Apensioner was “wrongfully” arrested for “assaulting a police officer” after “filming a stop and search from 15 feet away” in Camberwell, he claims. Retired Southwark Lib Dem councillor Jonathan Hunt, 79, told MyLondon he was released without charge just 20 minutes after he was cuffed and bundled into the back of a police van for “hitting an officer on the head”.
Ex-Observer and Financial Times journalist Jonathan was getting out of his car on Anderton Close near Champion Hill when he saw a Black 15-year-old tackled by men in “Hawaiian shirts” and “yellow baseball caps” on Saturday, July 24 around 6.20pm. He later learned they were plainclothes police responding to a 999 call about a knife fight.
He claimed the men “rained blows on [the teenager’s] body”, after which Jonathan shouted “stop” and “leave that kid alone” from “20 yards away”. He then went into his house to get his phone and returned to take photos. Jonathan and his wife Veronica said they saw them “push [the boy] up against our fence “.
Jonathan said he did not realise they were police officers until he was close enough to see “Police Officer” written on their caps. “I wondered whether this was some kind of joke as I had never seen a policeman in such gear,” he added. The officers reportedly shouted “get out of the way, there may be knives” as he got closer.
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