Family of man kicked by police appeal for calm
The family of a man who was kicked in the head by police at Manchester Airport has appealed for âcalm in all the communitiesâ, an MP has said.
Paul Waugh, Rochdale MP, said the âtraumatisedâ family wanted to make it clear they had âno political agenda whatsoeverâ and did not condone political violence.
Footage was shared online of a Greater Manchester Police firearms officer â who has since been suspended â kicking and stamping on a man as he lay prone on the floor.
The force said the officerâs actions had come after he and other colleagues were âviolently attackedâ in Terminal 2 at about 20:30 BST on Tuesday.
Anger over the video led to protests outside Rochdale police station on Wednesday and Thursday nights, with another protest also held in Manchester city centre on Thursday.
Mr Waugh said the family would not be attending any protests or giving any media interviews as they wanted their privacy protected.
âThe strong message they wanted to give is that they have no political agenda whatsoever,â he told BBC Breakfast.
âThey wanted me to issue an appeal for calm among all sorts of different communities in Rochdale.
âWeâve had a history of unfortunate division in our town and we do not want to go back to those days.â
He said the family were âacutely awareâ there were âextremists of all sides who are keen to hijack this incident for their own endsâ.
âThe family are not interested in that at all,â he added.
âRecovering at homeâ
GMP said the incident had happened after officers tried to arrest someone in the airport following an earlier fight.
A police spokesman said there had been a âclear riskâ their weapons could be taken from them, and three officers had been taken to hospital, one with a broken nose.
The force said it understood the âdeep concernsâ that had been âwidely raisedâ.
Last night, solicitor Akhmed Yakoob, who is representing Muhammad Fahir Amaaz who he said was the man who had been kicked, said his condition had worsened on Wednesday night, and a CT scan on Thursday had ârevealed there is a cyst on his brainâ.
Mr Waugh said all the family members involved had been treated in hospital but were now recovering at home.
âOne of them was taken to hospital for another scan,â he said.
âIâm hoping that theyâre on the mend but obviously the after effects of the incident like this are difficult to assess immediately at the time.â
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which promised a ârobust investigationâ, said it had received two referrals from GMP.
The first concerned the use of force by an officer on a man who was detained on the ground, while the second ârelated to the same officerâs use of [pepper spray] on another man at the airportâ, she said.
Mr Waugh said: âItâs clear that this is a complex, fast-moving incident.
âBut obviously thereâs no justification whatsoever for what weâve seen.â
He said the IOPC investigation needed to be âthoroughâ but also âquickâ, adding: âTheyâre independent of the police and I think the family are really encouraged by that.â
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