UK Student Protests: Wheelchair-bound student dragged across the road by police officer, BBC defend

[Parallel Streaks]

Well, speaking as someone who has a cousin who has 2 cracked ribs, a broken wrist and a broken nose from the student-riots after the police intervened, I feel like I'm not the most impartial person to comment, but all I'm gonna say is this: Yes, he could've been inciting a riot, but did he really need to be dragged over a concrete road? The thing about a wheelchair is, it's pretty fucking easy to push the thing away from the crowd and give him a stern talking to.

 

[Xojins]

Snip

The police say he gave them reason to think he was a threat. Do you always believe everything cops and the government say? I don't know how many cops you've met but a lot of them are just assholes with a superiority complex. All I'm saying is that it's just as naive to assume the cop had a legitimate reason to do that as it is to just assume the cop was completely in the wrong.

My personal belief, however, is that whatever cop it was should face some kind of repercussions. You don't drag a crippled person out of their wheelchair unless they're literally about to kill you or something like that. On top of that the cop was just a fucking moron for doing that in front of so many people; of course something like that is going to make a whole lot of people angry. If anything he should face charges of inciting violence.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

snip

But what could he have possibly done, you can see he is just sitting there, what possible threat could this hadicaped person have done to warrant being draggeda across the road.

He could have been trying to incite a riot/violence or anything like that.

Yea. Because any amount of goading always justifies beating on a guy with cerebral palsy.

Don't even try to justify this. Unless the fucker was holding a gun this was a 100% overreaction.

I don't have anything against the police. The majority of these people have been stuck between a rock and hard place, just trying to do the best they can with a bullshit situation. But there is no explanation on this Earth that can take away from the stupidity of what that particular officer did.

I am inclined to go with this for now, but until more information comes into light, I am not taking sides just yet.

But honestly, there are just some things you do not do. One of those is beating a handicapped individual whom can't fight back. Let alone move anywhere on his own. Wheel him over to the side and have a talk with him, don't drag him across the ground like a crippled animal. Doing that infront of already angry protesters is just fanning flames for the sake of fanning them.

 

[Hosker]

It is extremely hard to see what is happening in that video. I'm sure they officers wouldn't have just done it randomly; there has to have been a reason.

So... much... naivity - can't understand this blind faith in the status quo. "All police are nice guys who only use violence against violence" - wake up, Jesus -.-U

It's not that I'm naive; it's just that I can't fathom why anybody would do this if they did not have a very good reason to.

 

[fullbleed]

Are you aware of the phrase sticks and stones may break my bones? Do you honestly think this guy was saying anything serious enough to incite hate and violence to a degree that it would be a threat to the police? You can see there's no one else really around him at the start, what kind of riot is this one guy going to stir up? At this point there had already been numerous clashes with police as protesters are contained in areas and refused to be alowed to leave. I can think of nothing this one guy in a wheel chair could have said would acted as a game changer or led to an upscale of violence amoungst protesters. Besides it's a protest and people will be shouting all the time, you can expect the police to be on the end of some verbal anger/abuse when people are contained and beaten in this manner, but it doesn't justify them man handling everyone guilty of doing it especailly not when they suffer from a disability such as cerebral palsy.

Why is it that if the police do anything you automatically assume that they're in the right and the other party must be in the wrong even if they are disabled and in a wheel chair.

I mean just fucking lsiten to yourselves! You think its justified to tip someone out of a wheel chair and drag them across the floor against their will for no obvious reason? I can't believe some of you!

You know maybe the police man was doing it because he's not such a nice guy, he probably doesn't like all the students shouting to be let out of the cordon, he probably doesn't like all the mess and violence that some of them are causing. Maybe he's abusing his power? It can fucking happen, the police force are not perfect angels and especailly not when it comes to protests. This is a student protest and theres been 4 of these so far and every one has ended in violence. A police woman was caught on camera with out displaying any rankings or ID at the same protest, horses have charged at protesters including children and pregnant women, a student had to have 3 hours of brain surgery after being beat by police and then refused help, school children are held outside in freezing conditions and refused food water or toilet facilites.

I know it'll be a bid shock to your system by the police can be in the fucking wrong! Last year Ian Tomlinson was killed as a result of police actions, it was entirely unprevoked and caught on camera, no one was held responsible.
Oh but it was a policeman who dun it so he must have deserved it? Fuck off.

 

[cjbos81]

This guy is a joke. He uses his disability as an excuse to pull this kind of crap.


When anyone uses their disability as an excuse, they deserve what they get.

 

[Ois]

"Surely it would've been easier to move him on his wheelchair," except that would have allowed him to continue whatever behavior they wanted to stop. The quickest way to stop whatever threat he posed, was to quickly restrain him physically so as to prevent him from doing whatever it is he was doing.

All other things beign equal, we should have faith in the officer of the law who had to pass whatever screening process, not some kid who just happened to be born into with a terrible disease. It isn't just healthy people who cause trouble and break the rules, sick people do it too.

I agree with you that the police needed to take action if he was disturbing the peace, but would it not be more likely to incite the people around him by doing this?

 

[Mechsoap]

Don't see why they had to pull him off the chair, i mean they could do whatever they needed without throwing him in the ground.

Also the news reporter seemed like he disliked that student.

 

[Jamieson 90]

Whether Jody Mcintyre was doing something wrong or not the way that BBC interview was conducted was disgusting. Every single question and the way they where said had an assumption that he was in the wrong.

Yes the goverment provides the funds for the BBC but lets remember where those funds come from, out of the license fee payers pocket. I think it has been quite obvious for some time that the BBC is not impartial at all. Need any further evidence look at the coverage of the Iraq inquires and how the BBC retracted their statements.

 

[Choppaduel]

Actually no, the BBC is funded by a 'license fee' that everyone pays along with their other taxes.

Can you opt out of paying? if not then its tax and thus the fucking government.

You people trust your governments way too much.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Prove it. It's a one minute video, you have no proof as to what happened that caused the cop to act this way. For all we know, the cripple deserved it. He is a cop, if you can't trust him not to abuse cripples, how can you trust him to uphold justice and the law? Interesting philisophical question right there. Why do we allways assume the cop is at fault when one of these show's up, and not the other way around? My bet is on projection. We identify more with the non-cop, therefore we project ourselves onto the non-cop and think "I wouldn't have done anything wrong so it must be the cop's fault" sub-consciously at least. That's my two cents, not that I have any reasonable credentials for that to be taken as fact, but it IS my opinion.

Because judging by the interview, the guy even has trouble speaking, let alone do anything to seriously entice the police to the point that he's dragged out of his wheelchair by 2 officers.

I'm not saying he didn't do anything wrong persée, just that by estimation of this guy's limitations it couldn't be anything so bad that this was a justified response. If he was blocking the road or something, drive the guy off in the damned wheelchair. Hell, chain him to a post if he tries to go back. But this looks like pure police brutality. What purpose would it have?

 

[Jamieson 90]

Actually no, the BBC is funded by a 'license fee' that everyone pays along with their other taxes.

Can you opt out of paying? if not then its tax and thus the fucking government.

You people trust your governments way too much.

Yes you can opt out of paying. There are lots of people who don't have TV's and who dont pay the license fee.

 

[fullbleed]

Actually no, the BBC is funded by a 'license fee' that everyone pays along with their other taxes.

Can you opt out of paying? if not then its tax and thus the fucking government.

You people trust your governments way too much.

Yes you can opt out, you don't pay the license you get no TV.

 

[Red Right Hand]

Prove it. It's a one minute video, you have no proof as to what happened that caused the cop to act this way. For all we know, the cripple deserved it. He is a cop, if you can't trust him not to abuse cripples, how can you trust him to uphold justice and the law? Interesting philisophical question right there. Why do we allways assume the cop is at fault when one of these show's up, and not the other way around? My bet is on projection. We identify more with the non-cop, therefore we project ourselves onto the non-cop and think "I wouldn't have done anything wrong so it must be the cop's fault" sub-consciously at least. That's my two cents, not that I have any reasonable credentials for that to be taken as fact, but it IS my opinion.

I'm sorry but in this particular case that's bullshit. The man is disabled, he can't even move himself. There is no excuse for that idiot police officer to physically take him out of his chair and drag him across the street, no matter what he may be saying or doing. The officer could have just wheeled the wheelchair away himself. This is a clear example of police brutality and I really hope that officer is found and sacked. Which is probably not gonna happen.

Also, police officers aren't perfect human beings. You know how in riots people commit violent acts because they are in a crowd of people, thus allowing them greater chance of getting away with it? Yeah, i'm willing to bet that some police officers think exactly the same thing.

 

[Sparrow]

It looks like the guy in the wheelchair fell from the wheelchair, not the police pulling him off. The police man called for help when he dragged him to the ground, even with all those other people around. Maybe the kid needed help?

God knows. I just don't want to think of the alternative.

*giant snip*

I get that you're angry about this, but you might want to take a few second to rephrase what you said. Some of it came out a jumbled mess. Also, I get that you seem to be on the anti-police side of things here but, you might want to take a look at alternatives here. Don't always assume the negatives, as obvious as they may seem here. It's possible there's a good reason for all this, but who knows?

 

[Daveman]

Prove it. It's a one minute video, you have no proof as to what happened that caused the cop to act this way. For all we know, the cripple deserved it. He is a cop, if you can't trust him not to abuse cripples, how can you trust him to uphold justice and the law? Interesting philisophical question right there. Why do we allways assume the cop is at fault when one of these show's up, and not the other way around? My bet is on projection. We identify more with the non-cop, therefore we project ourselves onto the non-cop and think "I wouldn't have done anything wrong so it must be the cop's fault" sub-consciously at least. That's my two cents, not that I have any reasonable credentials for that to be taken as fact, but it IS my opinion.

At 7:40 into the video the guy says it perfectly, "you're blaming the victim". Remember, nothing has happened to the police officer as far as we know from the evidence presented. Yes I know students are commiting acts of violence, in my home city a disabled police officer was attacked by a large group of protestors and beaten to the ground. Then one of my friends had the audacity to complain about being held behind by riot police when in the area. In that case the protestors were at fault. In this case, I think it's safe to say the policemen well overstepped the mark.

To the OP. Shut up, the BBC were totally fair. The kid hasn't issued a complaint and it's a fact students were being violent, in fact I think if you watch the clip you hear at the beginning some guy calling him (the guy attacked) a "fucking hard nut". The host was just taking the counter-argument as is always the case on any normal news show, or at least it should be. He was given plenty of opportunity to present his side of the story and answer any questions that people would want to ask him, it doesn't get fairer than that.