It appears that there was a protest relating to cuts to rail travel passes. Such passes are (or have been) very beneficial to many elderly people.
It is not fully possible to properly determine just from the video whether the force used by the Police was "reasonable" (as is required by the Criminal Law Act 1967 section 3 / Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 section 117) but it certainly has the appearance of being very heavy-handed on the part of the Police. See - CPS on Reasonable Force
The powers of arrest of a constable are in section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (as amended by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005).
Where an individual is aggrieved, a civil action against the Police may be possible though this is a diffcult legal area of law and practice. Legal aid may sometimes be available though the rules are particularly complex - see Changes to civil legal aid - Practical guidance for the Bar. An alternative is the use of Police Complaints machinery.
It does look a bit over the top. The man does not look to be resisting (other than instinctively trying to right himself up) so they probably could easily have relaxed their grip a little. As the lady shouting in the clip points out they are not even trying to discuss matters with him giving him an option not to resist if he was originally at fault.
ReplyDeleteI can only comment on the video as I know nothing else about the incident but you can see quite clearly he's passive resistant - very common amongst protestors - and the officers are trying to get him to release his right arm so they can handcuff him. I dare say a younger man would have been put on the ground quite violently the achieve this. It looks to me like the police were trying to deal with him as gently as possible. I do wonder what lead to his head needing to be held down. Also do you notice the woman near the end who undoes the police officers velcro tab on his vest? Ridiculous and childish behaviour from someone apparently trying to hold the police to account.
ReplyDeleteApparently a local reporter was threatened with arrest on anti-terrorism grounds
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/24/sheffield-reporter-arrest-anti-terrorism-laws
By railway staff it appears rather than police constables.
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