G20 demonstrations

Fucking wankers! From behind aswell...the poor fella had his hands in his pockets and was walking home ffs!! I'd hope that the copper that killed him will get banged up but as we all know fuck all will happen. He'll get suspended on full pay while 'enquiries'(although it's plain as day on fucking video) take place.
Complete shitcunts coppers, the lot of em!

Manslaughter, plain and simple, in the eyes of the law that is.....as far as some of those pig scum are concerned its just another fun day at the office.

Just saw the video on the news of the police pushing that guy - ridiculous, i hope they haul someone up for that

That's the thing though.

It's not just a case of hauling someone up, it's a wholesale change in the attitude of the police which needs to change. The guy that beat and threw Ian Tomlinson is one of hundreds and hundreds of officers who all acted in the same way that day. Due to the fact that the event was hyped from well beforehand by their bosses as the beginning of the "summer of rage" and bound to be violent.

Just because Tomlinson died, doesn't mean that the officer who beat him was any more aggressive than the ones who beat hundreds of other people. He just had bad luck.

even the chairman of the Met says

"Sometimes it isn't clear, as a police officer, who is a protester and who is not.
I know it's a generalisation but anybody in that part of the town at that time, the assumption would be that they are part of the protest."

basically saying, that in his mind it's ok to beat peaceful protesters, alas they just got the wrong man this time.

What reasons do we have now to believe the police's story that protesters chucked bottles at them as the medic came to help him?

Because it was caught on camera.

There is footage, as shown on the news and apparently available on YouTube. It clearly shows some officers standing around a fallen body with one, possibly two attending with the assistance of a person out of uniform. The footage clearly show at least two plastic bottles flying into the shot and hitting some of the standing officers. One person, apparently a civilian, then berates someone off camera and is backed up by another person, also apparently a civilian. On face value this would appear to be a direct response to the throwing of bottles although the absence of complete context makes it impossible to be 100% certain.

It is worth noting that the original police claims about the number and type of items thrown escalated with media attention and were apparently later clarified after the reports in the news were called into question by witnesses present at the time.

This morning, I watched these videos - struggling to make sense of the tears of rage welling up in me...

https://london.indymedia.org.uk/videos/993

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/07/ian-tomlinson-g20-death-video

This afternoon, I read this, and felt so impotent in the face of the organised and publicly sanctioned police action...

I was held at the climate camp til midnight last night. When I arrived at 6pm to celebrate the creative sight of a camp in london's grey financial streets, the police allowed me to walk straight into the camp with my bike. As the reports have said, the atmosphere was very warm and positive; school children and old time protesters sharing a space full of colour and music.

Within an hour of arriving, those same police, who had stepped back and let me through, closed in around the camp and refused to let anyone in or out. I then watched the police push forward into the crowd with brutality that was not only shocking but utterly unecessary. All the protesters put their hands in the air and sat down collectively on the road. Yet as the crowd lowered I saw a young man stagger back with his head split open, another boy with a broken nose, a girl next to me had been kicked between the legs. People were badly hurt and the atsmophere spun into a frightened panic. A friend of mine from university who had come from Nottingham to join the camp just put
his head in his hands and cried. This was the scene, minutes after people had been allowed to wander into the camp without any warning of the planned police actions, or any chance to leave peacefully.

As they rolled in back up police and black armoured riot vans, and as the police kicked and crushed people's bikes, the protesters called out to them, and the onlooking bankers, up in their ivory towers, 'This is not a riot!'. As their battons came down, Legal
Observors called out to people to take the police numbers of those who had hurt protesters; on mass the line of police all covered up their badges. It was a chilling show of a police unaccountable to their own laws, and their own humanity. The police were indeed braced for violence, but most of that young crowd of protesters were not.

Despite our repeated requests to be searched and allowed to leave the space, we were held there for 6 hours with no access to water, food, toilets or medical care. Proudly, throughout all this, not one person in the crowd reacted with violence to any person or property. People shared the little they had and held public meetings about the aims of the G20 summit. There was little show of anger, but much unhappiness. When finally we were herded out one by one at midnight, I felt cold to the core, chilled by the unprovoked agression of those who I had been brought up to trust. I am deeply ashamed of my state, when reasonable and calm protesters are criminalised and provoked in such a manner.

Their use of section 14 on 800 campers was mindless, their violence was a tragedy and their very presence, with armoured cars and helicopters, a ridiculous waste of public money.

I am writing this today because I grew up in this city and treasure the right to use this city space to speak out to our elected leaders in a peaceful, creative way. There were no harmful intentions in that climate camp, but the harm done by the police last night goes far deeper that the physical wounds inflicted; it is in the chaos of unnecessary state violence that fear is born and trust is lost.

I want to do something, but I don't know what. I've read about this stuff for years, but it was always in Seattle, Geneva, Luxemburg - always in the news but never 'here'. It seems protest isn't enough, but seriously, what can I do[I][/I]?

I want to do something, but I don't know what. I've read about this stuff for years, but it was always in Seattle, Geneva, Luxemburg - always in the news but never 'here'. It seems protest isn't enough, but seriously, what can I do?

Join the next one. It'll be big.

It's fucked really. I've been at a few protests over the last 15 years and and seen this behaviour by the police often. It is never reported, and when spoken about, people (who didn't witness it) deem it justified.
On 'Any Questions' on Friday night they had that stupid cunt Hazel Blears on, and when asked about it she wholeheartedly steered any blame for any bad behaviour onto the protesters as a whole, and in her sickening way, cheerfully ignored the fact that our police force had been beating the shit out of innocent people left, right and centre, with their faces and numbers purposefully covered.
When incidences like this happen I feel it quite difficult to get all Dalai Lama about it.

ITV just got some new footage - same incident (Ian Tomlinson) shoot from a different angle - it shows the baton strike to be more sadistic than previously apparent.

Vicious little pricks.

I want to do something, but I don't know what.

Assemble this Easter Saturday 11.30am
BETHNAL GREEN POLICE STATION
Solemn procession to BANK OF ENGLAND
We lay flowers at the place where Ian Tomlinson died.

Here's a link to the video Tynan mentioned:

http://www.channel4.com/news/article.jsp?id=3076487

Shows quite well just how little was going on in the direct area at the time.
And they wonder why people are antagonistic towards them? Actually they probably don't wonder that at all.

Manslaughter, plain and simple, in the eyes of the law that is.....as far as some of those pig scum are concerned its just another fun day at the office.

Thing is, any Saturday night oustide a pub and that happened, you'd get 5yrs end of. These cunts'll squirm out of it

Thing is, any Saturday night oustide a pub and that happened, you'd get 5yrs end of. These cunts'll squirm out of it

If it was a member of the public like me armed with a baton or club - who first landed a lunging blow to an officer's legs and then charged the officer to the ground - from behind - in an awkward fall - and the officer then managed to walk - dazed - some 50 yards (that is all Ian Tomlinson managed) before collapsing and dying - if this was the case with roles reversed like that - I would get 10-20 years without a shadow of a doubt - with video evidence the case would be sealed before it was even heard.

This cunt - who has now identified himself to the IPCC - (and it turns out he also removed his badge so he could not be identified) has not even been suspended, let alone arrested and charged. Of course there will be a fucking long drawn out enquiry that ultimately clears him of any serious charge.

If I were to set about a police officer tonight, give him a good kicking to the ground and he managed to struggle off then collapse and die and it was captured on CCTV - would there be an enquiry about it all ?

No, just a trial and a long custodial sentence (very long where police death is involved) .

Without a doubt that officer should be facing manslaughter charges.

Here's a link to the video Tynan mentioned:

http://www.channel4.com/news/article.jsp?id=3076487

There's an interview with Ken Livingstone on that page (scroll down) which is quite worth watching.

My brother got 3 years for decking 3 coppers with baseball bats, they never died though

well i guess we shouldn't moan about how many media types ( photographers ) were there
without them this guy would never have had justice

well i guess we shouldn't moan about how many media types ( photographers ) were there
without them this guy would never have had justice

I think it's important that there were so many independent photographers--and the Guardian footage was shot by a bloke with a cameraphone. The mainstream media would never have achieved this level of coverage.

I wonder what CCTV from the area shows? The whole area must be completely covered by it. Was it switched on that day, and was the footage kept?

well i guess we shouldn't moan about how many media types ( photographers ) were there
without them this guy would never have had justice

Although it does highlight the issues around section 67 of the Counter Terrorism Act...

I think it's important that there were so many independent photographers--and the Guardian footage was shot by a bloke with a cameraphone. The mainstream media would never have achieved this level of coverage.

I wonder what CCTV from the area shows? The whole area must be completely covered by it. Was it switched on that day, and was the footage kept?

The CCTV in that area should be switched on, however it cant be that good as I have personally climbed in and out of manhole covers in the middle of the banking district without any police presence being there when I return to my car.

However on a day when there is a protest then it will have been on and recording.

He may well have been arrested - That doesn't necessarily mean that he would be automatically suspended though.

No, he wasn't arrested (according to the IPCC.)

Here I have stabilized the footage - taken as much of the camera shake out as i could - so you might get a better view of the incident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPEZvKAr5yM&feature=channel_page&fmt=18

I know I'm late to this, but in Nosferatu's vid on a bus sign, I'm pretty sure that some of the drummers were Oxford students with me.
People I've seen on protests up here- the only ones I go on (Palestine)
Before the ban of SPEAK and the ALF from Oxford, I remember being thankful for the police at least once.

However, it cannot be denied that the police did not act in a manner that they should have, but then again I don't understand the need for vandalism in a protest, I was upset when it occured in the palestinian march, because the direct impact is not on the people you want it to be. Ever.

Edit:
That incident is just unreal.
just unbelievable.

The Police just needed to justify spending X million pounds of the tax payers money that day so they insighted some violent scenes thinking people will see it and think ohhhh I am sooo glad I pay my taxes look at all those brave police.

However, it cannot be denied that the police did not act in a manner that they should have, but then again I don't understand the need for vandalism in a protest.

You seem to be conflating two things.

You seem to be conflating two things.

indeed, but more due to the fact it was more a stream of consciousness than a concrete argument on my part.

(i'm fucking happy i could spell consciousness)

The Police just needed to justify spending X million pounds of the tax payers money that day so they insighted some violent scenes thinking people will see it and think ohhhh I am sooo glad I pay my taxes look at all those brave police.

I don't agree with this, I think its human nature to want to be in control. And the police are a perfect case in point. Combine that fact with the power complex and the occasional thought of being above the law and you've got the police's response pegged.

Think of the famous Stanford psych exp with students and electric shocks.

wow good on the hedge fund manager i'll never hear a bad word said about them again !
just imagine trying to get the cctv footage from the police ! oh sorry sir the cameras were facing the wrong direction, sorry sir the cameras were turned off today how many ways do you think they would have found trying to surpress the images !

yeh right !