Police publish footage from Constitutional Court arrest, reject aggression allegations
The Warsaw Metropolitan Police Command has released footage from Friday's intervention on Marszałkowska Street. The man resisted and attempted to flee; a female officer was hospitalised.
Intervention at the Constitutional Court
The Warsaw Metropolitan Police Command (KSP) released on Friday footage from police operations on Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw. The intervention took place during a protest in front of the Constitutional Court's headquarters. According to police, footage from a body camera worn by one of the officers shows the actual course of events, which — as KSP indicates — differs significantly from the accounts circulated by PiS politicians and right-wing media.
Course of events
The footage shows the moment when two police officers approach a man standing at a pedestrian crossing. The officers ask him to produce his identity document; the man consistently refuses to respond. According to the KSP statement, from the outset the man offered both passive and active resistance, failing to comply with police orders and refusing to provide personal details.
At a certain point, the man becomes aggressive, pushes the officers away and attempts to flee towards a building on Marszałkowska Street. During the arrest, he violated the bodily integrity of the intervening female officer, who sustained injuries requiring medical assistance and was hospitalised.
Police reject allegations of officer aggression
As KSP explained in a statement issued, the detained man had a knife on him. The services also point out that individuals in the building into which the man attempted to hide obstructed the intervention, failing to respond to police orders and heightening the sense of threat.
"The published footage allows the public to familiarise itself with the course of the intervention, rather than basing its assessment solely on accounts and commentary, some of which may be intended to deliberately spread disinformation," reads the command's statement.
Police also emphasised that contrary to circulated claims — the detained man "does not have a head laceration", and police did not block his contact with a lawyer. The man refused to communicate with a lawyer from the outset; he changed his mind only during his stay in custody.
Comments from politicians
Jarosław Kaczyński commented on the incident on Friday, suggesting that there had been a "forceful attack on the office of the Social Ombudsman Adam Borowski". The PiS politician spoke of "battered co-workers" and "broken windows", accusing the authorities of using force and aggression.
Donald Tusk, meanwhile, stated that political responsibility for the "increase in aggression" falls on Karol Nawrocki and the PiS leader. The head of government indicated that the man with a knife in his pocket attacked the female officer; the detained man will face court.
Source: Google News PL — Crime (pl)