Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall – highly praised by his commanding officer for bravery against the Taliban in Afghanistan – was set upon by three uniformed officers on his home town High Street. The sickening attack – caught in forensic detail on CCTV – led a crown court judge to label it one of the worst examples of police aggression he had ever seen. Yet, in a travesty of justice, it was Mark who was at first convicted by magistrates of attacking the policemen.. despite the video footage clearly showing he was the victim. Read It Here
(RG)If these thugs in uniform are not attacking innocent citizens they are arresting members of parliament for doing their job. This isn’t an isolated incident, there have been many occasions where the Police have enjoyed beating the living crap our of a young man for trivial matters. I could dedicate an entire Blog to acts of savagery like this by the Police Here is another one from 2006 where the boys in blue attacked a former paratrooper. Another appalling example was the death of Christopher Alder 37, a former paratrooper and Falklands War veteran who died on the floor of the custody suite at Hull's Queens Gardens police headquarters in April, 1998 after being arrested. He choked to death on blood and vomit resulting from injuries he had sustained in the earlier fracas while officers ignored him and carried on chatting. The police watchdog said the officers had been guilty of "unwitting racism". I don’t believe that in this latest incident the police would have acted so violently if Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall had been from an Ethnic background and as such he was treated as `white scum` and remorselessly beaten due to the claims of institutional Racism. As a result of the large numbers of young men coming back from Iraq and mainly Afghanistan mentally scarred we will unfortunately see more occasion where vulnerable members of our society who have served their Country will be assaulted by the British Police. Of course not all policemen are thugs and I know many are ex servicemen but the bad eggs need removing.I myself have been sent e-mails from a serving metropolitan police officer who disagreed with my views on PTSD and threatend to "Stamp on my f****** face." This is a poem I wrote about a victim.
Thank you soldier for your duty in Iraq
But unfortunately you still need to wait at the back
Our Doctors are busy
Our Nurses are stressed
We will get around to seeing you
Were Doing our best
The soldiers chair is empty
He’s gone to his meds
A bottle of cheap whisky
Will sort our his head
Sat on a park bench he screams at the moon
He smashed the bottle then whistles a tune
His Regimental March
He needs another drink
He pulls up his collar
Smelling his own stink
Along comes two policeman
They tell him to move
He asks why he should?
They say their not in the mood
They drag him from the bench
Then put in the boot
He’s back in Iraq being attacked by a mob
They kick and they punch and they bite and they stab
The cops take him to hospital
He screams, "I’ve been in Iraq"
They tell him to keep his mouth shut
And sit at the back.
© Tony McNally
© Mack (RG) The thoughts of a Falklands War Veteran.
Rogue_gunner_32_alpha@yahoo.co.uk
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Absolutely Appalling!!!-Another example of the fascist state under New LIEbour!The conviction should be overturned and this brave and honourable soldier be given the chance on life he so rightly deserves and has earned in the service of his country!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with these coward cops? I would have liked to see how hard this cop would have been on a one to one with this lad who they beat up. That cpwardly cop is not fit to lick that lads boots. I would sack all three of them.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a storm in a teacup, having seen the highlights and read the report.
ReplyDeleteIf an off-duty squaddie tells the police to f**k off, what else are they going to do?
Special Constables are probably a bit less subtle about it than the regulars, but then they don't have the training the regulars do.
Cheers
Parkway
If an off-duty squaddie tells the police to f**k off, what else are they going to do?
ReplyDeleteGo figure Parkway!
Yeah Pakaway, pehaps they should have shot him dead? now isent it time you went and put some more tickets on windscreens
ReplyDeleteCrims in uniform.
ReplyDeleteGunner, as you know I've got nothing but respect for our service personnel as most of my family have served or are serving now, but I have also been on the receiving end of more than my fair share of drunk squaddies and a few matloes. I would much rather let the RMP's or Provost deal with them but sometimes we have no option, especially as my current patch is where many serving personnel go for a night out for R&R after getting back in country.
ReplyDeleteHaving been there more than a number of times with a drunken bloke standing in the street swearing there comes a point when you can only say "thanks very much, now go home, you're drunk" so many times to someone before you have to act and clearly one or all of the officers decided enough was enough. Without audio we'll never know exactly what was said but he's clearly gesturing (as he admitted) and I very much doubt he was asking if they knew where he could buy a Solero.
As soon as they start to move towards him, he legs it and falls over before getting up again and being dropped with a 'rugby' tackle. Please read the post I wrote on my blog entitled "why does it take six of you?" In the post I wrote about restraining with multiple officers, the picture has one officer pinning the head to the floor, one of the main reasons is to prevent the suspect from biting someone. Exactly as Aspinall admitted to doing to the officer cuffing him, and got a shove in the face to get him off. As for the slaps to the head and appearing to rub it on the floor? it looks out of order but IF he is lifting his head back up (as I strongly suspect having been there more than a couple of times) or pushing against them then that explains the multiple hits. That question alone is the one for the IPCC to decide on.
Personally, the only thing I would do differently is control and physically pin the head against the floor. As soon as the head is pinned it takes out the effective use of the neck, shoulder and back muscles which makes it considerably easier to get someone's arms back into cuffs. Pinning the head also stops the guy on the deck from nutting the floor deliberately which happens quite a bit with drunk people during violent restraints. I've seen a bloke arrested for rape headbutt the floor so hard during the struggle that he fractured his cheek bone causing it to burst everywhere. Fortunately the CCTV was square on (as this incident) and picked it up nicely. Two of the strikes the officer on the guys left did seemed to connect with the head, the rest planted nicely into the shoulder joint and you can clearly see Aspinalls arm bent instead of behind him in a cuff. When the arm goes back, the punches stop. Punches ARE allowed and are taught in officer safety training - by deadening the muscle group you immobilise the joint allowing it to be controlled.
As for the reporter, yet another expert who has no clue about restraint techniques or has ever tried to restrain someone who doesn't want to be restrained. It's not supposed to be a one on one fight, it's an arrest. That said, I've had a few of them as well after a nasty domestic and a para trying to run off after buying heroin, funnily enough he didn't want to get caught.
As I said I've had more than a few drunk squaddies try and square up simply because they could, and although I and most of my colleagues (being ex services) give service personnel A LOT of slack compared to the usual drunk chav bastard we have to deal with, there is only so much abuse you can expect us to take irrespective of the persons history or service record especially as we don't get someone's CV before every incident, don't you think?
Re the abusive emails you got from a serving Met officer, send me a message on my page if you want, I'm happy to give you the details for DPS as that's bang out of order.
Parkway if the lad happened to be Asian or black, would it have been a storm in a teapot then. No it would have been police brutality and every one would have been calling for action against these three thugs.Also had it have been you would have been a storm in a teacup,,NO
ReplyDeleteThanks you for your support of our Armed Forces and I also understand how rowdy and boisterous the Forces lads can be when out letting their hair down when coming back from operations, but so can any group of predominantly males but now it seems females can be as bad. I personally would not want to live next to an Amy barracks or a football ground for that matter. I welcome your explanation of the officers arresting techniques, but I have been in situations were I have been getting verbal abuse in Northern Ireland , I’m sure far worse than the officers in this incident? commanders on the ground felt that arresting a solitary youth would only inflame the situation. I’m not saying that the Police should not arrest anyone for being verbally abusive, but I have lost count of the programmes on TV that highlight the Policeman’s patience of a Saint in dealing with drunks (When they know there being filmed),as you know alcohol is the main reason for this type of behaviour. I believe on this occasion if the officers could have engaged in a conversation with the soldier they may have calmed the situation down? Not that it should have mattered as all of us should be treated equal regardless of our Religious beliefs or skin colour or employment when it comes to breaking the law, but as you may agree if they have discovered he was military I’m sure they could have discussed in a more controlled manner what was his problem? Do you honestly think that they (Police) would have reacted like this if the man had been from an ethnic minority? I personally don’t think so? I would just like to add that I fully supported the Police in the handling of John Charles de Menezes incident, where I honestly believe they believed he was a suicide bomber and under the circumstances at the time who can blame them. I am totally apposed to the Police arresting an MP for a matter relating to Immigration, if this had been about National defence, I would once again have supported this action. As for the Para I’m not surprised if you didn’t fancy running after him as they are fit lads the Para’s and as for the Met Police Officer and the e-mails, I know who he is (Ex Soldier) and I know he also was typing under the influence,
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas.
I responded to you on mine, it's equally as long, cheers!
ReplyDelete