Nathan Lee

Screengrab from latest footage of the mardi gras arrest currently doing the rounds in the news:

This is in response to the recent social media outrage about a policeman throwing a suspect to the ground. Turned out however that the guy had been violent before and it appeared from the audio and movement that some violence was kicking off again which prompted the policeman to put the guy on the ground. Whole lot of accusations of “unnecessary” and “brutality” – but completely without the on-the-ground context of the policeman and seemingly operating under the assumption that what was said in the commentary was factual – that the guy did nothing and the police had slammed his head on the ground and that the police weren’t going to do anything about it.

Footage with hysterically inaccurate commentary

People watching just the footage and listening to the hysterical girl in the footage might have thought the incident started then and that he had already been roughed up by police – but now we’ve got more of a picture and those people watching must have been blind not to see the guy kicking and punching police. The police are the ones that got roughed up and as far as I can tell the cut on Jamie’s head was probably due to him writhing around on the ground kicking policemen – perhaps there was glass on the pavement as a policeman appears to move something away from his head in one of the videos.

People in the original video were saying guy had done nothing and had his head smashed in the ground and Jamie continually insisting that he had “done nothing wrong”.  It appears that’s bullshit being a bit loose with the truth.

Damsel in distress

The emotional commentary by the girl and crying etc does start to trigger a bit of white knight syndrome. That is the rushing in to defend/assist a girl in distress – of which there was an abundance of emotion charged wavery/wailing voice in the first video. So instead of physically rushing in – they rush in to defend her statements/position about the event.

Now distress is very understandable, violence is like that – particularly while drunk or under the influence of substances – but watching the subsequent videos – the same girl (I believe) was screaming out he did nothing immediately after the police had been punched and kicked. You can’t seriously insist the person is doing nothing wrong when they’re laying in to policemen.

I did nothing wrong! What’s his name?!

Well Jamie “I did nothing wrong” Jackson – I’m pretty sure kicking police in the head and punching them is “something wrong” mate. At least by my standards.

“What’s his name?” – so you know who it was you were punching and kicking in the head by any chance?

Pull your bloody head in – you had many points during the night at which a bit of maturity and common sense might have meant doing something different: e.g. NOT fighting with police, NOT struggling when they put the cuffs on, NOT swearing at the police, NOT trying to kick them again etc. Hell, I’ve had more nights out than this guy’s had hot breakfasts – and I’ve never managed to end up in a fight with a policeman. If I discount the time a guy tried to mug me in Barcelona (who ended up a little roughed up as I took back my phone) and the time I had an altercation with a road barrier I hurdled on the way home in London (Nathan=nasty looking bruise on his leg, Barrier = no damage) – I’ve never been in a physical fight on a night out.. And that’s despite my ongoing asking to get my head kicked in by some yob “good Samaritan” efforts in breaking up domestics, street fights and telling people off for publicly pissing on people’s doorsteps.

A Current Affair – Always a bad idea

Then there’s the decision to go on trashtime TV to play the victim card and complain about the potential risk you thought you were in as you were dumped on your stomach to prevent you from kicking anyone else. Yet as we later find out he not only kicked at policemen’s heads, but punched one in the head as well.

Where was Jamie Jackson’s concern for their safety, or their right not to be abused on the night by a drunk/high little brat as they patrolled the post parade scene. As it looked at 30 seconds in on the SMH article’s video link – someone was either whacking Jamie or the Police with a light stick. Not sure what that was all about – but perhaps that was what kicked off the later altercation that lead to the policeman dumping him on the ground.

Police do not deserve this crap.. On many levels

But hey, if kicking and punching to the head is “doing nothing wrong” then you are a bit of a little sociopath. The police are not there to be someone’s punching bag when some idiot gets drunk or high.

So many people were commenting that he could do no harm or was cooperating – there was no point up until the second he was dumped down that he was cooperating or even listening to the police whatsoever.

Homphobia? Hardly!

Perhaps the protesters trying to play the “victim of homophobic policeman” card can take some time to understand the greater context of the situation: violent offender kicking and punching, refusing to follow directions, kicks off violence again – policeman already wary of having struggled to contain suspect earlier despite having another policeman assisting, took no chances and put him roughly down as quickly as possible. This wasn’t some sort of “police gay bashing” it was a “gay who was bashing police” – let’s get that straight (no pun intended).

Suspect was unharmed, although emotional (which is understandable given he looked a bit off his dial and then got unceremoniously dumped on his stomach on the ground after assaulting police) – but it was probably because it was the first point in the night he’d stopped to realise what he was doing.  Which is a huge contrast to the earlier rage and assault on the police – we should be complimenting the policeman for managing to finally subdue the violent offender without him suffering any harm.

A bit of empathy for the police involved and credit where credit is due

If someone was kicking and punching at you  - would you have shown as much restraint as the police did? Probably not – but that’s where their training kicked in and the fact that Jamie escaped any real injury despite his attacks on police is proof of that.

Sure – it looked like a rough slam to people who haven’t had to deal with that garbage day in day out like the poor police – but it wasn’t “head first” as some claim – and he didn’t come out of it with anything other than wounded pride by the sounds of it. Bleeding on the back of his head was probably when he was kicking at the police and scraping his head over debris on the ground.

Bigger picture

The other part of the context is of course the ongoing drunken violence that police deal with every Friday and Saturday - see the 4 corners story “Punch Drunk”.

Anyhow, hopefully this can all get left to the investigation now and the trial by social media can put its outrage back in the box for a bit.