A young black man can be seen being badly handled by police at London Bridge in a video taken earlier in July. IK Aihie was held by British Transport Police at London Bridge station after he apparently became aggressive towards officers when they got involved as he argued with his girlfriend.
The footage shows Mr Aihie screaming “It hurts, it hurts” as he is pinned to the ground by officers, with one allegedly holding his neck. The officers can then be seen pulling a hood over Mr Aihie’s head, as someone walking past shouts, “what the hell are you putting on his head?!”
Police say that he threatened to spit at them while he was being detained, so they placed the mesh ‘spit guard’ over his face to prevent it.
Mr Aihie’s girlfriend Jessica McConkey is clearly upset by the police’s rash actions, and begs witnesses to film the event.
She calls the police’s behaviour “disgusting”, before shouting, “He’s a young black boy, he’s had an argument with his girlfriend, that’s it. You have an argument with your girlfriend and that happens.” An officer replies, “he tried to spit in my face”, while the distressed woman is held back.
Mr Ahie was taken to a police station in Islington and kept overnight. He was later given a caution for a public order offence.
26-year-old Ada Mosharraf filmed the incident and posted it on Facebook, where it has been viewed over 448,000 times.
In her Facebook post Ms Mosharraf wrote; “The treatment by these policemen was shocking for me to see. That’s why I had to share this for people to see the “need” for such heavy police force for taking down a 150 pound young man.”
She also added statements from the couple, where Mr Aihie said, “[Jessica and I] just had a little argument, I walked off then I got pounced on by the two officers at the front of video. Then backup was there before I could even say anything.”
Ms McConkey said that officers heard her ask for her phone and “jumped on him as if he had stolen it”, and she claimed her boyfriend had been kicked to the floor.
Mr Aihie added, “It was a completely terrifying experience for both of us and I’ve been left bruised and shaken. I’ve never been arrested before and certainly don’t intend to be ever again.”
The British Transport Police released the following statement;
“The incident occurred shortly after 11.30pm when officers intervened in an argument between a man and a woman.
“The man then became aggressive towards the officers, at which point he was arrested. Whilst being held, he made a threat that he would spit at officers who then placed a spit guard on him.
“The man has since accepted a caution for an offence under Section 5 of the Public Order Act.
“BTP has since received a complaint from a member of the public in relation to the use of force. This complaint is being investigated by our Professional Standards Department to determine whether the use of force was proportionate and in line with BTP training guidelines.”