eScooter Rider “Jumped” & Assaulted by South Australia Police
A man was attacked and arrested by police last Thursday afternoon while riding an e-scooter in the Adelaide CBD.
The 34 year old, from Elizabeth Grove, was riding the low-speed device without a helmet. Police stopped him, but he refused to give his name and resumed his journey.
The officers then violently tackled and arrested the man.
Adelaide City Councillor Anne Moran said she was “absolutely disgusted” by the arrest.
After the scooter rider declined to give his name and continued on his way, “these two policemen just jumped on him while he was still moving and just pushed him to the ground on his stomach,” she said.
“One policeman had his knee right over the guy’s legs, but the guy wasn’t fighting, and the other (officer) was pulling his arms really roughly behind him and putting handcuffs around his wrist.”
“He wasn’t fighting back at all … it was just ridiculous.”
In response to the disturbing revelations, South Australia Police simply retorted that the scooter rider “was behaving in a disorderly manner.”
To the contrary, all available information indicates it was the police behaving in a “disorderly manner.” An eyewitness said that one officer literally ran at the man and crash-tackled him to the ground, rugby-style. As the victim fell to the ground, the officer landed on top of him.
The other officer then ran over and violently twisted the man’s arms behind his back in order to handcuff him. The eyewitness said the victim appeared to have sustained a painful wrist injury, but it is unclear whether the man’s wrist was broken during the ordeal.
This is yet another example of SAPOL officers behaving in a cowardly, thuggish, heavy-handed and downright idiotic manner. The purported reasoning behind mandatory helmet-wearing for e-scooter users is to protect them from injury. It should be noted, then, that the risk of sustaining injury from riding a low-speed e-scooter is far lower than that of being violently coward-tackled and smothered by two armed goons on a concrete pavement.
SA Police: Keeping SA Unsafe.
