The filth hit an innocent woman and all Mairs can think off is have some “police expert” on to tell how justified it is sometimes to control crowds by hitting them with batons. It’s shocking to hear this violence being normalised when the video shows the casual backhander a cop gives a woman half his size, then take his baton out and hit her on the legs as her back is turned. In some ways it’s worse footage than what was showed of Ian Tomlinson, as there the situation had already kicked off while here you had a bogstandard peaceful political protest in which the police with no reason started attacking people trying to leave.
Eddie Mairs’ disgraceful performance fits in well though with the general BBC attitude of sucking up to the police and their silencing of police outrages. Ian Tomlinson only rate a one sentence mention and was thought of as “just a London story” until the Beeb was forced to report on it through blogs and the Guardian keeping the story alive. Further back of course there’s the infamous incident in which BBC newscasts showed footage of police attacking the miner strikes in reverse order, making it appear as if the police defended themselves against the miners rather than the other way around.
When the Guardian offered this astonishing footage to the BBC News at 6, apparently the response was “No thanks, we’re not covering this, we see it as just a London story.” Great news sense down there at TV Centre.
Stephen Moss tells what happened when the Guardian offered to share its footage of Ian Tomlinson being assaulted by a police officer minutes before his death. Unbelievable.
The territorial support group officer identified himself to his manager and the Independent Police Complaints Commission as fresh pictures suggested he had removed his shoulder number and covered his face with a balaclava before hitting Ian Tomlinson with a baton and pushing him to the ground last week.
But the officer has not been arrested on suspicion of assault or suspended from duty by the Metropolitan police.
Emphasis mine. That this officer has not been arrested or even suspended yet comes as no great surprise of course, the police defends its own. In the coming weeks and months we’ll hear a lot about this “tragic accident” and the difficulties of being a copper, as well as the most sincere apologies from the police leadership for this unforeseen tragedy. Tomlinson’s assailant might get off scott free or be thrown to the wolves, depending on public opinion and political pressure. In any case the emphasis on the part of the cops, as well as the people who will supposedly investigate their behaviour, will be that it was an accident, an incident, no more. Remember the way the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes was investigated: that will be the way this killing will be investigated.
But as the emphasised bits int he quote above hint at, this is of course nowhere near the whole truth. Everything in the runup to the demo made it clear the cops were out to riot. We had solemn warnings about expected violence, including that infamous warning about a “summer of middle class rage”, excessive safety measures put in place and last but not least, that high profile arrest of the supposed Plymouth anarchists. All this was calculated to get the bobbies on the beat in fighting mood as well as lure black bloc numpties to the demo and discourage more sane people.
Now the police are supposed to be identifiable, but Tomlinson’s assailant was able to cover up his face and remove his shoulder number, something he only could’ve done if this was alright with his superiors. Officiall police policy may say otherwise, but this has become standard operating procedure with cops handling “political” cases like anti-establishment demos. Again, this is an indicator of the fact that unprovoked violence was on the agenda, which makes Tomlinson’s death not a tragic incident, but the logical if unwished for outcome of a deliberate policy.
This is the Guardian video footage of a riot officer attacking Ian Tomlinson minutes before his death, without provocation. A clear case of manslaugther, I’d say, though I doubt the officer in question will ever be prosecuted for it.
Last Wednesday during the G-20 protests a man died while contained in one of the police’s infamous kettles. As I posted last week on Prog Gold, I thought then that his death was accidental, caused by a combination of being cooped up for hours in a police kettle and a bad heart. Back then the police were saying that it was the protestors who had helped cause Ian Tomlinson’s death, as they had allegedly attacked first aid workers coming to help him by throwing bottles at them. This was of course the usual police cant they come up with whenever something bad happens on their watch and was quickly denied by eyewitnesses like the ones in the video below, from Indymedia UK..
However, now it looks like the reason the Met came out with these accusations was more than a bad habit, but rather a deliberate attempt to shift blame for the death, as it seems it was a police assault that caused Tomlinson to collapse:
The man who died during last week’s G20 protests was “assaulted” by riot police shortly before he suffered a heart attack, according to witness statements received by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Investigators are examining a series of corroborative accounts that allege Ian Tomlinson, 47, was a victim of police violence in the moments before he collapsed near the Bank of England in the City of London last Wednesday evening. Three witnesses have told the Observer that Mr Tomlinson was attacked violently as he made his way home from work at a nearby newsagents. One claims he was struck on the head with a baton.
Photographer Anna Branthwaite said: “I can remember seeing Ian Tomlinson. He was rushed from behind by a riot officer with a helmet and shield two or three minutes before he collapsed.” Branthwaite, an experienced press photographer, has made a statement to the IPCC.
Another independent statement supports allegations of police violence. Amiri Howe, 24, recalled seeing Mr Tomlinson being hit “near the head” with a police baton. Howe took one of a sequence of photographs that show a clearly dazed Mr Tomlinson being helped by a bystander.
A female protester, who does not want to be named but has given her testimony to the IPCC, said she saw a man she later recognised as Tomlinson being pushed aggressively from behind by officers. “I saw a man violently propelled forward, as though he’d been flung by the arm, and fall forward on his head.
“He hit the top front area of his head on the pavement. I noticed his fall particularly because it struck me as a horrifically forceful push by a policeman and an especially hard fall; it made me wince.”
It’s typical of the Observer to put “assaulted” in scare quotes here, but never mind. The important thing is that yet again, the police has managed to murder somebody and yet again the Met is busy smearing and covering up.