Victims of police misconduct
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by: Grant Mercer
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Word Count: 367
Reports of police misconduct have been on the rise in the past 5 years. One reason for this is said to be the lack of large crowd specialist officers. Events such as the recent Champions League final in Moscow went almost trouble free, despite reports prior to the game expecting hundreds of arrests. Praise must be left for the conduct of the Russian officials who had almost 6,000 specially trained police officers within the stadium to deal with any trouble to prevent it escalating.
It may not occur often, but when it does, police misconduct can be very damaging to you – both physically and mentally. The most reported cases of police misconduct occur during busy sporting events or concerts. Typical scenarios include police being heavy handed whilst detaining an offender, or when they make a wrongful arrest. Often, police can be overwhelmed by the numbers of people and mistakes do happen.
You may anticipate prosecuting the law enforcement to near to impossible, but the law is in fact very just when it comes to matters of liberty and protection. That said, when pursuing a claim against the police you should always try to have as much information available as possible. Important things to make note of include:
• What was the time and place of the incident?
• Who was involved?
• Was there any witnesses?
• How did the incident affect you?
One example of a person being mistreated by police was reported by Irwin Mitchell, who specialise in legal actions against the police. This incident occurred during a football match in Grimsby.
"Mr A attended a football match in Grimsby and left after 20 minutes as his team were losing 2 nil. He and a friend went to a nearby pub but it was closed. They walked back in the direction of the football club. Mr A’s route back took him past a police van. Without warning, a police dog leapt forward and bit his forearm. He was then kicked and punched by a police officer before being arrested. He was also struck with a police baton and charged with a public order offence."
In this instance, the victim was awarded £10,000 in damages.
About the Author
Grant suggests that if you’d like to find out more about taking legal action you should contact a lawyer who can handle your claim. Irwin Mitchell deal with various types of specialist claim, including actions against the police, armed forces claims and asbestos related diseases claims.
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