Ian Tomlinson: video reveals G20 police assault on man who died
‘They do not help him’
You could watch the Guardian’s footage of Ian Tomlinson’s last minutes all day and never stop coming up with questions to ask. What was going through his head at that point, a man on his way home work? An ordinary man is struck by a policeman and gives out his last in the gutter. Is this London?
I watched it about 20 minutes ago and my heart is still racing. More than anything, it frightens me. That could have been me, minding my own business. If I had been tripped over in that way by a mob of coppers, however angry I might have been I would have been shitting myself. I think my heart could have taken it, but I don’t know. I have absolutely no interest of putting it to the test – and absolutely no way of preventing it from happening if I ever get unlucky. This is what it feels like to be afraid of the state.
It’s the casualness of it all. Everybody’s strolling. They all stop for a look, sort-of-interested, like they’ve seen a beetle wriggling on its back. ‘They do not help him’. The dogs get more attention.
What are the chances of punishment? You know, real punishment like we could expect? Where’s the outcry across the political spectrum, newspapers, blogs and politicians? Where’s the outrage? Power and those who speak for it will be worth watching in the next few days.
If this shows us anything, then it’s that this could have been any of us. You, me, our dads. It could have been one of the Lib Dem MPs on their way home from being legal monitors of the protest. It could have been a city type dressed down for the day (there’s some currently silent who would have been shouting a little louder had that been the case). It could have been Guido Fawkes staggering home from another bender (ditto).
(Tim Ireland has lots of links.)
Posted on April 8th, 2009 at 8:24am under Civil liberties, Crime and punishment, Culture, media and sport
Remember the police who pinned an unarmed man to his seat and shot him repeatedly in the head at point blank range? And then lied and lied and lied until there were no more lies to tell?
Remind me of his name again. He was the cocaine-fuelled illegal immigrant rapist, wasn’t he? Or so the Met said, anyway.
And a Tube barrier jumper with wires coming out of his unseasonably thick jacket, don’t forget.
The casualness is the key point here. If this were ‘one bad officer’ then the colleagues would step in the way you or I do at a mate going off on one.
If it were in the heat of a terrifying riot there’d be an explanation of panic and unclear impulsive behaviour. But it’s calm, slow and premeditated.
This sort of thing happened thousands of times that day. It’s what the police do when they’re deployed on this provocative political mission. The difference here is that it was caught on camera and the victim died.
And back in February David Hartshorn said they were expecting a “summer of rage”.
Self-fulfilling prophecy, anybody?
We are probably lucky that the man who shot this footage was an American banker from NYC. As an outsider he wouldn’t feel obligated to protect the reputation of the Met and if they decide to lean on him he can always go back to the USA. If a British banker had filmed this incident it might never have become public. I want to know how many CCTV cameras cover this stretch of road and who has the footage right now. Remember in the de Menezes killing the vanishing act of the Underground CCTV? CCTV may give us a reverse angle on the incident.
Well, presumably this video shows the authorities nothing new as the half-dozen or so police witnesses will have come forward immediately with their statements. It would just corroborate what the investigators already knew.
I’m not sure what Sir Paul Stephenson means when he says that the video “raises obvious concerns”, as he must have already known all about the incident.
Or am I being naïve?
Of course there won’t be any punishment. If the police can kill a man on the tube, cocaine-fuelled illegal immigrant Tube barrier jumper with wires coming out of his unseasonably thick jacket rapist that he was, an accidental death like shoving over a man with a dodgy heart, who anyway lived in a bail hostel, isn’t going to trouble anyone.
Ah yes, the bail hostel. I wonder when we can see just why he was there leaked to a sympathetic newspaper.
“It’s the casualness of it all. Everybody’s strolling. They all stop for a look, sort-of-interested, like they’ve seen a beetle wriggling on its back. ‘They do not help him’.”
Possibly because he’s sitting upright, apparently healthy, gesticulating and shouting at them? It’s not like he’s showing any obvious signs of distress. But you’re reporting it as though he was beaten to death. He got pushed onto the ground – which is wrong, and yes, it’s assault. But then he sat up, turned around and started (I would guess, given he’s a London newspaper seller) swearing loudly at them.
Police violence at climate camp in the city…
The climate camp was really peaceful all day. It was so relaxed that I spent a fair bit of the afternoon encouraging people to come along, including two of my younger sisters. Feedback I’ve had about the camp was that Bishopsgate office workers w…
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