At G20 protest, bystander dies after police beating

During the anti-G20 protests in London, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest a secluded meeting on the global economic crisis held by the richest capitalist countries, Ian Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper seller, was walking home from work. He had to pass a gauntlet of menacing barricades and shielded police with dogs and batons.

Tomlinson never made it home on April 1. He was beaten severely by police and died that same day from internal hemorrhaging.

A videotape shows Tomlinson, above with hands in pockets, before he was clubbed to the ground from behind by a cop.

Tomlinson’s death has made headline news worldwide because the original coroner’s report said he died from a heart attack and the police initially denied having assaulted him. This report may have stood forever had it not been for an anonymous hedge fund manager from New York who videotaped the Tomlinson beating while visiting London.

The videotape prompted a demand for a second autopsy, which substantiated that he had indeed died from internal bleeding. London’s Independent Police Complaints Commission, the Tomlinson family and their lawyers have enough evidence to call for an investigation into his death.

The videographer told the UK Guardian newspaper: “Judging by the short amount of time that lapsed between him being hit and pushed to the ground and him collapsing and dying, it just seemed to be coincidental that it was called a heart attack.

“Now I’m glad I came forward. It’s possible Mr. Tomlinson’s death would have been swept under the rug otherwise. There was nothing except some witnesses speaking to the Guardian saying they saw him being beaten. But it was their statements versus the police. You needed something incontrovertible. In this case it was the video.” (April 18)

The police officer who struck Tomlinson is “under investigation” and “on sick leave” but has not been officially charged. If charges are brought against him, reports hint that they mostly likely will be manslaughter, not murder.

More video footage, this documentation from a television crew at the same protest, showed a police officer slapping Nicola Fisher across the face and then hitting her leg with a baton. Fisher stated that while she and others were walking to an April 1 vigil for Tomlinson, the police tried to physically stop them from going further.

She stated: “Suddenly quite a few police officers came and made a line in front of us and almost straight away the officer in front of me shouted, ‘Get back!’ and pushed me before I even had a chance to move.

“When he did that I, as an instant reaction, pushed back, then straight away he gave me a back hander across my left cheek.

“I started shouting at him saying, ‘What are you doing hitting a woman?’ and pointed at my face and said, ‘Do you realize there are three film crews filming you?’

“I was just so angry and shocked that he had done it and to be honest, I really didn’t think he was going to get his baton out and hit me like he did.

“It wasn’t a tap, he used his full force. It was very violent and aggressive and unnecessary.” (guardian.co.uk, April 18)

There were reportedly 145 complaints made by protesters of police brutality during the G20 protest, including the tactic of kettling—meaning the corralling of protesters in enclosed pens for several hours.