Opinion: Before we rush to judgement on Rawmarsh we need to know the facts

The scenes from Rawmarsh over the weekend have quite rightly provoked comment from several sources with deputy mayor of policing and crime in South Yorkshire, Kilvinder Vigurs, saying the footage has “horrified” her and officials.

It is easy to see why. And it is also easy to see why parents and friends of the girls involved would be outraged.

There are multiple videos online now which, taken at face value, do not paint the police officers in a very good light.

However, as the deputy mayor also says a full review is now underway by South Yorkshire Police, including body-worn video, to establish exactly what happened not only during the incident, but before and after.

And while it is the done thing to rush to judgement when posting a Facebook comment it is often worth just taking a moment, or several, to find out what actually happened.

My mind goes back to the footage from Manchester Airport in July 2024 when at first glace it seemed as though the police officers in that case were being extremely heavy-handed with two brothers.

Further evidence showed a completely different set of events and that particularly case remains far from unresolved.

So we should not go diving in to condemn either side of this particular grubby and disconcerting situation that unfolded on a Rotherham street.

Interestingly, though, comments on the aforementioned Facebook – across a variety of channels – have backed the police’s action.

Now, this could be because people genuinely know how tough it is to be a police officer and to be facing a group who may or may not be intoxicated, and who may be acting in an aggressive or threatening manner.

Policing is definitely not for the faint-hearted and many of us would prefer our coppers to act first and ask questions later to prevent events spiralling out of control.

I do worry, though, that initial comments are very close to what could be called ‘victim blaming’.

Young girls being gobby and having a pop at a police officer isn’t a good look, so people immediately think well what else are the police meant to do?

As I say, we don’t know enough yet from either side to know exactly what went on in Rawmarsh the other night.

Quite rightly there’s an investigation, and it’s nice that some have leapt to the police’s defence on what must have been a difficult evening.

I just don’t think we should demonise young, white, working-class girls quite so quickly.