Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tory: Police brutality should be encouraged
MP’S blog after killing sparked riots
A TORY MP who said the jobless should have vasectomies faced a new storm last night after appearing to condone police brutality.
Party Vice Chair Ben Bradley also defended a disgraced police officer sacked over the death of a news vendor in London in 2009.
Ian Tomlinson died after being struck by PC Simon Harwood during protests over the G20 summit.
But Mr Bradley took the officer’s side in a blog written in 2011, as rioting erupted after police had shot dead Mark Duggan, 29, in North London.
In the blog post unearthed by the Mirror, Mr Bradley suggested that “police brutality should be encouraged!”
And he admitted that Mrs May, who promoted him only a week ago to Vice Chair of the Conservative Party, “drives him up the wall”.
Writing on his blog bradders32, he said: “All these complaints about the police not taking enough action during the riots and being, to quote Theresa May, ‘reluctant to use robust tactics’ are driving me up the wall.
“Is it any wonder police don’t fancy going in all guns blazing when the last officer who even pushed a member of the public is due in court!”
In the blog Mr Bradley, 28, said critics of the police were “not having to make the splitsecond decision”. His “brutality” comment came in a second post. The Mansfield MP said in a statement: “I wrote a number of blog posts in my early 20s. I accept some of the language was inappropriate and I apologise. They were written at a different time of my life.” Yesterday the Mirror told how he said jobless people should not have kids they could not afford and be relocated far away from home. Lib Dem MP Layla Moran urged him to resign his new post, saying: “This is another set of disappointing comments.”