A video has appeared online which shows a member of the PSNI repeatedly punching a man while carrying out an arrest in Armagh city.

A man and a woman were seen being held down on the ground by the PSNI, while the man was brutally punched repeatedly in the head, despite offering no threat.

At least three members of the Crown police restrain the man, with the most violent completely on top of him.

The PSNI dismissed criticism of the assault as merely a “degree of force in order to safely make [the arrest]”, a response that only generated more anger in the area.

Amnesty International has drawn attention to increased PSNI use of violence. In 2024, the NGO raised the “deeply disturbing” 21% increase in such methods from the previous year.

It also cites the most recent PSNI statistics on use of tasers, which show a 36% increase in drawing tasers and a 38% increase in firing them.

Posting online in response to the video, Sinn Féin councillors Sarah Duffy and John O’Kane said: “Given the level of concerns that have been raised with us by members of the local community, we have requested an urgent meeting with the PSNI to discuss the matter and to receive an update on the circumstances surrounding the incident.”

Local republicans contrasted the reality of the brutality of the PSNI with the slick marketing of the organisation routinely broadcast by the mainstream media.

It was revealed earlier this month that the PSNI now plans to target Catholic schools with an action plan to try to “widen representation of the force” once the new school year starts in September, spending more than £200 million on recruitment campaigns.

Saoradh said it “utterly condemns” the latest PSNI initiative to target schools with so-called “bespoke action plans” aimed at increasing Crown force recruitment.

“This proposal raises profound ethical concerns about the grooming, manipulation and exploitation of young people by a political police force whose record in working-class republican communities remains one of harassment, intimidation and repression,” it said.

“The PSNI seeks to present itself to schoolchildren as a normal and acceptable career path, while deliberately ignoring the lived reality experienced by countless republican families.

“Across occupied Ireland, republican children have been forced to witness traumatic dawn raids on their homes, heavily armed Crown forces entering family residences, the ransacking of personal property, and the humiliation of parents and relatives subjected to intrusive stop-and-search powers under draconian legislation.

“Many young people in republican communities know the PSNI not through carefully managed recruitment presentations, but through first-hand experiences of political policing, surveillance, harassment and the criminalisation of their families and communities.

“Particularly disturbing is the hypocrisy of a police force attempting to cultivate relationships with schoolchildren while maintaining a documented history of targeting and exploiting vulnerable young people as informers.

“The use of children and young persons as covert human intelligence sources represents one of the most morally reprehensible aspects of British policing policy. Any organisation with such a record has no business entering schools to influence impressionable young minds.

“This recruitment drive is not about representation, equality or community engagement. It is about securing legitimacy in communities where the PSNI continues to face widespread distrust due to its ongoing role in enforcing British rule in Ireland.

“The force cannot erase decades of political policing by rebranding itself in classrooms or by presenting carefully crafted recruitment campaigns to young people.”