Knee arrest ‘just like George Floyd’
THE lawyer for a man filmed with a police officer’s knee apparently on his neck has said the case is “almost identical” to America’s George Floyd case.
Footage shows Marcus Coutain, 48, pleading with officers to “get off my neck” and denying wrongdoing as he was handcuffed on Thursday evening.
He appeared before Highbury Corner magistrates yesterday, charged with possessing a knife in public.
The arrest in Islington, north London, sparked outrage and the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating.
A Metropolitan Police officer has been suspended and another placed on restricted duties.
Coutain’s lawyer Timur Rustem said the case “mirrors almost identically what happened to George Floyd”.
Mr Floyd died on May 25 after being restrained by four officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. One pressed a knee into his neck for almost eight minutes.
His death sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter protests throughout the world.
Mr Rustem is seeking a formal apology from the Met and wants their charge against Coutain dropped.
In court yesterday, Coutain entered a not-guilty plea to the knife charge and the case was
POLICE are searching for a man in connection with a robbery after a pensioner had her phone stolen on a bus.
The woman, 80, was with her husband in Marechal Niel Parade, Sidcup, south-east London. Officers said the suspect boarded the bus and refused to pay, before arguing with the driver and threatening to spit at him. When he saw the woman’s phone in her hand, he grabbed it and kicked her husband’s walking stick before leaving.
adjourned until August 17 at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
Mr Rustem told the court Coutain was initially searched for drugs and subsequently told he matched the description of a “someone involved in an attack” before the knife charge was brought.
He said Coutain had the blade to repair his bicycle.
Outside court Mr Rustem said
RIOT police were pelted with bricks and glass bottles as they tried to disperse hundreds of revellers at an illegal rave.
Scotlandyard said residents living near the Woodberry Down Estate in Finsbury Park alerted police to the event on Friday night and a helicopter was seen circling for hours.
Yesterday the Met announced it was deploying additional officers to London’s streets ahead of further illegal raves and violent crime over the weekend.
Coutain was “very distressed and very confused and not quite sure why he was targeted in this way”.
He said: “It is the use of what I would regard as excessive force, a knee being placed on his neck... references which mirror exactly what happened to George Floyd in America.
“Fortunately it didn’t lead to the tragic consequences that we
saw in America.” Met deputy commissioner Sir Steve House has described the footage as “deeply disturbing”.
Former force superintendent Leroy Logan said he had been appalled by what he said was “an excessive force which is totally disproportionate”.
He added: “I hope it stops because someone is going to get badly hurt or killed.”