of insurance and license to drive - which he could of provided.

to be honest with you, i would really prefer that you don't reply because you are really stressing me out with your ignorance!