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Outrage over police attack on black girl

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: A CCTV footage showing a black teenage girl being repeatedly punched by a police officer outside a nightclub in Sheffield, south Yorkshire, while his colleagues pin her down has provoked accusations of racism, prompting comparisons with the infamous "Rodney King'' affair in America.

On Thursday, the Independent Police Complaints Commission launched an inquiry and the officer at the heart of the incident, Constable Anthony Mulhall, was withdrawn from public duty.

The incident, which took place last July, came to light when The Guardian obtained a footage and it was shown on BBC's Newsnight on Wednesday. It shows Toni Comer, who was 19 at the time, and Mr Mulhall roll down a flight of stairs outside the nightclub.

The officer is seen punching her five times, and as she lies writhing on the ground, other policemen arrive and drag her to a police van.

Aggressive behaviour

The incident happened when Ms Comer vandalised a car after being thrown out of the club for her allegedly aggressive behaviour.

Ms Comer, who admitted that she was drunk, later pleaded guilty in court to damaging the car.

While police claim that they had to use force to restrain her when she resisted arrest, Ms Comer says that she suffers from epilepsy and might have been having an epileptic fit.

She says she had no recollection of the event until she saw the footage.

"I was shocked when I first saw the film. I didn't think they would do something like that,'' she said adding: "I got quite a few cuts and bruises on my arms and my face and the back of my neck."

Mr Mulhall defended his action, claiming in a statement that he struck her after she "began to kick, spit and made attempts to bite me''.

"I struck her as hard as I was physically able with my right fist in an attempt to subdue her. There was no apparent effect so I did this twice more''.

Anti-race campaigners said the case had echoes of how Rodney King, an innocent black man, was brutally beaten by police in Los Angeles in 1991, triggering violent race riots.

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