It is in the news that the police handcuffed a woman claiming she "reached" towards her pockets after being told not to. Looking at the government and Metropolitan Police web pages there is no mention of any requirement to not reach towards ones pockets.
If one is stopped and searched is one required to follow orders, such as not "reaching towards" ones pockets? Is there any specific legislation that gives the police the right to use force in such a situation?
Report of what happened from the media:
Rocha, who was a friend of Dom Phillips, the British journalist murdered in the Amazon in June with Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, said she was approached by police shortly after reaching the street on which Bolsonaro was staying.
“They came straight at me … [One male officer] grabbed me by the arm and just started taking me to this corner and while he was talking to me he was holding both my wrists really strong. He was hurting my wrists. I was asking him: ‘Why are you holding me? Let me go.’”
“He kept saying: ‘We’ve received some intel that someone in a red T-shirt was going to commit criminal damage … so I’m going to search you and you are detained,” added Rocha, who was wearing a red T-shirt at the time.
Soon after the officer “got the handcuffs out and turned me around and handcuffed me with my hands behind my back”.
“I was in a state of shock … we knew the police were on high alert because of the funeral and all the state leaders that were here but we never expected anything like that.”
Footage of the incident seen by the Guardian shows a male officer searching Rocha’s pockets before handcuffing her and saying: “I told you, ‘Don’t go reaching towards your pockets again – and you reached’ … It’s not my fault you chose not to listen.”