Assaulted by the police - Follow up

I recently reported how I was assaulted by the police and now I have the follow up.

Of course this is just the mini drama of the self I call I and so not a scratch or blemish on the real.

Again, this is said without prejudice to the case and with paraphrasing......

My friend who had attempted to film the assault actually due to technoineptness took one still photo..



..I was keen today on meeting him as to what his side of the story was.

His reply is here in the closest I can to the way he said it.

"You were talking to the police and I didn't know why you'd done it and I approached you all to hear you talking about rights of the police and transit officers to see tickets. They asked you then to move on and stop wasting their time and you said 'OK' and went to move.

In a flash one took the lead and said 'we need to see your ticket' and he grabbed your arm, the other officer swooped in too. One placed a handcuff on the wrist of the arm they had caught hold of and you were noticeably shocked. As a pair they grappled and pulled and one swung his leg to take your legs from under you and you went to the floor."

He said further: "I didn't realize until I asked other people but they can not use cuffs unless they first place you under arrest and I think they had assumed by then you were a criminal and they'd find something on you. They had you on the ground and one was shouting all this stuff at you, the other emptied your pockets and your bag."

He retold the full story in a similar way to the way I remember it only from the altered perspective on being an onlooker.

After I had been let free I thought I had lost my phone but had been ordered off the premises so my friend returned to retrieve it.

On returning my friend gave the police far more of a challenging verbal to and fro than I had. Remember that I as a curious foreigner had asked the police what rights they had to see my train ticket, I had done this out of curiosity and with the childish naivety that they as public servants would like to help me by answering.

On the other hand friend who approached them after the event had an exchange more like this.

"He's lost his phone, where is it?"

"In his pocket mate go and tell him to look"

"What you did was well out of line. He didn't deserve that"

"Is the guy mentally retarded? What was he thinking talking to us?"

"Are you a doctor with the knowledge and know how to claim his state of mind?"

"He must be mad or schizophrenic to come up to us like that"

"The only schizophrenia I saw was from you two politely talking to him then in a flash jumping on him, cuffing him and abusing him. Sounds to me like you're the ones with the problems here."

"Look have you got a ticket mate?"

My friend took out his wallet, looked in side it and replied "Yes, thanks I have"

"Are you going to show it to us?"

"No, you asked if I had one and I do"

He actually said quite a lot more that I can't do him justice by typing closely enough to the way he said it so I'll leave it there.

It is apparent thought that his exchange was far more confrontational than my simple question I had posed which lead to my beating and being assaulted.

After my friend had finished telling me of that episode I had missed out on I said 'And now just imagine as a tourist I had simply been asking for directions, would I expect the same attack to be launched at me?'

He said well I don't think so but I can see your point, you were simply a man from out of town with a question on his mind. As I know you are not going to take action for now then I may take it upon myself to write a letter to the police as to how I fear for the safety of tourists in my country due to the outrageous behaviour of the police.

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