Jody McIntyre is a blogger, journalist and political activist. He is also disabled. Last week, Jody took part in the demonstrations against the British government’s hike in university tuition fees. During the demo, Jody was dragged from his wheelchair in an “unprovoked” attack by police, as he explained to East London Lines:

“I was in Parliament Sq with my brother and we saw everyone running to one of the corners so we ran and made our way to the front.

“One policeman hit me with his baton in the shoulder then suddenly four or five of them picked me up, and dragged me from my chair. They carried me quite violently and against my will and put me on the pavement.

“Eventually after about 5 minutes, my brother was let through.

“What was even more shocking though, later on I had moved to the other side of Parliament Sq and I was sitting in my wheelchair in space in the middle of the road. A policeman recognized me from the earlier incident and came running over, pushed me out of my chair and dragged me across the road. This was completely unprovoked.”

Jody has yet to decide if he will pursue a complaint against the police, but was eager to highlight this was not an isolated incident.

“I’ve been to a lot of these protests and people are always violent with me,” he said.

“Even though I’m in a wheelchair, I like to think we’re all equal human beings. There was plenty of violence towards students yesterday, and even though I’ve had media attention, all of this violence is equally disgraceful. But this is standard police behavior.”

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds