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Sussex police taser street drinker

According to that venerable Brighton institution- The Argus, Sussex Police used a taser on a street drinker who turned aggressive/violent after they attempted to confiscate his booze.

Brighton & Hove's citywide ban on street drinking was enforced violently yesterday in New Road, Brighton. New Road is intended by the council to operate as a shared surface so as to serve a variety of purposes. However, street drinking by the homeless on its benches is frowned upon and it is commonplace to see PCSOs harassing these members of the public, usually when they are sitting quietly.

Yesterday morning, it is reported that a violent struggle broke out between police and a street drinker that disagreed with their decision to take away his can and pour it away in front of him. Of course, the ban tends only to be enforced against the abnormal and respectable persons can happily drink away to their heart content. Apparently the outlaw managed to get one over on the Police by breaking a coppers arm, but this didn't help him very much as he was then beaten with batons, pepper-sprayed and then tasered.

So much for police claims that the taser represents an alternative to an armed response unit. In this case the weapon appears to have been used in revenge for a prior assault on an officer.

from BBC

Taser used in city centre arrest
A Taser stun gun was used by police in Brighton city centre when a drinker became violent as officers tried to arrest him.

A plain clothes officer suffered a broken wrist during the incident in New Road, Brighton, on Monday morning.

Sussex Police said the officer was assaulted when the drinker refused to dispose of his alcohol.

A spokeswoman said the stun gun was used when attempts to subdue him with baton strikes and pepper spray failed.

She added: "The man was then arrested for assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. He received stitches to a minor wound and has been transported to custody."

A second man was arrested for a public order offence.

Between July 2007 and February 2008 Tasers have been deployed 18 times and used on for occasions by Sussex Police.

The Podsnapper

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

What would you do?

30.09.2008 12:46

The fact that one copper got his wrist broken shows how violent this person was. This is clearly an extreme case and one where such a weapon is used well. What would they have done without it?

Ruby

oh really?

30.09.2008 13:16

How do you know this man broke his wrist? Maybe it broke when they were throwing him around? Sussex police got extremely bad record of dealing with street ppl, they more likely deserved all they got..

antifa

or maybe

30.09.2008 14:08

Rather than "he got what he deserved" (who are you to judge what is deserved), might it not be more useful to point out the officer was plain clothed....If i were drunk and someone manhandled me, then I think it's /reasonable/ to understand the situation as having been interpretted as someone trying to mug/hassel me.

Of course, that we should be able to resist even 'clothed' policemen using coercion to assert arbitrary laws is by the by....

pbp

Stirring things up

30.09.2008 19:17

Yeah, this is a prime example of violence caused by the state.

Someone is drinking quietly. The state in its infinite wisdom has decided that drinking quietly in public isn't acceptable and outlaws the practice, sends in officers (in disguise) to enforce its ban against the most vulnerable in society (the young, the homeless, those with alcohol addiction for example), and creates a confrontational situation which then becomes violent as the drinker objects to having his drink forcibly removed from him by someone who he may or may not have recognised as being a police officer.

How on earth can the state justify escalating this situation to the point where we end up with a bone fracture and someone being tasered? Surely an 'I'm going to report you for breach of whatever stupid rules we've made up' would have been adequate. Or 'I'm sorry, under our fascist regime, you aren't allowed to drink here.'

Whatever happened to police discretion? Targets, that's what (and general vindictiveness). Did I read somewhere that Sussex police aren't too popular with the public?

Police get away with far too much

30.09.2008 23:05

Like another respondent I have also seen PCSO's and police bullying and intimidating street drinkers and Big Issue sellers. In this case the level of violence used against the person concerned was wholly disproportionate to the matter in hand. The type of bullying tactics that are all too common among police in Brighton and Hove do nothing to earn the confidence of the more thinking and dsicerning public - I have been on the wrong end of their bullying cowardice myself and I hold them in the utmost contempt

George Coombs

It is perfectly acceptable to punch some pig who is trying to nick your brew

01.10.2008 09:16

nuff said

this street drinker defended himself. Any pig trying to steal someone's brew should expect a pasting.

brewster

Totally unjustifiable

01.10.2008 20:54

If, as the police say "the taser represents an alternative to an armed response unit", I'd like to know since when drunken brawling became a shootable offence.

Lil

Irony

02.10.2008 08:43

The ironic thing is all the pubs along New Road have big outdoor areas on the road as it's pedestrianised- on a friday/saturday night it's jammed with a couple of hundred people drinking on the street outside Mash Tun and Fitzherbert's and further down (though a more theatre type crowd) outside the Colonade, opposite where many of the street drinkers congregate.. I'm quite partial to sitting on the road of an evening, drinking a can and watching the world go by as there's often a nice atmosphere. If you can afford a pub it's ok to drink on the street there but woe betide ye who drinketh from an aluminium receptacle for thou shalt be struck down by lightning by the furious wrath of B&H's finest.

Many of the street drinkers there are a real pain in the arse from first hand experience and harrass passers by, people sitting down and customers of the pubs but the majority are alright and no trouble at all.

Another case of braindead thugs testing out the the latest toys they got given on human targets, and hey, who better than a bum to try it on? A bit like the kid who gets an airgun for christmas then goes round the neighbourhood taking potshots at cats to see how they react.

Canned heat