Protesters descend on city centre blocking tram lines and roads in anger over GMP Manchester Airport video

July 25, 2024

Muslims and BLM protest for a second night, this time in Manchester City Centre.

Protesters blocked tram lines and roads in the city centre as hundreds of people turned out to express their anger over a video showing a man being kicked in the head and stamped on by a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officer at Manchester Airport.

Following protests outside Rochdale police station, where the man kicked in the video lives, last night, a demonstration was organised by the group Manchester Stand Up to Racism outside the offices of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, whose role involves oversight of GMP.

Demonstrators held up banners saying ‘Serve and protect means GMP will stamp on heads’, ‘GMP is racist’ and ‘stop police brutality.’ Another read: “This could have been me or you. Defund the racist police.”

Among them were family friends of the man involved in the incident who has been named today as Muhammed Fahir.

Muhammad Aziz, 47,who referred to himself as the man’s uncle, said his son went to the same school as Muhammed Fahir in Rochdale.

Another family friend said she had spoken to Muhammed Fahir’s family’s two hours before the protest and said ‘they could not stop crying’.

The woman, 38, from Deeplish, Rochdale, whose sons grew up with Muhammed Fahir and his brother, said of the brothers: “They are lovely boys that do charity work and community work and fairs with kids. ..” Hopefully not under age white girls.

Outside the offices of Andy Burnham there were further chants of ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’ before the group began marching down Oxford Street towards St Peter’s Square where their numbers swelled into the hundreds.

After the demo flooded St Peter’s Square, a sit-in protest began on the tram tracks. Demonstrators sat and stood in the centre of the road as chants of ‘No justice no peace no racist police’ filled the air.

One man stood directly in front of a blocked tram holding up a sign saying ‘Dismantle GMP now’ in front of a blocked tram’s cab window. Others stood just centimetres away from a lorry unable to pass the traffic lights.

Mr Burnham had earlier urged people not to use the incident for ‘political purposes’ and said moved to reassure people that ‘all the right steps are being taken.’

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he has seen the full footage leading up to an incident where a police officer kicks a man as he lays on the floor and that it was “not a clear-cut situation . . .there were other events leading up to it. It was quite a violent and complicated situation, and it is not for any of us to rush to judgement and say they know everything, on the back of something on social media”.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) the confrontation began after three officers were injured in a “violent assault,” including one female officer who suffered a broken nose.