http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6429569.stm CCTV officer off frontline duties The officer punches Ms Comer five times in the incident CCTV footage A police officer shown in leaked CCTV footage punching a woman outside a nightclub has been withdrawn from public duty. An investigation has begun into the incident, supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). South Yorkshire's Chief Constable, Meredydd Hughes, said Pc Anthony Mulhall had not been suspended. CCTV footage showed Toni Comer, 20, being forcibly restrained after being ejected from a Sheffield nightclub. Mr Hughes added: "The officer draws a salary from the public purse and we will make use of his expertise and talent. But I don't want him put in a position where his welfare will be put at risk because he'll be dealing with the public. "And also I want public confidence restored. "The public needs to understand that there is more to this story, a full independent investigation must take place in order that the full facts can be placed before the public." Criminal damage A complaint of assault will now be investigated by the force, overseen by the IPCC. The CCTV footage, obtained by the Guardian newspaper and shown on BBC Two's Newsnight, shows Ms Comer and a police officer falling down a flight of stairs outside Sheffield's Niche nightclub. Police had been called when Ms Comer vandalised a car after being thrown out of the club. At the bottom of the stairs, she is restrained by officers, with the officer she fell with punching her five times. It is not clear where he punched her. Toni Comer admitted an offence of criminal damage The footage shows Ms Comer, from Sheffield, writhing around on the ground, which she said was due to an epileptic fit. Police said she was trying to resist arrest. She is later dragged to a police van with her trousers round her knees. "I got quite a few cuts and bruises on my arms and my face and the back of my neck," Ms Comer told Newsnight. "I really don't believe it. I didn't think they would actually do something like that at all." On Wednesday, at Sheffield Magistrates' Court, Ms Comer admitted criminal damage to a car, which she said happened after she was ejected from the nightclub, where she had been drinking brandy and had become aggressive. 'Dead arm' She was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £250 to the vehicle's owner. A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "It's a matter of record that the officer involved has fully accepted striking the person in the course of arresting them for an offence for which they were convicted. "The officer maintains that he did so because the offender was assaulting him." In a statement, Pc Mulhall said Ms Comer had tried to grab his genitals and knee, and that he had punched her to subdue her and then to "deaden her arm"
If you watch the footage and news reports it is amazing on the controversial comments made. My opinion is that she is a criminal and should be arrested, yes it was harsh in the way she was treated, but racism has nothing to do with it. Why wasn't she arrested for drunk disorderly, assaulting or trying to assault a officer etc?
I definately think that it is not racism. If she was 'grabbing genitals, sptitting, biting, and hitting' then i agree that the police should be able to use a certain amount of force. I think the punches were to the arm, which is not ideal, however better than to other areas. I think he was right in using force, however used too much. Surely pushing the women to the floor and using his weight to keep her down would be as usefull as hitting the wome 5 times. I think that the policeman should definately be punished, but not disharged from the policeforce.
It suprises me that she doesn't use her gender as an issue as well as her race. Both totally irrelevant.
just watched BBC1 news and it was the main headline there. The reporter said a 19 year old black woman and emphasised it quite strongly. I must admit the policeman's actions do seem quite strong, seeing there were many police officers around but you don't get to see the full picture of what actually happened. I would have thought there would have been more uproar about the fact that they dragged her while her trousers were round her ankles, but the cheif constable interviewed mentioned that and said the whole clip quite clearly shows the police helping her with them near the end. I understand the tactic is to hit the arm to give the suspect a 'dead' arm which means they can not flap about but I thought pepper spray was used now to stop suspects froms struggling?
Problem with pepper spray is that a couple of people who have breathing problems have died when it was used on them. I think it's a last resort now. It annoys me that the race card is played at every opportunity. It's getting to the stage when a middle aged white woman is discriminated against because it's unlikely she can succesfully claim racism.
It's totally ridiculous that the race card is being pulled and frankly having watched the video I see little wrong with it. The BBC have interviewed several policemen and they've all said they consider the force used to have been reasonable. That tells me that the public/media simply don't have a clue what goes into making an arrest. Anyway, any school boy knows that if you want to give someone a dead arm you have to hit repetitively quite hard in quick succession in the same area of the arm. If she'd have been hit in the face that would have been a different matter but she quite obviously hasn't as her face is fine. CS wouldn't have been advisable due to the number of police officers in close proximity who could have been affected as well I'd imagine. The media are doing what they always do - whipping something up into something it isn't. The comments from the local race relations bloke are a disgrace and he should be sacked. He is the one causing racial tension (if any subsequently manifests itself), not the police. I also think it's a very sad state of affairs when the general public will take the word of a convicted criminal over that of a police officer. I'm not saying she has no rights nor no right to be heard, simply that the uproar is disproportional to the incident. The public want to be protected from crime but they don't like how they're protected? *******s! You can't have your cake and eat it.
racism my ar$e, bad girl getting a kicking by police because she'd done wrong. Ok the policeman was over the top but if he was being spat at and bitten then i wonder how many of us wouldn't reacted. IMO the police were over the top. The real question should be why did the other police not stop him or help him arrest her and it wouldn't of got this far. I think the footage is enough of a shock why does she feel that the Racism card needs to be shown. or is it the media playin the racism?
Maybe because he did nothing wrong??? So far the only people to have suggested it was over the top are Human Rights Organisations and her lawyer. Not aimed at you specifically Wilmer but why in general do the public/media not accept what the professionals say?
I agree with you uea i don't see anything wrong with it. You done wrong you pay for it. I think it's all stired up by the media looking for a news fillers, the news reporters look for a story where there isn't one. The way all the news reports are highlighting the punches is to stir it up and because of the colour of the girl it has to be racism so they can get more people to fill in time.
I haven't seen the footage yet, but on the radio they said that 4 police were already holding her down when she was hit. However much she may have deserved it the polices job is to arrest people to put in front of courts, not to administer kangaroo court justice themselves. Why bother with courts if we are going to allow the police to attack anyone they want to?
Obviously it's the major point of debate but given all the evidence I don't see how you can be so sure it's excessive - what was she holding on to? What was she doing to him? She wasn't hit anywhere life-threatening nor has any broken bones. Just interested DJ, not having a go. I my opinion excessive force would have been punching her after she was cuffed and while being dragged to the wagon. There's a video link here Brighton. Be interesting to see if you still think the same thing after watching it. I'd say 100% there was no attempt to "administer kangaroo court justice". It's a disgrace the media are presenting it like that - makes it sound like the police found a random woman on the street and thought it'd be fun to beat her http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6429569.stm
Yeah, it does look different to what I imagined from the radio report. Having been almost crippled by an unwaranted police attack 10 years ago (I've only been able to start playing football again in the last 12 months) I tend to imagine the worst, coz I know they are capable of it.
as a general note, the police are hardly bastions of integrity, transparency and accountability. They're institutionally rubbish.
Hear Hear!! They should be more like the government... oh errrr :sad3: the army... oh errrr :sad3: the church... oh errrr :sad3: the health system... oh errrr :sad3: errrrr Welcome to the human race
Soon as they reached the Police Statoin, the officer explained what he had to do her and she was checked by the medical team and did not require any medical attention. In my books, that is not excessice force and should be the end of the matter, especially if this a common police practice when arresting. As everyone else has said, just the media trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I bet there will be journalists all over the area now asking youths what the police are like up there and trying to get little stories that can big up.
if this was a man there would not be a fuss about this - but as it is a women it is seen as wrong, but when a women goes for the genitles as she did then the man isn't wrong to retaliate really - its unfair and dirty either way she wont do that again
