By Eleisha Kennedy • Published: 18 Jul 2020 • 11:11
Police officers seem to use technique responsible for George Floyd's death on a suspect in Islington, London. CREDIT: Twitter
A Met police officer has been suspended after being caught on film apparently kneeling on a man’s neck during an arrest in Islington, London.
The suspect, a 45-year-old black man who was later charged with possession of a knife, was shown in the footage being held on the pavement by two police officers. One of the officers then seems to place his knee on the man’s neck to control him, while holding his head down with his hand.
The footage, filmed by witnesses and shared with the BBC, has been sent to the police watchdog and labelled “extremely disturbing” by the Deputy Commissioner of the Met, Sir Steve House.
The handcuffed suspect makes numerous pleas to the officer to “Get off my neck” and is eventually released. However, more police cars start to arrive on the scene after onlookers confront the officers over the treatment of the arrested man.
A witness said to the BBC that he was afraid the man would “get executed”, just like George Floyd, who was killed by the same “technique” in Minneapolis, sparking the Black Lives Matter movement around the world. He believed that if not for the intervention of passers-by, the police might have suffocated the suspect or broken his neck.
Sir Steve added that the techniques he witnessed in the video were cause for concern and he insisted that “they are not taught in police training”.
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