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.
