"it seemed to concentrate his attention."
Yeah sure - I wonder how many times that one has been used throughout history - along with "he accidently fell down stairs!!"
"Show a bit of gratitude for godsake."
These people - don't know how many of them there are - are a disgrace to their uniform and they shame those of their collegues who don't behave the way they do.
I saw some of the behaviour up close and ugly and was subject to it myself a couple of times because of the people we chose to work with.
Perhaps you might ask Stephen Lawrence's parents to "Show a bit of gratitude"(or was the Macpherson report, which found them, as an organisation, "institutionally racist" a work of fiction) a situation which hasn't changed radically over the last 20 years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/06/stephen-lawrence-verdict-police-racism
Please don't insult our intelligence, as the man just said.
"An equally possible explanation"
There is no explanation for twisting a man's arm up his back until he screams in agony; nor is there one for a station full of police ignoring those screams (real or feigned) - transfer the situation to a school or a hospital - or any workplace, and tell us that nobody would take notice there.
I understand that the enquiry into the incident found those concerned guilty (and administered a slap on the wrist in the shape of £100 in compenstion to the victim, who intends to pursue a claim for back injury) - "Their attack was condemned as a form of torture by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)".
Was that a work of fiction too?
Jim Carroll