By Paul Peachey
i-Independent Print Ltd
LONDON — Six police officers have kept their jobs despite being caught on film smashing up an unarmed suspect’s car with baseball bats and a pickaxe handle.
The six were found guilty of discreditable conduct at the end of the first Metropolitan Police disciplinary hearing since a force whistleblower came forward three years ago with a series of damaging allegations against the Enfield Crime Squad. The anti-corruption inquiry investigated claims that officers assaulted suspects and took private property for their own use at a north London police station.
The footage of the operation in June 2008 starts with one officer ordering his colleagues to “Attack! Attack!” and captures the team of police running to the suspected stolen car stopped in traffic in Edmonton, north London.
One of the team smashes the passenger’s side window while another officer is seen repeatedly battering the front windscreen of the car. A detective sergeant was demoted for failing to properly supervise the other officers. The others were all formally reprimanded after the investigation.
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