We reproduce a letter from a Unite member to Manchester’s Deputy Mayor Kate Green regarding the police’s conduct at a recent Ashton-under-Lyne protest.

Dear Kate,

You and I have met several times over the years, from you knocking on my door during election time, to tasting my questionable homemade wine at the local allotment, to listening to me speak publicly about the Manchester community mental health crisis at your Labour branch meeting in Urmston, which, despite positive words and good intentions, is getting worse rather than better over the past five years.

I mention this not for nostalgia, but because beginning from a human place matters, particularly in situations involving policing and protest. When people are no longer seen as individuals, but as a crowd to be controlled, treatment can quickly lose its humanity. What follows is serious, but it concerns people and how they were treated, not slogans or abstractions.

Last night, after a long day supporting people in therapy in my NHS role, the last thing I wanted to do was drive nearly 50 minutes to Ashton-under-Lyne and stand in the freezing rain waving my Unite the Union flag. But with Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed — two of the hunger strikers — close to death from starvation, my conscience would not allow me to stay at home. I fear this context may seem irrelevant to a policing issue, but I think it matters: people give up their time through compassion, fear or moral obligation, and those motivations deserve to be recognised.

As you know, last night you and Andy Burnham took part in a talk at the 4C Community Centre in Ashton-under-Lyne. Also present were very senior Greater Manchester Police officers and a small audience inside the venue. Outside, around 20 of us gathered peacefully. We were motivated by concern about the dire situation in Gaza, the appalling treatment of the Filton 24 (at least two of whom are Manchester residents), and, as mentioned above, the condition of peaceful protesters currently on hunger strike, two of whom are close to death without any compassion or engagement from this Labour government.

We were a small, calm group – largely older, many of us in our late 50s, waving Palestinian flags. Two of us were there representing our Unite the Union branches. On arrival, I greeted a couple of pleasant police officers, and the atmosphere felt convivial. Given the nature of the group and the mood at the time, I genuinely expected the evening to be uneventful.

Approximately five minutes after Andy Burnham and others began speaking, a senior officer clearly received instructions to immediately move us away from the building. Given the large glass frontage of the room you were in, you will likely have seen what happened next. What you may not have seen or heard is that no officer asked us to move, nor asked us to step back or relocate.

Instead, officers in riot-style fatigues rapidly formed a line and charged at us without any warning. They began shouting aggressively, screaming obscenities, and forcibly pushing people to the ground, causing others to trip or stumble over those who had been knocked down. All 20 or so of us were driven onto a narrow path beside a busy and potentially dangerous section of Oldham Road. The speed, aggression, and apparent enjoyment some officers took in shouting and pushing us was deeply frightening. The fact that this all happened in view of our most senior local politicians and police officers was something I reflected on afterwards with trepidation about where our society is heading.

I was terrified and began filming on my phone in the hope that having a camera pointed at the most aggressive policeman near me might offer some protection. I am enclosing footage.

To explain part of what you will see: after an elderly gentleman was pushed to the ground, a young lad shouted in an attempt to distract officers and prevent people being trampled. An officer immediately screamed at him to “get back”, grabbed him in a headlock, and used his body weight to force the young lad to the ground by the neck. Several officers then restrained and arrested the young man.

Although it was distressing to see this teenager pinned down, I’m saddened to say that I felt a degree of relief that the extremely hostile officer who initiated the headlock was no longer alone with the young man. That same officer who looked like he was trying to break the teenagers neck was screaming that we were “fucking pricks” and pushed myself and others, including an older gentleman with mobility difficulties, to the ground.

All of this was sudden, scary and entirely unnecessary. Had the police simply asked us to move, we would have done so. At most, we might have grumbled or verbally objected as we gathered our belongings, but there would have been no refusal and no risk of non-compliance. There was no confrontation and no threat.

Later, after we had been forced onto the narrow path beside Oldham Road (clearly without any risk assessment of danger to us or passing vehicles), officers again received instructions that we were “too noisy”. Whether those instructions came from yourself, from within the event, or from senior officers present, I cannot say. What I can say is that the response was again disproportionate and dangerous.

Officers covertly organised themselves and once again without warning, charged to confiscate the speaker. A large number of officers jumped down from higher ground, over a wall, and onto the path into the middle of our small crowd, trampling people as they ripped the speaker away in what felt like a chaotic, adrenaline-fuelled scrum. Elderly men and women were crushed. One elderly gentleman was punched in the face. An ambulance was required after he experienced heart difficulties following the assault. Footage of this gentleman in the immediate aftermath of the assault on him is also enclosed. I suspect the policeman in question would argue that it was a flaying arm that connected with the older gentleman’s face, just as those police who jumped directly on top of several of us at once will claim that they were not stomping on or trying to hurt people intentionally. Regardless of what they say, what they did was abhorrent and upsetting.

Again, all that was required was a simple request. “Turn off the speaker or it will be confiscated” was all that was needed. We would have no doubt quietly grumbled but complied immediately.

After these assaults, I witnessed some officers giggling and laughing in our direction. What was painfully clear is that they did not see the humans behind the chanting and the flag-waving.

This incident cannot be seen in isolation. Over the past year, Unite members and allies across progressive movements in Greater Manchester have repeatedly witnessed a pattern in which peaceful protesters are tightly controlled, kettled, or treated with open hostility, while right-wing self-described “citizen journalists” and agitators, many of whom provoke, harass, and monetise abuse for online platforms, are allowed to move freely at protests and engage in verbal aggression with impunity.

As a union representative, and as someone with a close family member in the police, I have always resisted crude narratives about policing. I was disappointed at early protests to hear chants of “fascist police”, believing firmly that police officers are fellow workers who should be natural allies of movements rooted in anti-racism and compassion. But experiences like last night make it increasingly difficult to sustain such a belief.

Our Unite branch has formally endorsed plans to campaign for a review and reform of how protests are policed in Greater Manchester. Given your responsibility for policing, and Andy Burnham’s presence at the event, we ask that you urgently consider initiating such a review. This should include meaningful engagement with unions, anti-racist and peace groups, environmental campaigners, and other relevant community stakeholders.

We want to live in a city where peaceful protest is not merely permitted, but something families feel safe attending – where our children can learn the importance of peaceful protest, engagement in politics and standing up for others and for a compassionate, just society.

I am raising this on behalf of our Unite members in good faith. Our preference is for this to be addressed through local and mayoral oversight mechanisms. However, if you believe that this incident should be referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct then please do forward this on and I will be happy to speak to anyone who wants further information.

Please confirm receipt of this correspondence and the enclosed videos, and let me know how you intend to proceed. I will share your response with our local union branches and allies.

Yours sincerely,

…

Member, Unite the Union, Greater Manchester Mental Health Branch.

Image: Greater Manchester Police officers  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_Manchester_Police_officers_in_Piccadilly_Gardens_%28Manchester,_England%29_2.jpg. Source: Clear up day uefa 15 May 2008 manchester. Author: Terry from uk, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.