A police officer has been filmed kicking and stamping on the head of a man lying on the ground at Manchester Airport.

The uniformed male officer is seen holding a Taser over the man, who is lying face down, before striking him twice while other officers shout at onlookers to stay back in a video shared widely online.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said firearms officers had been attacked while attempting to arrest someone following a fight in the airport’s Terminal 2 on Tuesday. It said it had referred itself to the police watchdog.

Anger has grown over the video and a crowd of what appeared to be several hundred people protested outside the police station in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, on Wednesday evening.

  • workerONE@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I wonder if some people carrying guns see every confrontation as a matter of life and death since they are carrying a deadly weapon that could be used against them if they temporarily lose control in a struggle.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      No, but they don’t see those unarmed (uniform counts as “arms” here too) as equal to them. It’s human psychology. Also you may read up on psychology of war crimes and what makes a combatant shoot up a civilian car.

      If you’ve done fencing (be it with rapiers or with carolingian swords as LARPers do), you know the feeling, it’s a very basic instinct.

      The hammer and nail saying also rings right, if you take a hammer and weigh it in your hand, you’ll feel differently. Or an axe. Or a dog’s lead with roulette, try to hold it half a meter from the roulette itself and weigh it, it too feels like a weapon.

      It’s such a cool thought I’ve had this morning. Basic human instincts tell us that for a sane society all free people should bear arms. Not necessarily something fitting to shoot up a school. But means to fight for yourself and resist.