London’s Metropolitan Police Service (Met) is under pressure to refer itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after footage emerged of a black man being kneed in the face while handcuffed during a stop and search by two officers in Hackney, east London.
It came after the Met referred itself to the police watchdog for a separate incident, where another black man was pepper-sprayed in Greenwich at close range while in cuffs on the ground during lockdown, footage showed.
Video footage of the 18-year-old in Hackney shows him shouting “I’m not resisting,” and “I didn’t do anything” before receiving a forceful knee to the head.
Photo: AP
A member of the public filmed the incident as police apprehended the man, who had been cycling with two others, after a pursuit by officers.
The Met said the video did not provide the full context of the entire interaction with plainclothes officers.
The incident took place on April 22 at about 9pm near where another black man, Rashan Charles died in 2017 after being chased and restrained by an officer.
Referring to the footage of the man being kneed in the face, the Met said officers had been on “proactive patrols” in response to gang tensions and recent violence, and that three men had ignored repeated requests to stop.
“An 18-year-old man was stopped for the purposes of a weapons search,” a spokesperson said.
“He was handcuffed and placed to the floor in an attempt to mitigate any potential issues should a weapon be present. Following the completion of the search, no weapon was found and the man was allowed to go. He was not arrested.”
The Met’s professional standards branch is assessing whether to investigate the incident after a formal complaint by a member of the public.
“Hardly anyone was on the streets due to the lockdown and all of a sudden an unmarked police car pulls up, grabs the kid off his BMX and as I left another car pulls up as an officer said: ‘We’ve got one.’ It looked violent and aggressive. It felt wrong; I would have expected it was in response to a serious crime,” the witness said.
The Met has referred the other incident, which took place in Greenwich, south London, on May 22 at 10pm, to the office. In it Jade Xavier, 35, was pinned down by three officers and pepper-sprayed.
“I felt injustice and a threat to my life. The way I was treated was despicable,” he told reporters.
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