UK police officer suspended after video showed him kneeling on Black man's neck

One London police officer was suspended on Friday after a video of an arrest appeared to show an officer kneeling on a Black suspect's neck. Footage of the arrest in north London emerged on the social media, and showed two officers holding down the handcuffed man on the pavement.

The suspect in the video was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of affray and possession of an offensive weapon, following reports of a fight, and remains in police custody.

“Get off me ... get off my neck,“ the struggling man can be heard shouting in the video.

“I haven’t done anything wrong, get off my neck,” the man told the police officers.

One of the two officers asks, “Are you going to behave yourself?”

He is eventually released from the ground and continues to talk to officers after they sit him up.

London and other major cities have witnessed large Black Lives Matter protests inspired by racial justice following the death of African-American George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, US on May 25.

The Metropolitan Police has now referred the incident for investigation by the independent police watchdog.