Video Of Police Tackling Teens Goes Viral

A video showing 'rugby tackling' teenagers in a park has gone viral.

There's little context to the clip that starts with an officer appearing to tell the youths to 'go home'. Following that there is a lot of shouting before the altercation descends into a bit of a brawl as the police tackle the teens.

Someone at the park at the time videoed the incident and then uploaded it to Facebook with the caption "These are the people that are supposed to protect us...".

So far the clip has been viewed over six million times, receiving 32,000 likes and tens of thousands of comments, most of which condemn the constabulary's actions.

Credit: Facebook

"We're aware of a video posted on Facebook which shows officers detaining and arresting a number of people in Taunton," Avon and Somerset police said in a statement.

"While we welcome and expect public scrutiny when officers are out serving our communities, we also ask people not to jump to conclusions without knowing the full facts.

"At 5.29pm today we responded to a report a woman was being assaulted in Victoria Park.

"On arrival a large group of young people refused to co-operate with officers and five people between the ages of 15 and 34 were subsequently detained on suspicion of affray.

"The 18-year-old assault victim we were originally called to assist is currently in hospital receiving treatment for a number of injuries.

"An investigation is now underway and we'd ask people not to speculate while it takes place.

"Body worn video was worn by officers during the incident and will be reviewed as part of the inquiry.

"We expect the highest level of professionalism and diligence from all our officers and staff when on duty."

Obviously the police have a number of rights and rules to abide by. In this instance they've used force to detain the people they've determined to be offenders.

Citizens' Advice say that officers must make every effort to persuade you to co-operate and that force should only be used as a last resort, with probable cause.

From the beginning of the video, when there's not much context, it looks as if police have arrested someone and that the kids have got involved.

However, what starts out as a bit of pushing and shoving ends with hitting and kicking, spiraling the whole thing out of control.

Topics: Police

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.