The Guardian’s video showing a policeman making an unprovoked attack on Ian Tomlinson in London during last week’s G20 protests has sparked a great deal of coverage on Lib Dem blogs today. Here’s a full round-up in chronological order:
Video on Guardian website appears to show police assault on Ian Tomlinson – Jonathan on Liberal England
Ian Tomlinson – video footage emerges – Lib Dem Voice
Shocked and appalled by Guardian’s G20 video – Councillor David Walker: Working for Bridgnorth Morfe Ward all year round!
Guardian video reveals police assault on G20 protestor that died – Duncan Borrowman
Ian Tomlinson – SB on The Yorksher Gob
The Met’s Rodney King Moment – Stephen Glenn on Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal
Ian Tomlinson assault video – Alison Wheeler on AlisonW – mostly harmless
What kind of trouble were the police expecting – Rob on A comfortable place
Does the right really value freedom? The acid test. – James Graham on Quaequam Blog!
What if it were a dead policeman? – Costigan Quist on Himmelgarten CaféPolice Brutality Back on the Agenda – Charlotte Gore
Ian Tomlinson – Video shows Police Officer’s attack as he walked away – Caron on Caron’s Musings
Ian Tomlinson – Mark Reckons
Ian Tomlinson – will there be justice? – LibCync
What if Ian Tomlinson had been protesting? – Alex on A Lanson Boy
Serious questions that must be answered – Peter Black AM
Please use the comments field to update the list of any accidentally omitted, or published subsequently.
11 Comments
Also, us:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/04/07/horrendous/
Not a blog posting as such but a comment from Caroline Pidgeon, one of the two Liberal Democrat members on the MPA.
Statement from Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member and Member of the Metropolitan Police Authority
“Liberal Democrat colleagues at Westminster have rightly called for a inquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson but there also has to be a thorough inquiry in to the overall policing tactics adopted throughout London during the G20 summit. The failure to fully address these issues could undermine public confidence in policing which will take years to recover.
“As a Member of the Metropolitan Police Authority I am demanding a number of questions are answered by the Met about their strategy and tactics, from their media campaign in the run up to G20 right through to the actions they adopted last Thursday. A full review needs to happen.”
http://hugahoodie.blogspot.com/2009/04/ian-tomlinson-death-has-met-moved-on.html
^^ my effort.
Of course the Met police were only there to protect city workers (dressed down of course) from uncontrolable violent elements intent on disrupting the peaceful protest…
Whatever this incident was or was not, this government craves control. I have a picture your readers ought to view, from the past. As a “rightie” I am normally for strict law and order. Not, however like this. The police seem no longer to consider the people who pay them. They are more concerned with backing the winning horse in power.
I am having problems posting when using a different ISP. Can someone tell me how to contact Ryan?
Please ignore above comment
I always like reading these “round-up” posts. So far I have learnt that neither you nor Sunny read my blog…
😛
http://community.livejournal.com/theyorkshergob/tag/police+state and http://community.livejournal.com/theyorkshergob/242778.html
And I’ve learned you don’t read my posts, Jenny 😉
First article is linked to in my round-up, above (looks like the second was posted as I was writing it up).
Dead, but no Guardian campaign for him.
During this incident, a man is pushed over and later dies of a heart attack. The man who pushed him over was trying to push him, of that there is no doubt. But he wasn’t trying to kill him. The Coroner declared that the victim died of natural causes and the perpetrator was never charged with anything even approaching manslaughter or murder.
Sound familiar?
Here is where the story changes dimension.
The national papers cover it as a factual piece, BBC News Websites give it a bit but not too much and national radio is almost silent over the issue. Almost no one howls for summary justice or a special enquiry. Do you know of this incident?
The dead man was PC Chris Roberts, the offender was Patrick Savage and it happened almost invisibly in Brinkburn Gardens, Edgware on Boxing Day 2007. At first, when initial reports flashed out on the wires that a policeman had died during an incident in London, the media ran it as “Breaking News!”. As soon as the circumstances became clear, they binned it pretty quickly.
I can imagine the story of Ian Tomlinson being murdered by a policeman in a cowardly attack from behind on Chinese T.V. (shown in Tibet)! The U.K. government has just shown itself to be no better than the Chinese and should resign immediately with no severance pay or pension.