Extreme force

Jody McIntyre quickly became the public face of resistance during recent student protests after video footage emerged that appeared to show him being dragged from his wheelchair by police. In an uncompromising and unflinching interview he gives Paul Carter his views on the incident that made him an overnight celebrity, and how he feels disabled people should come together to fight the Government’s cuts agenda

When images from the student protests taking place in London and across the country were being splashed all over our television screens in December, it seemed entirely plausible that another Winter of Discontent may have been on the horizon, spurred on by a new generation of politicised young people. Claims and counter-claims of violence from police and protestors spread across the airwaves.

However, amongst all the tales of kettling and kicking royal cars, one story soon began to surface that captured people’s attention. Rumours began to spread that during the protest a disabled person had been pulled from his wheelchair by the police, and dragged across the street. In less than an hour after news of the alleged incident broke, a video appeared online, that appeared to show police dragging a man, surrounded by outraged and incredulous eyewitnesses.

Footage of the incident soon became viral, and spread quickly across video sharing sites such as YouTube long before the mainstream press picked up the story, largely thanks to social media outlets such as Facebook and particularly Twitter, where thousands of users reposted links to the video.

Soon, the person in the video was identified, and a name began to circulate. It was Jody McIntyre.

Despite being only 20 years old, Jody is no stranger to protest, and is already something of a seasoned political and social activist, campaigning for equality for disabled people as well as supporting a number of other causes, such as the fight against tuition fee increases which so unexpectedly thrust him into the wider media spotlight.

In December’s Disability Now, he wrote in World View about his experiences as a disabled person living for nine months in Palestine, of which he has been a vociferous supporter since childhood.

For many people, disabled or not, getting caught up in such a high-profile media storm would be overwhelming. Jody, however, remains remarkably matter of fact, and says that in his opinion, the incident was almost to be expected from the police, about whom he has frank and forthright opinions.

“People shouldn’t be surprised by the police pulling someone out of a wheelchair more than say a policeman smashing a non-disabled person over the head with a truncheon,” he says.

“This is the police’s role in demonstrations – to provoke and initiate violence and to suppress any demonstrations that look like they’re going to be effective. Essentially that’s their aim. If it’s ineffective protest that isn’t making any difference then they don’t need to do anything. If it’s becoming effective in any way then they have to suppress it.

“Obviously I didn’t quite expect it to be as big a story as it was, but I can kind of understand why because it’s obviously quite shocking to see an institution that you’ve been told is here to protect us – that’s what you’ve been told all your life – not only not protecting us but pulling disabled people out of wheelchairs. It really turns the tables on everything they teach in school about the police. You don’t see that on The Bill.”

Jody has lodged a formal complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and says he is still in discussions with a lawyer as to the best course of any potential action.

The alleged incident seemed to capture the public mood, and soon people began to ask why mainstream news outlets had yet to pick up the story. When they eventually did, Jody again found himself at the centre of a storm, this time with the BBC following a live on-air interview with News 24 presenter Ben Brown.

The interview resulted in 420 complaints to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, from people claiming that the line of questioning adopted was overly aggressive and inappropriate. Meanwhile, the BBC itself said it had received what it called a “considerable number of complaints” – believed to be in the thousands.

Kevin Bakhurst, Controller of the BBC News channel, later defended the interview with Jody, stating: “I have reviewed the interview a few times and I would suggest that we interviewed Mr McIntyre in the same way that we would have questioned any other interviewee in the same circumstances: it was quite a long interview and Mr McIntyre was given several minutes of airtime to make a range of points, which he did forcefully; Ben challenged him politely but robustly on his assertions.

“Mr McIntyre says during the interview that ‘personally he sees himself equal to anyone else’ and we interviewed Mr McIntyre as we would interview anyone else in his position.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jody sees things differently.

“He [Ben Brown] knew I hadn’t done anything wrong,” he says.

“He knew that I didn’t deserve the treatment I got, so he just kept asking me ‘were you throwing things at the police?’ I already answered him when he asked me the first time, he didn’t need to keep asking me.

“He was asking me these questions while a video was playing on the screen of a policeman pulling me out of my wheelchair, and he’s asking me ‘were you throwing missiles?’

“I know they got a huge number of complaints. I saw there was something on their website saying ‘we don’t think we did anything wrong’. I don’t mind. I’ll still talk to them, you just have to know what you’re coming against. If you’re aware of the role of these institutions, it’s not so much of a shock when they say ‘were you rolling your wheelchair towards the police?’ The funny thing about that question is that I don’t understand the implication. If someone rolls towards a policeman in a wheelchair, the police can just pull you out and drag you across the floor? For rolling towards them? I mean, come on.”

When conversation turns to the wider discussion about the impact on disabled people of the current political climate, it becomes even clearer that Jody is committed to direct action, and to making people take to the streets to get their voices heard.

He says that far from being put off by what he says happened to him during the student protests, other disabled people should be inspired by his experiences to take action themselves.

He says: “There are a few different ways of looking at it. One, you could say the police will be more nervous now of pulling people out of wheelchairs. Two, you could say that the public in general supported me so they’ll support you as well if it happens to you, but also the main thing is that we can’t be bullied by the actions of the police into inaction. We can’t be cowered into silence by the rhetoric of the Government. We have to keep fighting, and nothing should put us off. Even if they sent the army into a demonstration, nothing should put us off because if we keep fighting, we will win.”

Around Easter this year, trade union organised marches are expected to take place in which groups of people from across society – including disabled people – are likely to play a role.

Jody argues that such combined protest is much more likely to succeed than if disabled people opt to campaign and protest separately.

“To be honest, everyone needs to mobilise, disabled people and non-disabled people. But obviously, disabled people are going to be amongst the hardest hit.

“There’s no point in being disparate groups, everyone’s going to suffer from the same thing, so there’s no point in saying this is about this group of people or that group of people; everyone can fight together.”

So, is he happy to be seen as a figurehead for the disability protest movement?

“I’m not seeking attention or seeking any role. Any way I can be useful, if me just going to demonstrations helps the cause, then I’ll go to demonstrations. If merely talking to the media helps the cause, I’ll do that. Everyone has to do whatever they can, it’s not really a matter of one person being more important than another person. We all have a role to play.”

While some of his political views may be likely to polarise opinion, his desire and commitment to pushing for social change cannot be questioned. With that in mind, it seems unlikely that we’ve seen, or indeed heard, the last of Jody McIntyre.