G20 police officer cleared of assault

Respect authority or face consequences tbh. This was a bit heavy handed yes, but you can't go up to someone trying to keep the peace and shout at their face without riposte...
 
he feared objects in her hand were weapons.
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LOL, a big strong policeman scared of a tiny woman with a carton?

What a *******. Now he knows he can get away with it, he'll just do it again.
 
He'd already told her to step back many times, pushed her and even caught her with the back of his hand before he finally resorted to using his baton on a fleshy part of her leg so as to not cause any permanent injury.

In addition he's been cleared by a court, for which the so called injured party couldn't even be bothered to turn up for and offer evidence or face anyone questioning her.

She chose to put herself in that position, ignored warnings and frankly got the response that was appropriate.
 
emailiscrap said:
Respect might be quite nice once in a while and the way she seemed* to be in his face showed none. She deserved it in my opinion.


*no I wasn't there and am basing that on the video.
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But how can you respect a body that projects itself with brutality? (the met/riot squad), honestly?. Some people don't respond to intimidation with fear, some people get agitated and angry. As the poster above mentioned, these people were herded together and kept behind human barriers for long periods of time (controlled protest...???) with no water or access to basic human requirements. How would you react?.

Tefal said:
No offence but a 3" blade will kill you just as well as a samuri sword
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I agree, but a 3" blade looks nothing like a carton of pop, especially if you're trained/practised in recognising 3" blades at close range.
 
Fear of police is not ideal but I think it is better than the downright disrespect they get in this country.

In my opinion the woman was asking for it, she was stirring up a large group of angry people and you can see he tried to push her away a few times before.
 
Richie said:
It would, understandably, have been a scary place to be for the public being caught up in it but, unfortunaetly, "kettling" was a sanctioned public order technique at the time and, quite rightly, is now under scrutiny.

Was it a mistake to use "kettling" ??

Probably.... But then hindsight is 20/20 and, because of G20, this technique is being heavily reveiwed AFAIK. Sometimes it unfortunaetly takes a tragedy for chages to be made.
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Kettling! That's the phrase I was looking for. I kept thinking 'kiting? No, they wanted them all bunched up, not drawn off one by one...'

Regardless, I think it's wrong that tragedies are needed to bring about change. Kettling caused great problems during the miner's strikes, but the issues raised were mostly overlooked or put down to toe violence inherent in those protests. As I said, while a few at the G20 protest were intent on causing issues, the vast majority were planning on a peaceful rally, and heavy-handed tactics (which they were) should not have been planned from the start, but used as retaliatory containment if things got out of hand. Protesters were being detained from the very outset in closed-off areas, and it was inevitable with so many people making a show that things weren't going to go well. I've got a great deal of respect for police officers, but the entire day was handled abysmally and I'm glad I spent it indoors.
 
benneh said:
Christ he could have pushed her over with his middle finger, he's a big guy.
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Possibly but she wasn't the sole threat.

Impact factors involved in this incident included number of persons, sex of each person, possible weapons, I could go on....

The level of force he used, given the circumstances, was correct.


Besides, it didnt take more than 1-2 secs of him using the baton on her for everyone else to start backing off where, moments earlier, they are advancing on the cops.
 
Deadbeat said:
Regardless, I think it's wrong that tragedies are needed to bring about change....


.... but the entire day was handled abysmally and I'm glad I spent it indoors.
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Agreed on both counts. It just seemed the police didnt plan the event properly....
 
Correct decision. Imo compensation is due to the police man because of the unnecessary stress put on him during this shameful incident.
 
benneh said:
You're talking about public servants dude. We shouldn't have to fear the police in the UK. She wasn't swinging a samurai sword about, she was waving a carton of pop and shouting. She looks about 5ft tall and weighs about as much as a packet of fags
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I see what you are saying dude, but surely the police shouldn't have to fear us either?

Yeah okay we now know she wasn't armed, hindsight is a wonderful thing. He must have been bricking it and she was right up in his face, the crowd could have rushed at anypoint and she was totally kicking off. Would you have waited for her to produce a proper weapon and strike you before you did something?

He made a judgement call and I can't blame him for that. She could have been at home doing the cleaning or something constructive. She didn't have to be there, certainly not on the front lines and certainly not kicking off in his face.

These days with the bombings by terrorists and fanatics, I would hate to be a cop.

n
 
naefeart said:
She didn't have to be there, certainly not on the front lines and certainly not kicking off in his face.
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Thats an issue for some females though. They think that (quite rightly) men will not strike them which, IMHO, makes them think they are invincible and can go around screaming stuff at anyone (particularly males) without any recourse.

Unfortunaetly for her, when it comes to officer safety, this is not the case.
 
wether she deserved it or not is not the point....slapping loud women in the face isn't part of his job. so he should be charged just like any other member of the public as it wasn't his job he was doing when he did that.
 
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