The “deeply traumatised” family at the centre of the Manchester Airport controversy want justice, their MP said, after a video appeared to show a man being kicked on the floor by a police officer.
A Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officer was suspended on Thursday after the video was shared widely on social media, while there were protests outside Rochdale police station and mayor Andy Burnham’s office.
The family of the man are particularly shocked by what happened because some of their family members are police officers, newly-elected Rochdale Labour MP Paul Waugh said after speaking to them.
The footage, filmed at Manchester Airport’s terminal two on Tuesday, appeared to show an officer kick and stamp on the head of a man who was lying face down on the floor, with a woman kneeling beside him.
The video also appeared to show the officer strike a second man.
Police said three of their officers had been assaulted, including a female police constable who suffered a broken nose, and four men were arrested.
Mr Waugh said “it is clear they [the family] are deeply traumatised by what happened”.
The family, who are his constituents, have two priorities, he said, the health and wellbeing of those involved including their mother, and the need for justice to be done.
Mr Waugh said: “This is a hardworking Rochdale family, some of whose members are police officers themselves and are therefore particularly shocked at what they have witnessed.”
He added: “The family also want me to make it crystal clear that they have no political agenda, do not condone political violence and do not want to take part in any protests.
“They wanted me to appeal for calm and I hope that appeal is heeded.”
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham, who met with the British home secretary Yvette Cooper to discuss the incident, also asked for calm, saying the “right and proper steps” had been taken.
Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday morning, Mr Burnham said full footage of the incident showed a “fast-moving and complicated” situation with “issues for both sides”, but said it was “right” that the officer had been suspended.
Speaking to media outside Rochdale police station, solicitor Akhmed Yakoob said the condition of one of the men had worsened and said a CT scan revealed a “cyst on his brain”.
He added: “The main concern for us, for me, is that the family receive justice and this no longer happens again.”
The regional director of police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), Catherine Bates, promised a “thorough and robust” independent investigation into the incident and said body-worn video and CCTV footage had been secured.
She later said that the IOPC had received a second referral from GMP.
Ms Bates said: “The first, received earlier today, concerned the use of force by an officer on a man who was detained on the ground. The second relates to the same officer’s use of Pava spray on another man at the airport.”
After meeting with the force and Mr Burnham on Thursday, the home secretary welcomed the investigation and said: “I share the deep concern surrounding the video and understand the widespread distress it will have caused.”
British prime minister Keir Starmer also said he had seen the video and said: “I understand that concern.”
In the evening, a few hundred protesters gathered outside Mr Burnham’s office as part of a Stand Up To Racism demonstration, chanting slogans such as “No justice, no peace, no racist police”.
They then marched through the city before various speeches took place.
Social media footage appeared to show demonstrators blocking tram lines and roads. - Press Association
T