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this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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I can imagine the tazing the man does not help with his muscles being able to release the knife. Repeatedly kicking him in the head also does not seem like the way cops are trained to get someone to drop a weapon.
Here is the video for those who have not seen it https://streamable.com/e/jabdsn
This bodycam one is a bit longer, which I believe helps a bit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskBrits/comments/1t0p591/bodycam_footage_released_of_the_golders_green/
You can see that he first refuses to go to the ground. They then taze him and he falls on his back, but then turns over to seemingly protect the knife. You can tell in your video as well as in this one, that it least one of the policemen tries to turn him over first. So he is not trying to cooperate with the police at all, let alone freely drop the weapon and is able to move at least somewhat(he clearly turned himself over after all).
They probably should have called a third policemen at that point to turn him over, as having a third person clearly worked. They seem to also have stopped kicking his head, once they got the knife and him properly handcuffed.
Still given the situation, that was somewhat decent. In many countries, he would have been killed by the police in that situation.
The bodycam footage does not show the cop kicking his face very well and honestly the POV footage might be worse.
Most of the comments on Reddit are praising the cops for not instantly drawing their gun and executing a black man because America is apparently now the gold standard for policing. The "terrorist attack" angle is being mentioned as justification as well but that was concluded false. It was a mentally ill man who was released from a mental ward a few days earlier.
In the end a lot of the conclusions are being done in hindsight and used to justify attacking Zack Polanski. Zack called out what initially seemed a pretty egrigious use of force against the mentally ill man and probably still is. I think it is good someone tried to question whether the cops kicking the man in the face multiple time in a life-threatening way was actually an effective way to arrest him.
Also are the cops tasering the man after they put the cuffs on or what is that sound?
Even with this video. The multiple punches in the face was beyond the minimum necessary force police is required to use
What is the minimum necessary force for tackling someone with a knife and possibly a bomb?
There are certainly arguments to be had but seeing him react in near real-time before all the facts are clear says something about his priorities.
You don't shoot thousands of volts into somebody who might have a bomb.
"He turns over to seemingly protect the knife." Oh where did you find his thoughts to know he was trying to protect the knife?
"So he is not trying to cooperate with the police at all, let alone freely drop the weapon" well if he just got tazed he wouldn't be able to cooperate with anybody. Do you even know what happens to your muscles when an electrical current passes through them??
Fucking pig apologist.