Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

…through the courts if necessary

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jQ4fDu3Zws&fmt=]

I’ve been keeping a close eye on the story of Ian Tomlinson the man who died from a heart attack after leaving his job selling newspapers to go home during the G20 protests. The story and his pictures were shown on a number of blogs, but it was at Chicken Yoghurt where I first glimpsed what seemed to be an unravelling of the truth as the London Evening Standard changed it’s story as often as some change their ties. The coming to light of video footage adds massively to the credibility of witness statementsa given to newspapers thus far for forwarding to the Independent Police Complaints Commission that suggested that Mr. Tomilinson was quietly trying to walk away from the area of protests and was assaulted by a group of police officers before dying a few minutes later from a heart attack.

We are all well aware that there was some violence in London during the G20 protests, but by comparison with other European cities it was small scale, easily contained, and relatively few arrests were made, we would not expect the police to be targeting innocent bystanders who are simply trying to walk their way home.

The footage suggests that there is a prima facia case for the Metropolitan Police to answer, and that this is not one of those cases which needs to be lost in commissions, inquests, or inquiries, any reasonable person can see that this is a case which can only be answerable in a criminal court.

Tomlinson was clearly assaulted. The capital’s police appear to have learned little since de Menezes.

Update

Chicken Yoghurt has another question supported by this picture

I’ve never had any medical training so can someone more knowledgeable please tell me what the above procedure is called and what it’s used for in a medical capacity?

David T at Harry’s Place calls the Tomlinson assault horrendous and says

this is very possibly evidence of the ‘unlawful act’ manslaughter of a blameless man.

Leon at Pickled Politics said

If this man’s death isn’t investigated properly and those responsible brought to justice I think we’ll see some very angry protests.

Sunny Hundai at Liberal Conspiracy added in relation to section 76

They said protestors hurled bricks at them as they tried to help Tomlinson (and the gullible media bought it). Why are we even surprised? The Met police lied during the Charles De Menzes inquiry remember? And this is why the police don’t like videos and pictures taken of them.

Sunny, this right winger is right behind you, we need better policing than this in the UK.

Tim Ireland has a comprehensive round up over at Bloggerheads including this quote from Stepehen Mullen

“This is exactly why it should never be illegal to photograph and film the police”

Mr. Eugenides has a go at the Quaequam blog for suggesting that right wingers don’t care, he concludes

Yes, it could have been me. It could have been anyone. In the event, it was Ian Tomlinson; and now he is dead. He deserves, and we should demand, a full inquiry into the circumstances of his death, and we need to have it now. And no-one should ignore it, whatever side of the spectrum they write from; because if the state can beat one man to the ground for being in the wrong place, and do it with impunity, then we are all in the wrong place, and we are all on our knees already.

Old Holborn picked up on it on Monday and has followed up since.
I’ve featured a few lefties here, they aren’t loonies, and it is fair to say that there are a few on the right too who are very uncomfortable with the actions of the police  during the G20 demonstrations, this one will not be going away in a hurry.

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