‘My colleague had a heart attack after bricks were thrown’ – summer riot police say

‘My colleague had a heart attack after bricks were thrown’ – summer riot police say

Officers share their trauma while policing the summer riots

Chief Inspector Zoe Kelsey said, “It’s like being in a battlefield – but you just have a shield and a stick.”

She was one of the officers at the center of the Middlesbrough riot that broke out after three Girls die in knife attack in Southport earlier this year.

His team faced a volley of bricks, protesters tried to set them on fire and one officer suffered a heart attack.

Chaudhry Inspector Kelsey has been a police officer for more than 25 years, but said the riots across Britain over the summer tested her faith in humanity: “We are human beings too, I am a mother, a daughter and a wife. “It didn’t matter and they just thought it would be fun to hurt the police.”

For the first time, front-line officers have spoken openly about the violence they faced and the trauma it caused them.

Several Cleveland police told the BBC they feared an officer might be murdered. It came as police chiefs warned MPs during a parliamentary select committee hearing this week that the impact of the riots would be felt on their budgets, officer welfare and caseloads for months to come.

On 4 August, in Middlesbrough, on a hot summer afternoon, people gathered for a peaceful protest and march. after the fatal stabbing Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguirre and Babe King.

But this soon turned into violence, Enraged by misinformation on social media That the suspect was an illegal immigrant. Rioters across Britain took advantage of the tragedy to attack police, destroy shops and set cars on fire.

Around 1,000 people gathered in Middlesbrough, with only 125 officers on the ground.

A total of 916 people in England and Wales have appeared or are due to appear in courts in relation to the national disorder, according to the latest government figures released on 2 December.

‘People offered money to burn police vehicles’

Chaudhary Inspector Kelsey Danga was leading a team of trained officers, but he was outnumbered and under constant pressure.

“I was yelling ‘hold the line, hold the line,'” she said. “We could not hold the line which they were pushing with so much force.”

As they moved towards the city centre, the groups split up and turned towards residential streets, destroying houses, cars and looting shops.

“You talk about the thin blue – well, it was very thin that day, it really was. It was just mass disarray.

“They saw that we represented law and order, and that’s what they were fighting for.”

Also there that day was PC Glenn Teale, who liaised with protest organizers and was in the middle of the group as the march got underway.

Getty Images A burning car on the road during a riot. A female policeman wearing riot clothes and shield is standing in front of it. getty images

Chief Inspector Kelsey of the Cleveland Police in front of a burning car during the riots. He described the scene as “like a battlefield”.

He has spent more than a decade witnessing EDL marches and policing chaos at England football matches, but said he had never experienced anything like the Middlesbrough riots.

PC Teele said, “There were people offering money to burn police cars, calling on the rally that we needed to arm ourselves and if the police tried to stop us, We will attack them.”

Hundreds of additional officers were sent from neighboring forces to boost numbers on the ground. Inspector Adrian Dack said, “It was absolutely massacre.”

CCTV video showed shops being looted and YouTube footage captured rioters trying to set officers on fire with burning wheelie bins. Inspector Dack said that whenever a wheelie bin was set on fire and thrown towards them, the crowd would cheer.

CH Inspector Kelsey told us that it was deeply disturbing to him to see the rioters taking pleasure in harming their comrades. “When someone here got a brick hit on the head, it was like ‘Yay.’ I don’t think they stopped to think that we were human beings behind that uniform.”

‘I thought he was going to die’

Getty Images A policeman wearing a riot shield stands in front of a house with broken windows during a riotgetty images

Rioters broke windows of houses, shops and takeaways during the disturbance

After a sustained struggle in the summer heat for over two hours in full riot gear, with no breaks or meals, one officer collapsed, immediately raising the alarm over the police radio.

“We heard someone say something about having a heart attack,” Inspector Kelsey said. “A few minutes later, I heard the cop’s name… and it was one of my cops who was in my van “

This was one of Inspector Dack’s best friends. He said: “He’s on the floor, he’s lying in his pants and socks and there’s two officers working on him. And at that moment my heart sinks.”

Choudhary Inspector Kelsey was one of the officers who worked on him, “I was just holding his hand and saying ‘You’re going to be OK, you’re going to be OK.’ It was horrible. I didn’t think he was going to do that.”

Paramedics had to wade around the chaos to get to the officer, “but they came straight to the officer and started to revive him,” Inspector Dack said. “My mind was blown, I would say, in that short amount of time.” For”.

Choudhary Inspector Kelsey said he had to return to the mess line as soon as his colleague was in the ambulance. “When I went home that night I couldn’t sleep at all. I didn’t know whether he was dead or alive.”

Choudhary Inspector Kelsey and Inspector Dack’s colleague were treated in hospital and their condition continues to improve.

‘It was like some kind of spectator sport’

A man wearing a police uniform is posing for a photo while looking at the camera

Constable Glenn Teele said the rioters had “drained the life and soul of the community”.

Cleveland police said much of the chaos, like elsewhere in the country, was live-streamed on social media.

Choudhary Inspector Kelsey said, “When I looked to my left, there were about 200 people filming us.”

“Hundreds of people thought it was highly entertaining, as if it was some kind of spectator sport. They just wanted to see the reaction on the faces of the police officers. It’s like going back hundreds of years to like ancient Rome.”

Footage from a TikTok account shows a man blocking a road at a busy junction while asking drivers if they are white before letting them pass. the rioter Has since been jailed for violent disorder.

A map showing that most of the rioters lived locally in Middlesbrough. Scattered over some distance. The farthest is 32 miles away in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The force estimated damage at more than £750,000.

PC Teale, who described the rioters as parasites, said: “I think they were just on a rampage.” “These people have no place in society, the people who were committing genocide – they are people who take away everything from the community, take away life and soul from the community, give nothing but take everything”.

Analysis of police and court records by BBC News shows that the Middlesbrough rioters ranged in age from 14 to 56, with the average age of a rioter being 25.

Figures show that the majority of people taking part in the disorder in Teesside were local. Of the 44 adults prosecuted in Middlesbrough and caught in the BBC’s analysis, 34 lived within three miles of the town and all but two lived within seven miles.

‘I felt like I could break’

It’s been five months since the chaos spread across Britain, but its impact is still being felt on policing.

At that time the Home Secretary had estimated 40,000 additional officer shifts were required By public order officers to police riots.

This week several chief officers, including the chief constable of Cleveland Police, warned MPs that the long-term financial and emotional impact to their forces and the officers involved would deplete 18 months’ worth of caseloads and budgets.

Some of the hurt officers will be replaced for the rest of their lives, he said.

“I think it was really traumatic for everyone involved, really traumatic,” Det Insp Kelsey said. “After that I had no sleep for several months, I couldn’t sleep.”

A police officer was shot in the head

Inspector Adrian Dack, who was born and raised in Hartlepool, was also on the frontline on 4 August

Inspector Dack said that when he finally stayed on family holidays after the riots, he had to struggle.

He said, “I kind of hit the floor. I felt like I could have collapsed, to be honest.”

The officers we spoke to said they care deeply about the communities they police, but they fear riots could happen again.

Inspector Dack has over 20 years’ experience in some of the city’s most deprived communities.

He is also a father and coaches a girls soccer team, “I think about kids growing up. I want them to grow up somewhere safe.”

But he was quick to add that if chaos broke out, he would be back on the front lines.

“Yes, I don’t even need to think about it,” said Inspector Dack, “if he comes again – am I ready? Are the officers ready? Yes”.

Additional reporting: Rob England, Phil Leak, Libby Rogers, Jonathan Fagg, Lauren Woodhead, Maskin Lider and Ellen Kirwin

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