Nottingham Police Brutality

[Gromit]

A video taken on a mobile phone in Nottingham shows the local police making an arrest.

The footage apparently shows the man on the floor with the Taser wire already attached before being shocked.
He then seems to be pinned to the ground by three officers before the fourth officer 'Tasers' him again.
Another officer is then caught on film apparently punching him on or close to the head three times.
A crowd of 30 to 40 people quickly gathers and they start questioning the police's tactics.
A woman behind the camera is heard to say: "Look at his face, did you get that? He don't look like he is resisting."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/pol itics/lawandorder/5543724/Man-Tasered-and-punc hed-by-police-apparently-caught-on-video.html

As with the Ian Tomlinson case, this has only come to light because a member of the public was able to film it.

In this age of mobile technology, should be police wait until these people are in the van before beating them up?

[paraffin]

SCENARIO ONE

1. Nottingham man has been at home all evening drinking tea and watching telly, and is so bored that he decides to have a late night stroll around the city centre.
2. Man passes a nightclub where he's verbally abused by the door staff.
3. The Police appear and one Officer is mysteriously injured and has to be hospitalised as a result.
4. Man continues strolling in the busy city centre but is suddenly confronted by several burly Police Officers who, for absolutely no reason use a Taser device on him, wrestle him to the ground where he is Tasered again and an Officer punches him repeatedly.
5. A passerby sees this and captures the latter piece of the incident on film via his mobile phone.
6. The piece of film is hived off to the TV stations and shown later that evening. The Police are villified by certain sections of the public.

SCENARIO TWO

1. Yob is as drunk as a skunk in Nottingham city centre late at night, has an altercation with nightclub door staff who refuse him entry. The Police are called.
2. A Police Officer approaches the drunken yob who assaults the Officer badly enough for him(the PC) to be hospitalised.
3. Yob makes off through the busy city centre but is located a short time later by other Police Officers who try to explain why they've stopped him.
4. Yob's in no mood for listening and lashes out at Officers who use a Taser device to subdue him before wrestling him to the ground.
5. Passerby sees what's happening and begins filming incident.
7. Yob continues struggling and Taser device has to be used again as well as physical force.
8. Yob is eventually subdued, handcuffed and arrested.
9. Nottingham Police voluntarily refer matter to IPCC.
10. Mobile phone footage is shown on TV. There's a public outcry. The Police are villified by certain sections

[alan-r]

why after tazering the guy once didn't the police just stand back and let the guy calm down while he was down an tell him if he didn't want it again the let him be handcuffed instead of not giving the guy a chance to do this it was like a pack of hyenas round a fresh kill

[Sweep2k]

Does it have to be all of scenario 1 or all of scenario 2?

Or are you prepared to accept that the man may have been at fault and the police acted less than professionally?

It would be lovely if everything was that black and white though.

[123everton]

The bloke on the floor is a big bloke, he was'nt going t go easily IMHO.
I'll criticise the police when I feel they're wrong, it appears to me that the force used was not excessive.

[carrust]

If I'd have done the same thing to a mugger or burglar entering my house, I'd be on a charge of GBH.

[Julnar]

Thee is no excuse for the police assaulting members of the public on the streets of Britain! That's why police vans have darkened windows and a trip to the cells can often be quite literal.

[DSnewsKE]

I've printed off dartagnon and paraffin's posts and will be sending them to The Police Federation, to help with the defence of their officers.
Those poor policemen never stood a chance!!

[vulcan]

why don't the police use nets ?

[Davethedog]

I think the police do a very difficult job.

You are rightbthey should be seen as arbiters of the law rather than breakers.

However they are confronted by a drunken lout - who the injures one of thier number, probably when he was asked to calm down.

My instinct would be to incapacitate him as quickley as possible as can be seen even after being tasered he caries on fighting. The police do not know if he has a knife or if hes armed.

So you all suggest that the police should stand thier and let him run amoke or until he calms down, when he meekly allows himself to be arrested.

I would suggest that far to many of the posters on here have no understanding of some of the violence in our cities or understand what a hard job the police do.

What should the police have done and if anyone should deign to answer seriously imagine its you in thier postion not some abstract day dream.

[ludwig]

The only thing thing I can see that's questionable is when the punches are thrown.

It's not pleasant to have 50,000 volts up your rse and be jumped on by four policemen, which is why I personally always avoid that situation by not going getting p1ssed up in the middle of town and starting fights with people.

[Davethedog]

Lol Thats about it really.

If everyone followed this perfect example, it would leave our police free to catch speeding motorists and people who put the wrong type of recycling in the black bin. :-)

[ludwig]

To be fair I don't think correct procedure is being followed here. I'm pretty sure that when the officer shouts 'Taser! Taser! Taser!', the others are supposed to respond with 'Oi! Oi! Oi!'.