UK Policeman Suspended After Kneeling on Kneck of Black Man

I dont agree. I dont think any officer or group of officers should approach an individual with the manner that you have stated in your post. It is the reason why I value community policing where individuals policing the area are from the said area. It would be hard for Officer Joe to slam Craig on the floor in public, in an attempt to arrest him, but then go about his business in the same community the next day. This is especially if they both come from the same community.

You also have to remember that in many cases there are no clear evidence of an offence or crime being committed, but more of suspicion through a tipoff or surveillance. In those instances, it is ridiculous to aggressively approach an individual based on suspicion. What happens, if the individual was indeed not carrying a knife? Would the officer just said “ah, sorry about your cracked ribs. We thought you had a knife on you.”?

Just to be clear, I am talking about individuals who are stopped on the street and not those involved in committing an active crime. I still state that officers should be able to use de-escalation techniques and seek to disarm an individual rather than aggravate or attack the individual. Some of the techniques by certain officers would have been called physical assaults, if they were done by one random person to another.

I watched a video on Instagram of an officer bodyslam an individual, who he was trying to arrest. The man ended up with a broken jaw and cracked ribs. In any other situation, that would have been physical assault.

I'm not sure anyone is disputing that they should have been arrested. Unless I've missed something here?

Seeing as you're conflating this with racism, might one ask you show me where restraining a criminal (in an admittedly dubious manner) has anything to do with it?

They may well do but from this article they dont seem to have done anything overly bad, bar having the situational awareness of roadkill.

The guy has been charged with having a knife I think, pinning him down by the neck for seconds is not bad.

And what if they're resisting? It being somewhat unlikely a thug is going to politely get into the paddy wagon simply by being asked.

Yes agreed. And "knee on the neck" restraining methods are not recommended by the Met Police as a legitimate method of restraint.

This was clearly not a good idea given recent events but to compare this to what happened to George Floyd is embarrassing and shows an obvious a ‘anti-police’ agenda.

This man was in possession of a deadly weapon, George Floyd wasn’t. This man appeared to be resisting arrest, George Floyd wasn’t. Derek Chauvin was pinning all of his wait, through his knee, on to George Floyd’s neck, this police officer wasn’t. I could go on listing differences but I’m sure any objective person can already understand.

I dont agree. I dont think any officer or group of officers should approach an individual with the manner that you have stated in your post. It is the reason why I value community policing where individuals policing the area are from the said area. It would be hard for Officer Joe to slam Craig on the floor in public, in an attempt to arrest him, but then go about his business in the same community the next day. This is especially if they both come from the same community.

You also have to remember that in many cases there are no clear evidence of an offence or crime being committed, but more of suspicion through a tipoff or surveillance. In those instances, it is ridiculous to aggressively approach an individual based on suspicion. What happens, if the individual was indeed not carrying a knife? Would the officer just said “ah, sorry about your cracked ribs. We thought you had a knife on you.”?

Just to be clear, I am talking about individuals who are stopped on the street and not those involved in committing an active crime. I still state that officers should be able to use de-escalation techniques and seek to disarm an individual rather than aggravate or attack the individual. Some of the techniques by certain officers would have been called physical assaults, if they were done by one random person to another.

I watched a video on Instagram of an officer bodyslam an individual, who he was trying to arrest. The man ended up with a broken jaw and cracked ribs. In any other situation, that would have been physical assault.

Actually thats exactly what it means, especially if they're armed - like this one was.
The second point is true but its anything but universally applicable. The way of doing things being if the person resists to detain them appropriately.. from this (aside from poor optics) the officer doesn't seem to have done anything wrong. Him kneeling on the person for a few seconds, not throttling him or beating him to a pulp. Never mind the lunatics attributing this to "racism" despite no evidence to that effect.

Possessing a weapon does NOT mean you are allowed to kneel on their neck. There is more than one officer, they could easily restrain his hands and keep him on the ground and the weapon would be rendered unusable! There is no justification for this. They did NOT need to do this.
You people need to stop with your respectability politics. As if being a criminal reduces your humanity. So because he’s a criminal he doesn’t deserve fair treatment?

“Objective person”, whole load of codswallop

Exactly! Why are the police allowed to commit grievous bodily harm, assault and other crimes, slap the ‘reasonable force’ label and get away with it. They do it to innocent people of all races all the time. Simple stop and searches with no findings turn to violent gang onslaughts on the public and they just go “he was resisting arrest”. Why do u get to violate my humanity just because I do not agree with ur execution of the law?
This is why people foster negative attitudes towards the police. They can do this and continue as if nothing is happening.

I think it is due to a lack of proper community policing. If the Government enforce community policing, I think these stories will reduce to tiny numbers.

I still state that officers should be able to use de-escalation techniques and seek to disarm an individual rather than aggravate or attack the individual.

In many situations no amount of talking will calm people down and you cannot you disarm an individual without getting psychical unless they are willing to give it up, that just happens in Jackie Chan movies.

Multiple people piling on somebody who is violent or armed is absolutely necessary unless there is a huge size advantage of the arresting officer , you cannot control somebody safety if its 1 on 1.

One or two police officers cannot control a situation then they either need more training or should not be on the force.

You've seen the borderline-riot "situations" in recent weeks, where attendees of unlicensed music event have violently turned on police when they tried to close them down.

Sky News reports 140 officers injured in recent weeks (https://news.sky.com/story/around-140-officers-injured-in-london-during-protests-and-illegal-parties-12015186). Do you seriously think 'talking to' these crowds will immediately de-escalate them?!

People will attack police. It happens on a daily basis. You can't blame officers for using force to gain compliance when the risk of injury to them is very real. No level of social training will make 'talking' to crowds an effective solution. Sadly in all too many cases, force is the only way to stop disorder.

That is the excuse they take when they kill unarmed individuals.

Possessing a weapon does NOT mean you are allowed to kneel on their neck. There is more than one officer, they could easily restrain his hands and keep him on the ground and the weapon would be rendered unusable! There is no justification for this. They did NOT need to do this.
You people need to stop with your respectability politics. As if being a criminal reduces your humanity. So because he’s a criminal he doesn’t deserve fair treatment?

“Objective person”, whole load of codswallop

Well how many unarmed individuals have been killed in the UK by police in the past year then? I think you'll find that the only people killed by police in the UK (minus some notable historic cases in the past such as Jean Charles de Menezes) have either been terrorists or have tried to attack police with weapons. I hate to compromise your narrative but "routine killing" is not part of British policing culture.

The individual in the case this thread is about has been charged with possession of a knife. I don't think the officers would be taking any chances by "talking" with him when they were in the (correct) belief he had a knife. I don't condone kneeling on his neck - but using force by taking him to the floor is completely justified.

The reason officers get injured it that they refrain from using force, as the likes of yourself will conduct 'trial by media' and plaster their faces across social media.