It must have been tough growing up with a name like Delroy Smellie. All the other kids made fun of your name. What else could they do, being kids and all? So it comes as no surprise that little Delroy grew up to be Sgt. Smellie, a police officer in London with a “metal extendable baton, known as an asp,” at the ready.
Nicola Fisher was a protester at the G20 summit. She was slight of stature, but strong in beliefs on animal rights. This led to her meeting Delroy Smellie at the end of an asp. From the BBC News,
Fortunately for us, there’s a video of the incident.
Nicola Fisher was a protester at the G20 summit. She was slight of stature, but strong in beliefs on animal rights. This led to her meeting Delroy Smellie at the end of an asp. From the BBC News,
Ms. Fisher was holding a carton of orange juice. Some people have a fear of orange juice. Others have a fear of the vitamin C in orange juice. Some people aren’t afraid of orange juice at all, and just say they are.The 47-year-old officer told the court he initially struck the animal rights activist across the face in a move which he described as a “clearance strike”.The court heard the senior territorial support group officer then struck Ms Fisher with it when she surged towards him again.
He said he feared objects in her hands could be used as weapons against him.
Asked how hard he hit Ms Fisher, Sgt Smellie replied he was aware she was “significantly smaller”.
“However it had to be enough to achieve the objective of negating the threat,” he added.
Fortunately for us, there’s a video of the incident.
Toward the end, Fisher asserts that Smellie could have just asked her politely to move. That makes her seem a bit smelly, not to mention silly and disingenuous. Fisher doesn’t appear particularly willing to respond to a polite request in the video. But her post-beating bit doesn’t alter the propriety of Smellie’s wallop, or of his claim at trial that this big, tough cop “felt threatened” by this small, young woman.
Curious, to the point of being humorous, is Smellie lapse into police jargon to overcome what happened on the street. This was a “clearance strike,” Smellie says. That sounds so much better than beating a small woman with a club for coming near him, yelling at him, not do what he tells her to do.
Then there’s “negating the threat.” Fear of OJ? Sure there was a large crowd of protesters, but he beat Fisher. He may well have had some fear of a crowd getting out of control, but his claim is that Fisher was the threat, and needed negating. You never know when she’s going to spray orange juice on his uniform, turning it into a sticky mess that resists spot removal.
There is always the argument that had Fisher just stayed home and baked cookies, she wouldn’t have put herself in the position of forcing Smellie to beat her. But then, everyone knows that cookies taste better with milk than orange juice. What was she left to do? And then there was the whole protest thing as well. If only protesters would be more orderly and compliant.
Sgt. Delroy Smellie is on trial before the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court for common assault. Will the OJ defense work for him?
H/T Ed at Blawg Review via @NetLawMedia
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Sir, I never knew just how prevalent the act of beating the snot out of lil girls and women by the authorati was until I visited Injustice Everywhere at your recommendation. I’ll never look at a glass of OJ the same.
Thanks for this footage, it’ll go straight into the Library of Injustice.
The story behind it will be remembered only by a few until the next clearance, unless a riot breaks out and she cries & pleads for everyone to just getalong.
You can bet that soon it’ll be illegal to film the public servants servicing the public or is it already? Then as we can clearly see, it’s against the law to have an object in your hand in public.
Probably the saddest turn of events was that, in the process of administering the beating, he was sprayed with orange juice anyway because that’s what happens if you hit people holding orange juice with your baton.
I’m a bit surprised that he didn’t aver that he was afraid she was going to splash him with acid. Ascorbic acid.
Had he done so, he would have been forced to pronounce “ascorbic acid.”
As I understand it, in England it’s commonly pronounced “Chumley.”
I long for the days when men used to admire women for being feisty
I don’t believe that Mr Smellie was threatened enough to claim self defence. Wielding a carton of juice against someone twice your size in kevlar is not a threat.
The crowd the police are containing are still, some sitting, a couple of them asking to be let through and being spoken to then shoved back. Mr Smellie shifts calmly along to reinforce the point in the line where one person with a large camera is told they can’t go through. Miss Fisher is part of the crowd not being contained and comes from behind to shout at him, certainly confrontational but not likely to overwhelm him or his squad. He is facing off at least one other person at the same time but has back up from two other police officers turning round. Part of Mr Smellies behaviour is defensive, blocking with his left arm and stepping back but he is not attacked, then he steps forward to strike. In fact the crowd never attacks, despite one of them being beaten to the ground, the sort of thing that might well trigger an attack by a crowd on the verge of rioting.
At the moment of being hit Miss Fisher is pointing at the press cameramen with her right hand and shouting at him, maybe making her point to the press that Mr Smellie had hit a woman, really provocative, but not punishable by beating and not threatening.
With the evidence seen by the general public I’d find him guilty but maybe the Judge will see more evidence than we do.
I think Mr Smellie is lucky not to be charged with actual bodily harm rather than common assault as her bruising was extensive and multiple. This would shift the starting point of sentence to custodial rather than community.
Aggravating factors for a common assault that I reckon apply are causing an actual injury, offender in a position of authority and using a weapon. Premeditation might be construed from Mr Smellie taking off his ID number. He shouldn’t hold the rank of sergeant if he can’t remember his ID number on riot duty.
I would allow him the mitigating factor of provocation. I think he acted impulsively though he draws and extends his baton before hitting her.
If I was sentencing him I’d give a community sentence. Losing his career in the police is a very harsh punishment but there is no way round it, it precludes him being in a similar situation so reoffending is unlikely.
I’m puzzled Miss Fisher hasn’t given evidence but the video speaks volumes.