There’s never a good time for a police officer to be kneeling on a suspect’s neck, but it’s an especially bad look when the world is still in uproar over the death of George Floyd who was killed in similar fashion less than 2 months ago.
Featured Image VIA
The footage was taken in Islington, north London at around 6.30pm yesterday after police officers were called to a fight in the area and arrested a man at the scene on suspicion of affray and possession of an offensive weapon:
This is so disturbing to watch, two Met Police Officers holding down black man with 1 officer with knee on his neck in Islington. Don’t those cops learn lesson from what happened to #GeorgeFloyd?
Thankfully the Officer has been suspended#blacklivesmatter #BlackLivesMatterUK pic.twitter.com/eYdFkPzFEQ
— Mohammed Shafiq (@mshafiquk) July 17, 2020
Well OK that’s nowhere near as severe as the George Floyd video but as you can see he’s got his knee on the guy’s head/neck for the first 20 seconds, which is both unnecessary and not a technique they teach you in training. The officer doing the kneeling has been suspended and the other one placed on restricted duties after the footage went viral.
The Met’s Deputy Commissioner Sir Steve House says (via Metro):
The video footage that I have seen today and is circulating on social media is extremely disturbing. I understand that many viewing the footage will share my concern.
The man involved was arrested, taken to a police station and has now been seen by a police doctor.
Some of the techniques used cause me great concern – they are not taught in police training.
We have quickly assessed the incident, including the body worn video footage from the officers and their statements and justification for their use of force. As a result we have referred the matter to the IOPC.
One officer has been suspended and another officer has been removed from operational duty, but not suspended at this time. This decision will be kept under review. We will co-operate fully with the IOPC investigation.
Crazy that it would even cross this officer’s mind to kneel on a suspect’s neck or head after the George Floyd incident, not to mention the guy was already handcuffed anyway. I’m sure there’ll be people commenting that the suspect shouldn’t have resisted arrest and is a scumbag anyway and while both those things may be true, it’s still a total lack of judgement, awareness and common sense by the police officer which are traits so obviously needed in such an important role.
To watch one of the police officers involved in the murder of George Floyd get confronted by a woman in a supermarket, click HERE.
