Police 'Assaulted' the Bystander Who Died During G20 Protests

[DIONYSUS]

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."

Mr Tomlinson, a married man who lived alone in a bail hostel, was not taking part in the protests. Initially, his death was attributed by a police post mortem to natural causes. A City of London police statement said: "[He] suffered a sudden heart attack while on his way home from work."

But this version of events was challenged after witnesses recognised the dead man from photographs that were published on Friday.

An IPCC statement was due to be released the same day and is understood to have portrayed the death as a tragic accident. However, the statement's release was postponed as the complaints body received information that police officers may have been more involved in events than previously thought. An IPCC spokesman said yesterday that in light of new statements it was "assessing" the information it had received before deciding whether to launch a full investigation.

Part of the commission's inquiries will involve the examination of CCTV footage from the area.

Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth said: "Eventually there will have to be a full inquest with a jury. It is a possibility this death was at police hands."

Police 'assaulted' bystander who died during G20 protests | World news | The Observer (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/05/g20-protest-ian-tomlinson)

[DIONYSUS]

"A few minutes later, one of the protesters, a man in his 20s or 30s, collapsed on the pavement. The guy was totally out of it when I went to take a look at him. Protesters informed the police, and then allowed the police to carry the man back to their lines using what looked like a tarpaulin to carry him away. Twenty minutes or so later, after the police had used their dogs and more riot cops to clear Cornhill Street back up to Bishopsgate, two ambulances came up Grace Church Street and were let down Cornhill by the protesters and police to attend to the injured. I have since been able to confirm that the person who died was the one I saw".

----------------
Various participants in the City of London demonstrations on April 1st have come forward as witnesses to the collapse of a man later identified by authorities as Ian Tomlinson. Four different university students witnessed the collapse of Mr. Tomlinson. "He stumbled towards us from the direction of police and protestors and collapsed," said Peter Apps. "I saw a demonstrator who was a first aider attend to the person who had collapsed. The man was late 40s, had tattoos on his hands, and was wearing a Millwall shirt."

While the first aider was helping the man, another demonstrator with a megaphone was calling the police over so that they could help.

Natalie Langford, a student at Queen Mary, said "there was a police charge. A lot of people ran in our direction. The woman giving first aid stood in the path of the crowd." The running people, seeing a guy on the ground, went around them.

Another demonstrator had already called 999 and was getting medical advice from the ambulance dispatcher. "Four police with two police medics came. They told her [the first aider] to 'move along'.", said Peter Apps. "Then they pushed her forcibly away from him. They refused to listen to her [the first aider] when she tried to explain his condition."

The first aider, who did not wish to be named, said "The police surrounded the collapsed man. I was standing with the person who'd called 999. The ambulance dispatcher wanted to talk to the police, the phone was being held out to them, but the police refused."

Another witness, Elias Stoakes, added "we didn't see them [the police] perform CPR."

Other people who had tried to stay with the collapsed man were also pushed away.

All of the witnesses deny the allegation that many missiles were thrown.

According to Peter Apps, "one bottle was thrown, but it didn't come close to the police. Nothing was thrown afterwards as other demonstrators told the person to stop. The person who threw the bottle probably didn't realize that someone was behind the ring of police." All the witnesses said that the demonstrators were concerned for the well-being of the collapsed man once they realized that there was an injured person.

Natalie Langford said "when the ambulance arrived the protestors got straight out of the way."

Mabinogogiblog: Ian Tomlinson: What happened? (http://greenerblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/ian-tomlinson-what-happened.html)

[globalloon]

here is the footage of police assaulting Ian Tomlinson minutes before he died

Video reveals G20 police assault on Ian Tomlinson moments before he died | UK news | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/07/video-g20-police-assault)

[DJCliffy]

Fucking hell man, Thats well bad, poor bloke. :hopeless:

[Tank Girl]

here is the footage of police assaulting Ian Tomlinson minutes before he died

Video reveals G20 police assault on Ian Tomlinson moments before he died | UK news | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/07/video-g20-police-assault)
:cry: watching that has just made my blood run cold,

completely unprovoked assault, hope they identify the police officer/s and he/ they are delt with appropriatley

[joshd96320]

:cry: watching that has just made my blood run cold,

completely unprovoked assault, hope they identify the police officer/s and he/ they are delt with appropriatley

+1 :cry:

[globalloon]

discuss it with the cops here

http:// www. police999 .com/forum/index.php/topic,6730.0.html

[Tank Girl]

discuss it with the cops here

http:// www. police999 .com/forum/index.php/topic,6730.0.html
I get page cannot be displayed...

[MisterDuck]

I get page cannot be displayed...
try this:
Ian Tomlinson (http://www.police999.com/forum/index.php/topic,6730.0.html)

[AGENT 15]

No wonder the poilce do not want us taking photos of them ! Fucking dark.

[BioTech]

Scumbag. So much for public servants.

[DIONYSUS]

Was shocked when i saw this yesterday. so fucked up.

[DIONYSUS]

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

[Tank Girl]

Ian Tomlinson's family accuse police of cover-up over his death | UK news | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/06/ian-tomlinson-family-accuse-police-of-cover-up)

[Pikey Punk]

This kind of things takes place all the time unfortunately it seems. Found some pretty disturbing videos on youtube:

YouTube - police brutality Nottingham city centre uk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwLf02TmdQY&feature=related)

This one pretty much made my jaw drop. (0:07, "What's he done?")

YouTube - Shocking police brutality on war hero Mark Aspinall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXFMIbkKMMc)

So this made me think, what the hell is happening with the UK these days?

[General Lighting]

its always been like that, just that in recent times people are publicising it

before we had a Police service the army or militias run by landowners enforced the law and massacres of unarmed people wasn't uncommon... (peterlee massacre for instance)

how you been anyway? not seen you on here for ages, guess uni must have been taking up your time..

[Pikey Punk]

Me? I'm very well thank you yeah. Didn't have internet connection for about a year at mine, so haven't been on the site much. And yeah, uni ate up a lot of the time, but I'm done now, and fuckin graduated too, so very relieved. Been traveling around Europe this summer, and I'm kinda falling in love with that life, so I think I'll keep traveling for a long time to come, although I will be going back to UK December time methinks.

But yeah, the police state is one reason for me not wanting to settle down in UK (amongst so many others). Got so many friends there that I'll definitely come back regularly in the future, but I just can't call it my home, it's too fucked up a place.

How are you doing bro?

Btw, in case people were wondering, it's bad as well in other places in the world. I lived in Switzerland for many years, and the only people I've seen arrested here have been black, handled in severe and excessively abusive ways. The world is not a safe place for those who question authority. There's reports in Denmark of police beating teenagers (including girls) to a pulp in demonstrations. I was at one demonstration in Germany this summer where one cop would continuously and unprovoked run into the crowd and drag out a random person and arrest them.

One main thing I'm getting concerned about is police taking photos of demonstrators and seemingly anyone expressing their freedom of speech (YouTube - Free Speech vs. the Metropolitan Police in London UK (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3793DK_dAs)). I'm not too happy about the the police are being given more and more authority above our civil liberties which should theoretically be the overriding principle in a liberal democratic society. But I guess the government is less concerned about that these days.

[General Lighting]

Me? I'm very well thank you yeah. Didn't have internet connection for about a year at mine, so haven't been on the site much. And yeah, uni ate up a lot of the time, but I'm done now, and fuckin graduated too, so very relieved. Been traveling around Europe this summer, and I'm kinda falling in love with that life, so I think I'll keep traveling for a long time to come, although I will be going back to UK December time methinks.

But yeah, the police state is one reason for me not wanting to settle down in UK (amongst so many others). Got so many friends there that I'll definitely come back regularly in the future, but I just can't call it my home, it's too fucked up a place.

How are you doing bro?



not bad, been keeping my head down working. The party scene is hanging on by its last legs here, I guess you know two of the local lads what organised a outdoor rave got sent down for 4 months?

ways. The world is not a safe place for those who question authority. There's reports in Denmark of police beating teenagers (including girls) to a pulp in demonstrations. I was at one demonstration in Germany this summer where one cop would continuously and unprovoked run into the crowd and drag out a random person and arrest them.

this problem is across the EU and much worse in countrys like Asia, but I think the problem also lies with the people. I guess you must also follow election results in the world and in every recent election in EU nations I have seen the public willingly vote for centre right "law and order" type parties. The EU is not zimbabwe or afghanistan or other nations without democracy and free media, so we can only assume these people are voting in free and fair elections and knowingly voting away their freedom :hopeless:

I'm proud to be British Asian but not overly nationalistic, I would only say the UK is the "least worst" country I have experience of (despite understanding 3 languages). Britain has actually improved since the 1970s/80s and definitely since victorian times...

I feel the grass isn't greener on the other side and there is no bright side, you just have to face up to the darkness (especially with stuff like peak oil etc which I'm sure you are also aware of)

[Pikey Punk]

Didn't know about the ppl being arrest no, that's pretty fucked. I did hear of the Ipswich party that got shut down, what in April? There was even a short clip on the local news that morning saying an illegal party was gonna be shut down in Ipswich, but it wasn't illegal as far as I could understand, it took place across that street from the Caribbean Club. Maybe you were there?

Yeah, Europe's been turning right-wing over the past 10 year and it's pretty sad. It's never been all that easy being non-white in the West I guess, although I assume things are getting better than worse, with a recent relapse which is hopefully only temporary. But I also know a lot of racist bigotry still prevails throughout politics and society in the West (a lot of my family back in Denmark are embaressingly prejudice towards Muslims and would quite happy see them kicked out of the country - a view which is sadly common there). To preach the West as wholly open-minded and multicultural is not completely justified just yet. Yeah sure, things are better than a 100 or even 50 years ago, but we still got a long way to go in convincing a lot of the public that people that people of different colored skin are not here to steal their jobs.

[General Lighting]

Didn't know about the ppl being arrest no, that's pretty fucked.

yep 4 months for the two lads who were identified as organisers of the party in Ingham in 2007. that is only the second time in 20 years I am aware of free party promoters being sent down.

I did hear of the Ipswich party that got shut down, what in April? There was even a short clip on the local news that morning saying an illegal party was gonna be shut down in Ipswich, but it wasn't illegal as far as I could understand, it took place across that street from the Caribbean Club. Maybe you were there?
as far as I am aware this was rumours of a large scale school age teenagers' party and it never happened, as Ipswich was flooded with patrols in strategic areas. the info was found by cops being passed it from facebook, possibly with collusion of facebooks admins.

Yeah, Europe's been turning right-wing over the past 10 year and it's pretty sad. It's never been all that easy being non-white in the West I guess, although I assume things are getting better than worse, with a recent relapse which is hopefully only temporary. this is one reason why I find England to be the "least worst" of nations, because its small people are forced to "play nice" whatever their ancestry and its IMO as good as it will ever get in Europe. To put it bluntly I would not feel as safe as a non-white person the other side of the North Sea and that is despite having knowing a fair few people who live in Denmark...

the other worry I see in the West is people there particularly businessmen and centre right politics supporters openly wish to emulate the "authoritarian democracy" of countries like Singapore and malaysia because these nations are economically still very successful despite the depression..