Shocking video footage has been widely shared this week showing Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers at Manchester Airport violently attacking two British Asian men, despite them already being subdued and not resisting arrest.
One of the officers, without provocation, savagely kicked 19-year-old Muhammed Fahir in the face (while he was restrained) with his police-issued, steel toe-capped boot. This same officer then proceeded to stamp on his head.
T2 Manchester Airport
Can’t see how you can justify kicking someone in the face and head when they are laying on floor being tasered and he seemed compliant. Although someone context is required as to what was going here. pic.twitter.com/nh1tEb5bm9— 🅚🅐🅢🅗 🅐🅗🅜🅔🅓 (@KashAhmed77) July 24, 2024
Fahir was hospitalised by this brutal treatment, and now has a cyst on his brain. He is currently “fighting for his life”, according to one source close to the family.
The other man, hands in the air, knelt on the floor when instructed to – and received a vicious kick to the stomach. This was followed by multiple officers pouncing on him.
All of this occurred in front of their elderly mother, who was shoved several times herself. A spokesperson for the victims has said that the family has been left “traumatised”.
Video footage of what happened BEFORE, during and AFTER the incident of police brutality at Manchester Airport.
The officer in question has now been removed from operational duties. https://t.co/4AswcesqtM pic.twitter.com/GdjlPWWfdq
— Dilly Hussain (@DillyHussain88) July 24, 2024
This all happened in full view of the public, who were visibly horrified by what was happening. Thankfully, onlookers filmed the incident for the whole world to see.
This led to another shocking encounter in which a bystander, another Asian man, was pepper sprayed by an officer, had his phone grabbed, and then tackled to the ground. Clearly, these cops didn’t want their thuggery to be exposed.
Manchester Airport
Why did @gmpolice pepper spray the guy standing there?
Is it because he was filming their police brutality?
Didn’t they realise someone else was filming them? pic.twitter.com/woCLNnk0US
— Aboo Hafsah (@AbuHafsah1) July 24, 2024
Reportedly, the incident was sparked by a confrontation between the two men and another passenger, who racially abused their mother.
Regardless of what led to this attack, however, the outrage that it has sparked is undeniable. This is yet another example of flagrant police brutality and racism.
Police discredited
In the past couple of years, the police have thoroughly disgraced themselves: from their dehumanising, abusive treatment of Child Q, to the murders of Sarah Everard and Chris Kaba.
In Manchester itself, a report from earlier this year has exposed a shocking culture of misogyny and sexual abuse within the GMP.
A report from 2021 also found that the GMP was between two to five times more likely to arrest, taser, or stop and search black people than white people.
This disgraceful incident will only serve to further undermine the desperately low levels of public trust in the police.
This will especially be the case among the British Asian community, who have frequently been targeted for their pro-Palestine solidarity in recent months.
The police have never been so hated amongst such a wide section of workers and youth in Britain. The riots in Harehills last week, as well as the riots in Ely last year, show what can happen when this mistrust and anger explodes to the surface.
In the past, police have often tried to twist the truth – with willing cooperation from the bosses’ media – to downplay their role in attacking and killing workers and oppressed groups, such as at Orgreave, Hillsborough, and Southall.
But in the age of social media, their abuses are being brought into the light of day, for all to see. There’s no hiding the rot that runs to the heart of every police force in the UK.
The so-called ‘Peelian principles’ – policing by consent, not force – are being exposed as the sick joke that they are.
More and more people can see the plain truth: that the police are little more than uniformed thugs.
The entire institution of the police is a hotbed of all the reactionary ideas and attitudes produced by capitalist society: racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and the rest.
Abuse on the rise
It’s no coincidence that instances of police abuse are on the rise.
On the one hand, divisive ‘culture war’ rhetoric is being whipped up by Starmer’s Labour, the Tories, and the establishment media, in order to deflect blame and distract from the real root of the crisis. This has undeniably emboldened those with reactionary prejudices.
On the other hand, police powers are being continually beefed up – first by the Tories, and now by Starmer’s ‘law and order’ Labour Party – in order to strengthen the police as a tool of class domination.
Officers clad in riot gear are increasingly being deployed to repress peaceful demonstrations, evict Palestine encampments, and arrest innocent activists.
We witnessed this just recently in Manchester itself, when hordes of GMP riot cops were unleashed on a Palestine demonstration.
All of this has served to embolden the most reactionary members within police forces, to normalise the use of brutal violence, and to provide officers a sense of impunity.
The blame for these abuses therefore lies not just at the feet of this or that officer or commissioner, but on the entire institution as a whole – and the oppressive system which has shaped and perfected it for centuries.
Tear down the system
That the police officer responsible has been suspended from all duties is welcome news. But it’s not enough.
Nor can we trust the so-called ‘Independent Office for Police Complaints’ to provide any real justice. These toothless bodies are part and parcel of the same establishment. The best they can do is slap a few wrists and call it a day.
Real justice can only be brought about by the action of ordinary workers and young people. We must organise and fight against police brutality and racism.
To protect our communities from these paid-up thugs means tearing down the entire institution, and the status quo of class exploitation and oppression that the state – these ‘armed bodies of men’ – maintain.
As one placard at last night’s demonstration read, we need to “dismantle GMP” and every other police force in the country.
For real justice, we must set our sights on overthrowing the oppressive capitalist system which the police uphold.
Report from Manchester demonstration
Yesterday, comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Party joined protestors outside Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s office, in response to the brutal assault of an Asian man by GMP.
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Footage of this incident immediately led to an outpouring of anger at the shocking violence displayed in the viral video captured by onlookers.
Not only were there protests outside Rochdale police station this week, but comrades have also overheard groups of people talking about this incident in train stations and workplaces.
At short notice, hundreds of people, including several trade unions, descended on the Mayor’s office.
Labour’s Andy Burnham, who cynically styles himself as a left-winger, has outrageously and equivocally remarked that what took place was “not clear either way”, saying that “there are issues for both sides”. The Manchester Mayor has also appealed for “calm”.
This feels like a slap in the face for those rightfully disgusted at this attack.
Angry chants and signs questioned who exactly the police are “protecting and serving”, and highlighted the racism endemic in the police.
One person at the demo we spoke to summed up the mood, pointing out that this is yet another example of the violence enacted by the British state, as has been seen for months with its backing of the genocide in Gaza.
“People are angry,” they said. “There’s a general mood of discontent building as we constantly see this never ending violence from the British state, whether it’s here or in Palestine. And we know things won’t get any better with Starmer.”
The main chant at the demonstration was “no justice, no peace; no racist police!”, echoing the slogans of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020.
To rid society of racism and police brutality, we need a mass movement aimed at the entire racist, repressive establishment and their system.
Manchester Communists
I do not consent!
I have just had the displeasure of watching the footage of police assaulting restrained civilians in Manchester Airport. I would say this has shaken me to my core. But what else can you expect from these agents of capital?
Incidents like these will become far more common than not in the near future. The line of the British ruling class is that: “Well, this may happen – but at least we are not as bad as America!” The evidence begs to differ.
Only three years ago, Sarah Everard was raped and murdered by a police officer. And only two years ago, the notoriously disgusting case of Child Q emerged.
They say the British police are “policing by consent”. Well, I was not asked about any of this! I do not consent!
Where’s the right to recall these rapists, assaulters, and murderers from the police force? Why are these people not democratically accountable?
As these young men in Manchester airport are probably aware, the police are not in fact accountable to the majority of society; to the working class.
Instead, they carry out their duties as the loyal lapdogs of the capitalist class. Why should we be surprised when the ladies and gentlemen willing to blow up Gazan children treat us in Britain any different? We are so much small change to them.
Maxfield Long, Kent
How long will people stomach these thugs?
I think I can count the number of northerners who trust the police on one hand. That’s not a criticism of my maths skills – it’s the truth.
Only a week ago, Leeds erupted in anger when police tried to take children away from a Roma family. The distrust reached a crescendo.
Now in Manchester, airport police have violently assaulted several members of a family. The police shoved a man’s mother, triggering a chain of events which saw steel-toed kicks to the head, an old woman thrown to the floor, and the pepper-spraying of multiple witnesses recording it.
The police later made a statement, full of complete lies, that they were the victims of assault and had sustained major injuries. This is despite multiple different videos showing the reality of what happened. Predictably, no one believed these animals.
This reflected the complete hatred of the police held in Manchester, with other incidents – including the attempt to evict the Palestine encampment, and the brutality at last month’s Palestine demo – only adding to their open distrust and despisal.
How long people will stomach these unaccountable thugs, I don’t know. But what I do know is there’s millions of people who know they could keep the peace much better than these hired goons.
Ben Cownley, Manchester
