Andy Burnham has said politicians “should not be carried away by rushing to judgment” over incidents such as the viral Manchester Airport video.
Footage emerged earlier this week showing a Greater Manchester Police officer appearing to kick and stamp on a man’s head as he lay face down during an arrest in a car park at Manchester Airport Terminal 2. The footage sparked widespread protests across our region, with a number of politicians and MPs also speaking out about the footage.
Yesterday, the Manchester Evening News has released exclusive new footage that appears to capture the violent scenes that erupted in the run-up to the incident. The video shows a group of people standing near ATMs, with a man in a light blue outfit facing one of the machines.
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It appears that a male and two female officers attempting to subdue two men engaged in a series of punches and blows, with one of the female officers being knocked to the ground after being punched in the face, before a man was tasered. A male officer and a man in blue then appeared to struggle until the latter lay motionless on the ground with a woman kneeling beside him.
It was then that the officer appeared to kick the man. In light of the new footage, the Mayor of Greater Manchester said lessons could be learned from the “hasty assessment” of what is shown in a clip shared on social media.
Mr Burnham said politicians in particular should not be involved in the judgment. Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning (July 28), he said: “It’s a phenomenon of our times: videos will emerge, whatever the source, but they will be broadcast and everyone will then become an expert on the subject and say ‘I know exactly what happened’ and make an unequivocal judgment.
“But life is not like that, the risk is that these judgments have consequences and that can impact on communities, that can impact on public order. What I would say is that politicians really should not be part of this rush to judgment.
“But we’ve seen it this week, on both sides, and people in positions of responsibility, in my view, should not add to the clamor and hype around an incident. I think we have to learn from it, on our side as well, everybody has to step back and learn from it.
“These situations can be dangerous, people’s careers are on the line in these situations. I think we all feel sorry for the officers who were injured because of what happened. There’s a lot that happened and we can learn a lot from it.”
“One way or another I think politicians need to take the lead in not adding to the public fury.” Mr Burnham also urged people to “step back” to allow GMP and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to conduct their investigations.
He told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “It’s a complicated situation, a very violent situation in fact, and there were issues on both sides. That’s why I’ve asked others not to rush to judgment because of the complexity of the situation and, quite simply, everyone who has a say, no one has all the facts.”
“No one has the full picture.” In an official statement released last night, Mr Burnham said: “As I said on Thursday, this is a complicated situation with two sides to it.
“That is why I have urged people not to rush to judgment. Following incidents that occurred before the footage was released, four people were arrested and are now out on bail.
“It is frustrating that we have not been able to put more video into the public domain, but that is because this is a live investigation. People must now step back and allow the IOPC’s criminal investigation into the officer’s conduct to progress, alongside GMP’s parallel investigation into other potential offences, so that a full picture can be presented.
“Given that all of these investigations are ongoing, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment.” On Friday evening, the IOPC said a police officer was under criminal investigation for assault.
The IOPC stressed that this did not necessarily mean that criminal proceedings would be brought. But the watchdog confirmed that once its investigation was complete, a decision would be made on whether to refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service.
GMP last night appealed for information about three incidents that preceded the events captured in the video. The first incident they are investigating is an “altercation between passengers” on Qatar Airways flight QR023, which arrived from Doha to Manchester at 7.20pm.
“The altercation may have occurred during the flight or afterwards in the T2 baggage hall,” they said. They are also investigating a “violent disturbance involving members of the public in the T2 Starbucks” at around 8:22 p.m.
“This was followed by “the assault of three police officers which occurred in the payment zone of the T2 car park at 8:28 p.m.,” they said. “The three police officers suffered head injuries, including broken noses,” they added.
The force has opened a public portal where information, images and videos can be shared.
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