Anna’s Blog – A Reflection on the Manchester Airport Incident
The incident at Manchester Airport last week has again brought significant attention to an ongoing problem in the UK. Two people of colour, Amaad and Fahir, were subjected to excessive force by a police officer, even whilst lying on the floor and clearly incapacitated. Witnesses captured the incident on their mobile phones showing the police officer assaulting both men (including stamping on one of their heads), using excessive restraints and deploying pepper spray on people watching the incident. Few people could watch that footage without recognising that the force used while the men were on the ground was grossly excessive and unnecessary.
The outcry online was immediate and protests in Rochdale and Manchester followed.
Further footage was later released of a wider incident showing physical aggression from both officers and civilians. This divided public opinion with the Mayor of Greater Manchester advising that it was ‘a complicated situation’ and that there was a ‘fuller picture’ that could be engaged with.
We appreciate that it was a complex situation in which the police felt provoked. However, Police officers are hired, trained and given equipment to manage these challenges and we should be able to hold them to a high standard of professional behaviour. The excessive violence and abuse of position in this case speaks to a serious institutional problem. But what is concerning, is that this excessive violence was inflicted upon two men of colour.
The police officer felt so within his rights to inflict this level of violence on a man of colour lying on the floor, that he felt able to do this in a public space with multiple mobile phones recording him. He felt so sure that there would be no consequences for his actions that he didn’t even flinch.
There is an argument that brutality and abuse of power is endemic in police culture, but the racial element is too heavily embedded in this to be ignored. Reports and statistics repeatedly show that people of colour are disproportionately the victims of police violence across the country. Data from the Home Office shows that people of colour, specifically Black people, are nearly ten times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police, compared to white people.
High profile cases of police brutality have led to various inquiries and reports over the years, including the Macpherson report in 1999 which branded the Metropolitan Police as ‘institutionally racist’. Progress has been slow and unsatisfactory which has left people of colour and their communities vulnerable and distrusting of the police.
Since the incident there has been action. The police officer involved in the incident has been suspended and Greater Manchester Police Force have referred themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) for a full investigation. The Greater Manchester Police have released a statement that acknowledges that the event as ‘truly shocking, and that people are rightly extremely concerned about it’.
The need for change is urgent and it starts, as an absolute minimum, with holding the police accountable for their actions so potentially the independent investigation will make the difference for this incident. But cultural change will start with acknowledging racism in all cases where it’s present, and holding open conversations around race, bias, privilege and challenging the status quo.
Further Resources
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmhaff/139/13903.htm