“Disturbing footage”
Todays Headlines are a British officer has been withdrawn from frontline duty after multiple videos began to circulate on social media showing police officers beat at least three people inside a Manchester Airport, an incident which the city’s own force described as “truly shocking.”
The footage had gone viral, and images of one officer apparently stamping on a man’s head looked to be the latest flashpoint in an increasingly bitter public and political argument over whether violent tactics deployed by police were appropriate or lawful.
Police in Greater Manchester said the images shared on social media depicted an altercation that started after three officers were hurt during a “violent assault” — one female officer suffered a broken nose.
But the force conceded that what had been seen in the video was “clearly shocking” and a thing of “rare occurrence,” stating it voluntarily referred its response to UK’s independent police watchdog.
Video of the incident began circulating Wednesday and went viral on social media, fueling outrage among members of the public as well as lawmakers.
A news reporter reports couple feet away, a video shows two police officers with at least one taser pointed directly into the face of another male who is laying down on the ground. A male police officer then approaches the man and beings to kick him in the face with his taser still drawn before he begins stomping on this head.
Later in the video, another man with his hands up while seated nearby goes to the floor after an officer points a taser at him. After one woman joins him, a police officer kicks at the man who is still standing before wrestling with another and appearing to try to get down on his hands behind his back.
Attacks in video, which seems to occur just outside a bank of elevators on the ground level of the airport.
In another video, a man in a gray t-shirt is approached by an officer before being pepper sprayed in the face and taken to the ground while an arm seems wrapped around his neck.
CNN has been unable to independently verify the events surrounding or directly following the violence caught on tape.
The men’s conditions after the altercation were not known.
Todays local news Protesters gathered outside the force’s divisional headquarters in the town of Rochdale on Wednesday, PA media reported is a trending news of the day.
Multiple British politicians condemned the assaults shown in the videos. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, called the videos “disturbing” in a post on X.
UK Home Office Minister Diana Johnson said on X that she was “aware of the disturbing footage” and “understand(s) the public concern it has prompted.”
But not all lawmakers condemned the police actions.
Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK and one of five recently elected MPs for the right-wing populist party, said in a television interview that seeing the video was “not distressing” but rather “reassuring” that police officers were responding to a “serious issue” if they were using such force.
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