Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

Well, I look at the news and what do I see. A Sheffield Police Officer has been removed from public duty while an inquest into an incident outside the Niche Nightclub some 7 months ago.

Check out the BBC news story.

As a member on the Sheffield Forum (I did my HND at Hallam) I thought I’d better address this and put forward my opinion, which is as follows:

This is based on what I have seen from the news story, I obviously don’t know any person involved with this so only have the publicly available facts.

This girl was seen to be acting aggressively inside the club and was rightly ejected by the bouncers. An argument then started but was ended fairly quickly. The girl then went and began to vandalise the doorman’s car. She was seen doing this and was restrained, again, rightfully. Around this time the police arrive on the scene. PC Mulhall attempted to restrain her at the top of the stairs in a calm, professional manner but the suspect struggled and attempted to run. At this time PC Mulhall grabbed the suspect and they both stumbled down the stairs. The suspect then resisted some more, visibly thrashing about. at this time a few more officers come to help Mulhall restrain her.

Now, because of the officers involved, the camera’s view becomes obscured but in his statement PC Mulhall said: Ms Comer had tried to grab his genitals and knee, and that he had punched her to subdue her and then to “deaden her arm”

The suspect, Ms. Toni Comer, has said that although her memory of the incident is vague at best, she was, to the best of her knowledge in the grip of an epileptic fit at the time the incident took place.

People have been very quick to judge PC Mulhalls actions but although I suppose he could have shown more restraint and perhaps punching wasn’t the best reaction, I don’t see him as a guilty party in the least.

Consider this: The girl was, by her own admission, agressive and drunk. She admitted damaging the car and triggering the call to the police. She resisted arrest, quite violently and on more than one occasion attempted to flee.

The police officer had to assume the worst, that she may have a weapon, because this, after all, was at Niche Nightclub. Anyone familiar with Sheffield will know that Niche has had a very tarnished reputation for violence and weapons for many years and has been raided by armed police at least once.

The most important fact to consider is that she was violently attacking the man’s genitals. I defy any of you lads to maintain a completely cool head when some drunk violent girl is grabbing at your genitals with full force. In my eyes the Officer simply reacted with a reflex, instinctively striking her arm to make her let go of his testicles.

In hindsight, should he have punched her? No, probably not but let’s think about the job police have to do. They have to make split second decisions while under extreme stress. Having to do this while having your testicles squeezed and grabbed, quite painfully is going to be nigh on impossible.

I’m not saying he should be praised for his actions but to haul him over the coals for it is simply absurd!

And as if by magic, the city’s race relations officer steps in and instantly turns it into a racial matter. this is instantly going to make PC Mulhall’s case 100times harder to fight because this criminal (I’ll call her what she is) has now been pretty much turned into a martyr. The Race relations officer drew comparisons to the Rodney King case in LA in the early 90s. Rodney King for fucks sake!! Like a man lashing out because his bollocks were grabbed is in any way similar to 2 officers beating a non violent man to death with batons.

What it boils down to is the fact that police officers are ill equipped in this country to deal with criminals as they exist today. If Toni Comer was blasted with a tazer or made to look down the barrel of a glock, I don’t think she would have resisted do you?

This country is a fucking circus! We’re becoming more of a laughing stock than the USA and that says something!

Anyway, rant over. I think I will be going to Notts on Saturday for Kym’s birthday, although I will be driving. The arrival of a £146 gas bill this morning means I’ll have to take it easy on the old spending. oh well, these things happen.

I really want to go to Brum for Kirsty’s party tomorrow and I would if it was simply a house party, because they’re pretty cheap but they’re planning on going to anarchy for the all nighter which I simply can’t afford so I’ll give it a miss this week.