Sally Griffiths, Manchester and Salford Socialist Party
The recent footage of a police officer kicking and then stamping on the head of a man pinned to the floor of Manchester Airport by another officer has provoked shock and revulsion. The city is polarised, with speculation about events leading up to the act of police brutality.
That evening there were protests outside Rochdale police station late into the night and the day after there was a protest outside the offices of Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, in direct response to the video images. Approximately 500 people attended at just a day’s notice.
At the protest, people were rightly angry, concerned and frightened. Speakers reminded those there that these fears are a daily reality for Black and Asian people. We’ve all seen the long list of inquiries and investigations into institutional racism in the police and the British state. ‘Nothing to see here’ doesn’t cut it.
What many people are most shocked by is what seems to be a complete loss of control by armed police officers. It is reported that the police officers, who were armed, had been under attack before the restraining took place and footage has since revealed some of the preceding violent scenes. But there should never be a situation where a police officer can assault a member of the public, their training should remove that possibility.
People expect police officers to de-escalate situations, not exacerbate them and risk causing divisions within our city.
An investigation is under way by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). But how is that accountable to working-class communities in Manchester? It is made up of people with backgrounds in policing, high-level civil service and corporate governance. Instead, there should be an investigation led by democratically elected representatives of the community, including from the trade unions.
The assault came only a few days after a report on Greater Manchester Police (GMP) revealed women being treated disgracefully in GMP cells, strip searched or worse. These incidents are all too common. We won’t accept the trope of “one bad apple”.
We’ve seen an escalation of police interventions in the anti-war movement and arrests at rallies in support of Palestine, alongside heavy-handed custodial sentences for non-violent protesters. As anger at falling standards of living, environmental destruction and war grows, policing is becoming more repressive, defending the interests of the capitalist bosses.
We need a police service that is governed and overseen by the people and communities it serves. Across the country, faith in the police to act to protect working-class communities is falling; it feels particularly so in Manchester at the moment.
The Socialist Party calls for democratic control of the police. It needs to be accountable to local working-class committees, run by elected representatives including youth, workers and trade unions, as well as community groups.
