Footage shows an Asda security guard assaulting a young Black man

Asda security guard assaulting a young Black man


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Content warning: the video below contains footage some readers may find distressing

An Asda security guard is under police investigation after footage emerged of him assaulting a young Black man entering an outlet in Shoeburyness, Essex. The guard claims he was ‘just doing his job’ and alleges he believed the young person was carrying a knife and that he had threatened both himself and other customers.

However, anti-racist campaigners have accused the guard of racially profiling the young customer.

Another case of racial profiling

The footage shows a security guard punching a young Black man. The guard then proceeds to drag the young person’s limp body out of the shop, and dump him on the pavement outside. A second clip shows another person handing the young man his phone, which dropped out of his pocket during the assault. Another person helps the young man up, and he stumbles away, unsteady on his feet.

Outraged by the security guard’s actions, the African Diaspora Public Affairs Committee (ADPAC) tweeted:

56 Black Men and Black British Network founder Cephas Williams added:

Meanwhile, the responses from the likes of right wing culture warrior Laurence Fox to “give the Asda security guard a medal, and the knife coward a lengthy stretch” reflect the toxic way in which mainstream society seeks to surveil, control, and criminalise young Black men who are considered ‘guilty until proven innocent’.

It is these narratives that lead to the police’s excessive and disproportionate use of stop and search powers against young Black men, as well as their overrepresentation in the ‘Gangs Matrix’, joint enterprise doctrine convictions, and the youth and criminal justice systems.

Outrage

Campaign group Black and Asian Lawyers for Justice (BAME Lawyers for Justice) tweeted:

BAME Lawyers for Justice co-founder and Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC UK) chair Zita Holbourne told The Canary:

The violent attack on this young man is shocking and horrific and really upsetting and distressing to watch the footage let alone to be the person who went through this. No security guard has any right to do that to anyone, he could have killed him. The young man could have sustained a serious head injury. He was bleeding and unable to stabilise himself to stand or walk properly.

She added: 

Asda have a duty of care towards customers and should not be tolerating or directing such treatment, irrespective of the reason behind it. They need to he held accountable for the security guard’s actions and the security guard needs to be punished for their crime. It seems that organisations and individuals feel they can violently attack black people with impunity but we are not going to tolerate violent attacks on our young people.

Under investigation

Essex Police are now investigating the incident. An Asda spokesperson told The Canary:

We do not tolerate violence in our stores and are investigating the incident in our Shoeburyness store as well as supporting the police fully with their enquiries. As this is an ongoing police investigation we cannot provide any further comment at this time.

BAME Lawyers for Justice is urging the young man and his family to get in touch if they require support.

Featured image via Sean Seddon/Metro

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  • Show Comments

    1. This article undermines this website and promotes racial stereotyping in an ironic way. Not only does the video referenced via Twitter not show the full video of the man approaching the security guard threateningly and closing his fist, it doesn’t once try to frame it objectively and assumes the worst of the situation. Other media outlets (even stuff like the common tabloids) avoid this bias and vitriol and report the man’s threats of violence. Ironically the Canary has made this about race.

      And to the other commenter here, you’re racist to state British white trash. You’re idea of fighting fire with fire is hypocritical and hate filled and I imagine the irony of judging a people by their colour or nationality is lost on you.

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      1. The footage clearly shows that Piece of White Trash speaking to a woman, then instantly goes to the door and knocks the lad out! Not even one as thick as The Great White British Trash are so stupid as to drag an “armed and dangerous” man outside and just leave him on the pavement still “armed and dangerous”
        “Ironically the Canary has made this about race.” How the Fuck is this not about race, would it still ‘NOT’ be about race if the lad was a young Jew in black suit, white shirt and hat!? Or as I suggested above roles revesed!?
        I am not a racist, I am British White and when I see Great White British Trash, like the Filth that left rivers of Piss and mounds of cans of Stella in London, beat the shit out of the Police, while pissing on memorials and making IRONICALLY Nazi Salutes aka ‘The Statue Protectors’ ! That is Great White British Trash, no conversation required!
        Your comprehension was done in haste, I am angry I am very fucking angry and I have every right to express that!
        Fire with Fire NOPE! You are wrong, I did not advicate violence or walking up to people and knocking them out!

        Report comment

    2. Footage shows an Asda security guard assaulting a young
      Black man.
      I wonder what the Issa Brother will do about
      One of their own Black Migrants persons being dragged about??
      After all it Black persons month this month is it not?

      I wonder if the White security guard will get sacked by them
      Before the Issa brother have all the true information on this matter? Do they really care a C**p at what when on in this store?
      Concluding
      I shopped in ASDA plus other stores the other day on my pricing trips of supermarket chains your prices are a too Hight what will they be next year customers I ask myself in ASDA stores increases may be to pay for the new builds funding they have coming down the line In local area of Lancashire not just our area in Pendle Colne Lances.
      finally
      To Mohammed Ali I politely say you points or views on this
      matter will not be needed as you work for the Issa Brother
      as an employed puppet for them SIR O.K.

      Report comment

    3. Dear Canary please do not censure my words and take away my Freedim of Speech because some reader don’t like my words or language! Anyone who is more offended by my comment than that blatant racism can only be equally racist!
      “nellykskelly
      29th October 2021 at 6:35 pm
      Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
      Welcome to Great White “Britian”! FUCK! YOU! GREAT WHITE BITISH TRASH!!! Time for The PEOPLE to stand UP and stand TOGETHER! I wonder how different that clip would be if it was a Black Security Guard and a White Customer! The world has been fucked up by the Elites/Establishment yet again! Time to take it back! UNITE! UNITE! UNITE! DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO MANUFACTURE HATE AND DIVISSION! That white trash and his kind are beyond reproach their brains are Elites/Establishments’ mush, they know nothing but hate, they’d allow their masters to force them so deep into poverty, that they have to live on lickcking dried in dog shit off the pavements and still vote Conservative/Neo-New-Labour Party Tory and line up to lick their masters’ arses clean! But let them while those of us who know, UNITE and RISE! ALWAYS NON VIOLENT, as much as we’d all love to have a little chat with that White Trash, but violence is not the cure for this disease!”

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    4. What is clear from this story is,It Is Not the Security Guards Job, to knock customers out on behalf of Asda. Did the guard search the man for weapons?. The video I have seen in other publications seem to imply not.
      ‘I was in fear of my life, so I ‘knocked him out/ hit him with a baseball bat / shot him’ etc.’. Is this another stragety of US policing imported here?. I believe there are procedures, This was not one of them. Is this man an accredited security guard?. No weapon was shown, and none of us know what was said. I have seen a pic of the guard. Looks like the type it wouldn’t take much to ‘press his button’. But maybe that’s me casting stereotypes. I feel sure knocking out a customer and dragging them outside the store is not in his Job Description. Notably some of the more ‘biased’ newspapers have remarked on the guards wage. It’s very good of them to be concerned about the low paid, glad to have them aboard, but where have they been all these years?.

      Report comment

      1. Exactly! They get their ‘get by’ wage, that allows them the latest iPhone/GalaxyS, a Huge TV and plenty of Stella down the Weatherspoon’s and they think that they are invinsible! Remember the Homeless Men and the doorman and McDonald’s staff with their mop buckets?
        The ASDA security man feared for his life, but failed to care about the customers exiting or entering the store, nor the pedestrians walking by!? What utter Bullshit! Him and that woman with the red hair looked out the door, something was said, she walks off and he jumps into action!
        Is this a Blair/Murdoch People of The SUN or Campbell/Mandelson’s People of The SUN in Lamb’s Clothing aka The Guardian, Town by any chance?
        I bet not a thing happens to the Piece of Shit! I wish Canary and Skwawkbox would follow up on these stories we’re not all on MSSM.
        This lump of rock and it’s white trash has turned our beautiful Island into Great White “Britian” The Paradise for Fascist!

        Report comment

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