Well, first of all,
a warning.
Some of you may find the footage we’re about to show upsetting.
But a reminder,
it is now four days since this film went viral on social media.
It appears to show a police officer kick a man in the head
as he was face down on the ground.
Now, that footage sparked protests in Manchester and Rochdale
and created widespread outrage.
Late yesterday afternoon, though,
the Manchester Evening News released this new footage
which appears to show the lead up to that kick.
Now, this footage is very violent.
You can see punches being thrown.
Two female police officers appear to be punched,
causing them to fall to the floor and one man is tasered.
Now, before this new footage was released,
Andy Burnham had said he’d seen the events leading up to the arrest
and it was not a clear cut situation.
What I’ve been able to see is obviously a.
A situation that escalated very quickly,
was quite a violent situation.
Um, and if you know,
I’m on a quite a complicated, uh,
situation. So I think the thing I would say is
it’s not for any of us just to rush to judgement
and say they know everything
on the back of something on,
on social media. The right thing to do is to have a.
A process of investigation that is as independent as it can be.
And now he has reiterated that in a new statement.
Last night,
He’s asking people to step back and let the investigation move forward.
He says it has been frustrating
that we have not been able to put more video into the public domain,
but that is because this is a live investigation.
Four men remain on police bail after being arrested,
and the police watchdog says
one police officer remains under criminal investigation.