Jodhpur Cop’s ‘Knee-On-The-Neck’ Tactic Revives Horrors Of George Floyd Case

JAIPUR: The Jodhpur police in Rajasthan are in the eye of a storm after a video, showing them employing ‘pin-down’ tactics similar to the one used against US citizen George Floyd, is going viral. Netizens and citizens in general are feeling outraged on watching the video which captured a policeman using his knee on the neck of a person in an attempt to pin him down to the ground.

The video assumes significance particularly in the wake of the massive protests that are rocking the United States over the killing of black national George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. George Floyd eventually died after a police officer forced his knee on his neck to pin him to the ground for well over eight minutes.

Floyd’s ‘I Can’t Breathe’ cries before falling unconscious fueled an unprecedented wave of anger and countrywide protests in the United States.  Even as George Floyd’s horrifying ordeal is still fresh in everyone’s memory, the Jodhpur police employing similar tactics to gain control over a person over a petty issue is causing consternation.

According to information, the shocking incident took place in Jodhpur on Thursday. The police slapped a fine on one Mukesh Kumar Prajapathi of Baldevpur for roaming around without wearing a face mask. But a stubborn Mukesh not only refused to pay the fine but even entered into an altercation with the policemen. As tempers ran high, he even ended up attacking the cops, prompting the latter to immobilize him in a bid to arrest him.

With Mukesh refusing to give in, one of the policemen forced his knee on his neck to pin him down to the ground. The episode which was captured on mobile phones soon became viral on the social media as it flaunts striking resemblances to the George Floyd incident.

While many are criticizing the Jodhpur police for being so insensitive especially in the wake of the US incident, there are some who tried to sympathise with the police given the fact that it was Mukesh who tried to attack them. Mukesh incidentally has previous criminal history as he is an accused in a case where he attacked his own father with a screw-driver and inflicted an injury in his eye.