The BBC Fucked This One Up

Jody McIntyre

Jody McIntyre is a 20 year-old man who has cerebral palsy and has to use a wheelchair. He attended the most recent student protests with his brother, who was pushing his wheelchair. The Police, in any situation, are supposed to use force which is proportional in response. Take a look at how the police dealt with McIntyre, and see if you think the response is proportional:

(This is an edited version which has been lightened for clarity)

According to McIntyre, this was his second encounter with the police, with the office from the first encounter running over to join in with the events in the video above.
McIntyre was ‘interviewed’ on BBC News, which I’d advise you watch in full:

BBC Interview

McIntyre handled himself well with a hostile interviewer, he got his point across and made Ben Brown seem like a ranting fingers-in-ears type of guy.
Ben Brown’s ‘argument’ revolves around two main points:

• You said you were a revolutionary.
  
• You must have given the police some valid reason for them to hit you, pull you out your wheelchair and drag you across the street.

I’d like to quickly address both of those points individually.

Revolutionary

So McIntyre said he was a “revolutionary” on a website. This is irrelevant to the events. Sure, it might make him on some form of a wanted list, but the police have other ways to remove these people. Being a revolutionary does not necessarily correlate to violence at a demonstration.

It Must Have Been You

Brown tries to force some form of confession out of McIntyre, using some form of backward logic in which McIntyre must have been the one to blame. The video makes it unclear what happens, as the camera turns to see another officer run towards McIntyre. McIntyre responds with an interesting response – how can a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy pose a threat to a group of armed officers? Clearly the proportional response is to drag him out of his wheelchair and across a street.

Littlejohn Alert!

<I know Littlejohn doesn’t work for the BBC; thankfully>

I found this little gem from Twitter user @clubofonedotcom. Richard Littlejohn, a proven compulsive liar, decided to air his take on the matter. The image is too big to display here, so I have directly linked and will quote below.

“Jody McIntyre is like Andy from Little Britain.”

Why? Because he’s in a wheelchair and has cerebral palsy? Are we sinking that low now? Oh, I forgot, it’s Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail.

“But if he’s looking for sympathy, he’s come to the wrong place.”

He hasn’t went anywhere, Littlejohn decided to hitherto condone police brutality by saying he should have been kept out of sight. In a kettle, there’s nowhere to go. We all know that Littlejohn is a lying reactionary cloaca, however he is just a puppet in a larger media campaign to belittle the efforts of the student cause.

EDIT: Thanks to @uponnothing (of Angry Mob fame), I've found the cartoon the Daily Mail associated with this Littlejohn bile. We can now safely establish that the Daily Mail institutionally does not like disabled people. I would say shame on them, but they won't give a shit. Neither will the PCC, although be my guest if you'd like to join in with the complaints.

How To Properly Report This

The Guardian does a better job, showing a longer video. However they are careful to protect their backs by saying the video does not show the moment McIntyre leaves his wheelchair (technically right, you do see the police drag him to the ground and then across the street, however).

I’m not sure what the correct way to report this would actually be. I can definitely say the way the BBC and the Mail have reported this is out and out wrong. McIntyre is speaking to a lawyer regarding making a formal complaint, and apparently has the officer’s ID numbers, so hopefully when this is settled (and if the police don’t decide to just let their officers off as with happened with Ian Tomlinson) we’ll see some better reporting.

In Other News

Another protester, Alfie Meadows, underwent brain surgery after protesting. His family claim this is due to a truncheon attack, and the Guardian are reporting the Police tried to move Meadows to another hospital, despite him needing urgent brain surgery.

Conclusion

It is hard to form any form of conclusion at the time of writing. Investigations are pending, after all. However some aspects of the media are clearly interested in reducing the student shouts to whispers and trying to justify allegations of police brutality. This should be totally condemned.

Update 27/5/2011

It turns out that the complaint against the police made by Jody McIntyre was rejected, and that an officer dragging him out of his wheelchair was lawful based on a perceived risk. Make of that what you will.