“One said ‘shoot him if he moves’, or something like that. The colleague was saying to the other ‘shoot him’ a few times. I lie down, just do whatever they tell me and I see a helicopter over my head.”
He did everything they asked, there was no one else around and they still wanted to shoot him. Anyone still want to defend the police…?
I was running through a park once on my way to the gym with a towel wrapped around my right hand and headphones on.
Suddenly a paddywagon came flying past me lights and sirens pulled up and out jumped two coppers.
One had his gun out the other their tazer, yelling at be to drop the weapon and get on the ground.
Very confused Idropped the towel and laid down they came up and kicked around in my towel then asked what I was doing.
I explained I was on my way to the gym etc.
They then said they had a report of an indigenous man matching by description had just broken into a house stole a bunch of jewellery at knife point and ran away right near by.
They didn’t lock me up or anything just took my name and went back to looking for the other fella.
There was no other fella
Oh clearly you’re a master sage of intuition to be able to declare this unanimously without a shred of proof.
What does an “indigenous man” mean where you are?
Native American? Aboriginal Australian? Maori? Pastey Scot?
Aboriginal Australian
Imagine if this guy was wearing noise canceling headphones or was deaf. They probably would have shot him
WTF, they still cuffed him and brought him in after it had to have been obvious it was a jump rope and a weighted vest?
Going around with jumper cables sounds pretty sus, tbh
Skipping rope you muppet. Not a set of electric wires but a bit of plastic with handles you fucking frolic thru you toss pot.
Not to mention. Their are far far more legitimate reason for someone to carry electrical wires. Then non legitimate ones.
I regularly work on my boats electrics. Where I carry 35mm2 wire and other electrical parts to the boat. As my vision means driving is not possible. This means busses and walking in the street to the boat yard.
If police stopped and pointed guns at me. And I heard multiple officers calling “Shoot Him”. I’d sure as fuck be suing them. And fucking fuming in the press.
And @NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone anyone calling me Sus would likely be told to go fuck themselves.
Actually a bloke got shot by the cops on the tube once because he had wires coming out of his pockets.
Given your obvious abilities at reading, who wrote that for you?
Good job he didn’t have them, then.
It’s an incident that needed to be processed unfortunately.
Edit: Ok, they could just let him go right there and try to answer or guess the answer to a lot of questions about who he was or what he was doing.
But processed with the guy in cuffs?!
This is the sort of stuff that shows our bobbies are becoming ever more like Americans’ pigs.
Coppers have been knobheads for a long time mate. Longer than since The Battle of Orgreave.
Guy was running around in a vest that looked like a bomb vest, close to a Jewish community while in other countries they are being simultaneously threatened. You think they were going to end it there, by not taking him into the station and giving him a chance to make a statement for in case there’s some kind of pushback or worse, he gets targeted too?
He said they treated him well. I’ve been in handcuffs before (employer cancelled my visa in-country) and it’s not a big deal.
I didn’t say don’t take him back to be processed.
I just don’t see the need for him to be cuffed once the police know it’s a skipping rope and he’s no threat.
As for “no big deal”, it’s also about optics and respect. A lot of law enforcement techniques are about imposing lack of personhood on someone and by limiting those impositions it shows that the individual isn’t a threat and is being treated as something other than a criminal.
“I said to the police, ‘it’s better safe than sorry’,” he said. “I’m not blaming the police, they were very nice with me. I was being nice with them, we work together. That’s why we pay our taxes so we keep ourselves safe.”
Again, I don’t think he took issue with being processed in handcuffs after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.
Absolute mockery of a police force.
Of course this is the same country that announces the confiscation of a chef’s knife as if they stopped a nerve gas attack in paddington station.
Every time they confiscate one nanogram of weed they always have to post about it on Twitter
Anyone have a version we can actually read? The article is payable and obviously I’m not going to pay to read one article
A dad who found himself at the centre of a major armed police response while exercising at a park in a weighted vest has spoken of the moment he was ordered to the ground as snipers took aim.
The man, who is in his 40s, was pictured on his knees with his hands on his head amid the drama on Friday (March 20). Speaking exclusively to the Manchester Evening News in the wake of the incident at Mandley Park, he said: “I said to the police ‘it’s better safe than sorry’.”
The incident unfolded following reports of a ‘suspicious male’ at the Higher Broughton park at around 11.52am. The alarm was raised when people spotted the man in a vest, carrying what some feared was a cable or ‘wires’.
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Panic spread, with wild speculation quickly flooding social media. False claims the man was wearing a ‘suicide bomb’, ‘bomb vest’ or ‘pack’ were rife. Dozens of images and video clips appeared online within minutes.
Greater Manchester Police later confirmed it was a ‘false alarm’ and that the man was wearing a ‘weighted gym vest’ and carrying a skipping rope while exercising. There is an outdoor gym at the park.
A man with his hands on his head at Mandley Park View 5 Images The man with his hands on his head at Mandley Park(Image: X) Speaking on the condition of anonymity over fears for his safety, the man told the Manchester Evening News: "I was scared when I heard police shouting. They said to me ‘lie down’. I didn’t think it was for me, but there were no other people around me.
“One said ‘shoot him if he moves’, or something like that. The colleague was saying to the other ‘shoot him’ a few times. I lie down, just do whatever they tell me and I see a helicopter over my head.”
The father, who moved from Albania to the UK 25 years ago, said he was using his skipping rope and vest as he exercised as usual. He said he wears the weighted vest ‘everywhere’ after being urged to get fit by his doctor. Mandley Park is one of his favoured workout spots, he said.
“I wear it everywhere I go,” he added. "I have diabetes type two and a problem with my heart. The doctor told me to work out and exercise because I was overweight.
View 5 Images Armed police took aim at the man(Image: X) “So I train. I go to the gym, I go to the park just to exercise. But yesterday was one of them [days]. I wear that vest everywhere when I exercise. It’s not just me, I see many people using that vest.”
The area is home to one of the country’s biggest Jewish communities. Within moments, images and footage of the man being surrounded by armed officers spread on social media, with scores of false captions.
The man said he kept calm as best he could while cooperating with officers. He added: "Somebody has called the police, they were worried that I had got a vest. I was skipping at this point.
"The police were thinking it was a bomb or something… whatever the person that called them had said. They told me to leave my phone on the floor and lie down. I did whatever they told me to do.
A man seen on the ground View 5 Images The man was told to lie on the ground(Image: X) “They asked me to take the vest off, I took it off and moved to the right side. They put me in handcuffs. They took me to the police station and kept me in a couple of hours, then I was free to go.”
The man at the centre of the storm said he understood why concerns were raised in the heart of Salford’s Jewish community, around a mile from the scene of last October’s attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall.
“I said to the police, ‘it’s better safe than sorry’,” he said. "I’m not blaming the police, they were very nice with me. I was being nice with them, we work together. That’s why we pay our taxes so we keep ourselves safe.
“Because it’s a Jewish area, I think people were scared, but I go there all the time. I go to the Jewish shops, I go there for my kids, they have nice food. I walk around here for an hour, an hour-and-a-half, something like that.”
View 5 Images Police walk through Mandley Park after the incident(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News) GMP confirmed no further action is being taken against the manl. The force said the incident ‘was a false alarm and there is no threat to the wider community’.
The man added: “It is what it is. Sometimes it happens, you know.”
Members of the Jewish community thanked police for their swift response. A spokesperson for the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester said: "Thankfully, this has been clarified as a false alarm and there is no threat to our community.
“This incident is indicative of the levels of anxiety currently being faced by Jewish people across the world. We are once again grateful for the exemplary response by GMP and the professionalism of the Community Security Trust. We are fortunate to be able to rely on these two amazing organisations to keep us safe.”
Goes through that bullshit to exercise at a park, “it is what it is”
Thank you.
deleted by creator
“If WE bAn GunS ThE pOlIcE Won’T hAvE aN eXcUsE tO oVeRrEaCt.”
In fairness nobody was shot which is a stark difference to the usa
Nobody was shot this time
Oh I know, I’m not denying the enormous gun violence problem, it’s just very frustrating when people naïvely pretend that we would love in a world of rainbows and sunshine and no police violence without widespread firearm ownership.
But he wasn’t shot but then he wasn’t Black either. So there’s that.
LOL, I use the same vest all the time, but only when I’m exercising at home.
I am really sorry for him. He should be generously reimbursed by the community that wrongly suspected him of wrongdoing. It is not his fault at all.
“I said to the police, ‘it’s better safe than sorry’,” he said. "I’m not blaming the police, they were very nice with me. I was being nice with them, we work together. That’s why we pay our taxes so we keep ourselves safe.
Given he claimed to have head multiple officers telling others to shoot him.
With absolutely no legal motivation to do so.
Something needs investigating. Either his statements to the press. Or the utterly disgusting lack of professionalism shown by officers involved in the incident.
Bootlickers gonna lick boot
I’ve read the article more thoroughly than you, it seems.
Horribly pay walled site.
It wasn’t paywalled for me on mobile.
