The police officer filmed pushing Ian Tomlinson to the ground during the G20 protests is to face an internal misconduct hearing. Mr Tomlinson died after inadvertently being caught up in the demonstrations in London in 2009.The English procurator fiscal, known as the CPS, decided not to press charges against Simon Harwood, the police officer who pushed him to the ground, precipitating his death.
Instead he will face a disciplinary hearing charge for gross misconduct. If he is found guilty he could be sacked.
Deborah Glass, the IPCC deputy has directed that the hearing be held in public because of the gravity and exceptional circumstances of the case. The incident was caught on video which showed Mr Tomlinson being struck with a police baton and pushed to the ground. (Didn’t they make it illegal to photograph of video police officers around that time?)
The guy wasn’t even involved in the demonstration. He was walking home from work.
The Allegations against Harwood are that:
a) he struck Mr Tomlinson on his left thigh with his baton;
b) he pushed Mr Tomlinson so he fell to the ground;
c) such dangerous actions inadvertently caused or contributed to the death of Mr Tomlinson;
d) the use of force was not necessary, proportionate or reasonable in the circumstances.
I have never understood why he didn’t face charges of murder, apart from the very obvious reason that he is one of “us” and Mr Tomlinson was one of “them”. But the official reason was that there was "sharp disagreement between the medical experts" about what caused of death, after 3 post mortems.
Personally I would have thought that being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground a few moments before you died would have had a pretty strong connexion to it!
You would think too, that given the importance of this case, and the interest that was shown across not just England, but the world that the Home office would have been able to provide a pathologist that wasn’t dodgy. But no, with their usual level of incompetence they put up Fred Patel to do the post mortum. He found that the man had died of coronary artery disease.
Strangely (or not so strangely) he missed the massive internal bleeding as the result of a being hit with a blunt instrument along with cirrhosis of the liver. I wonder where he trained.
He must be really thick. Even if he was a stooge set up by the home office to protect one of their own, he might have noticed that Mr Tomlinson had cirrhosis of his liver.
A third PM agreed with the second one.
The hearing will be presided over by two senior police officers from Harwood’s own force (that’s fair then), and an independent member of the public selected from a list appointed by the Metropolitan Police
Authority. (It just gets fairer and fairer)!!!.So, am I dim, or is being a London police officer enough to save you from being charged with murder or manslaughter if you beat an innocent bystander to death?
Pics: (1) Ian Tomlinson going about his business of walking home after work, a concept most of us can understand having done it; (2) Ian Tomlinson being helped to his feet having been beaten by PC Harwood; (3) The aforementioned PC Harwood in civvies, and fortunate not to meet a policeman in a bad mood an d in possession of a truncheon; (4)Protesters (yes I know, the government doesn’t like them, nor, it appears do the police), who think, as I do, that although police may find themselves in special circumstances relating to their work, they do not necessarily have the right to beat innocent men to death in the street, when all they wanted to do was go home for their dinner.
I can remember the miners strike when Maggie used the police as a private army and ever since then they have increased there authoritarian outlook in protecting the rulers over the general public.
ReplyDeleteWell if the police discipline the officer the same way they protected our great country from the dangers of a radical crypto-terrorist like Tomlinson, we can at least expect some broken arms from the slap on the wrist he'll get.
ReplyDeleteWhat a joke though, the very idea that the constable wasn't immediately thrown in prison is ridiculous. Yes, it can get confusing during a protest, but beating an innocent man to death is insane.
I think you may be right CH. I have rarely met a helpful or a polite police officer.
ReplyDeleteIt's another one of these things Lazaruszine, which separates us from them.
ReplyDeleteI actually know someone, who knocked a person to the ground in a teenage fight and was sent to prison for 13 years. The guy, unknown to my friend, had soft skull which hit the kerb as he fell and killed him instantly.
Harwood hit this man with his truncheon, for what reason we may never really know, he fell, and because of some pre-existing condition, he died! And Harwood MAY be sacked, just as if he'd been regularly late for work over a sustained period or used a four letter word to his boss.
He will probably obtain employment in the security business. They have no problem with ex-police who have no criminal record, whether or not they should!
Looks like another Great British fiasco! How they must laugh all round the world when our eherm..”elected” representatives are busy canting about the Great British way of doing things. When all the time the attempts to hide the gallons of whitewash are so woefully incompetent.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to hear the exact words of condemnation from the senior partner upon whom the sun should never set.
ReplyDeleteI’m guessing Brown's a nut job; Cameron is lightweight; Andrew's a big mouth untrained liability who thinks he’s god; Osborne is vacant; Blair was a sucker for a compliment from Bushy boy and took his orders direct from Cheney.
Salmond is as stubborn as an mule, smug and ridiculously Scottish. His weakness is his fondness for curry. (Maybe it we buy him a lifelong supply of curry, he’ll stop going on about Megrahi....) But no he’s not in the least susceptible to flattery or the possibility of a few snapshots with the great and the ...er well the great anyway, in the rose garden... unlike that fool Brown who chased the president all over the hotel, and even found where he'd hidden in the kitchen...
There has been a substantial number of deaths of citizens in which the Metropolitan police have been directly involved since the mid 1990s but as yet not one single police officer has been held to account. Don't forget the wee scotsman who had had a drink and was carrying a chairleg who was gunned down without even being challenged because they said they thought he was an IRA bomber. All let off without a stain on their official characters.
ReplyDeleteIf there is evidence that this officer is directly, or even indirectly responsible for or contributing towards the death of an innocent civilian - then I totally fail to see why prosecution isn't an option.
ReplyDeleteInternal inquries? Sounds like whitewash to this cynical mind!
I particularly agree with this part, "Personally I would have thought that being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground a few moments before you died would have had a pretty strong connexion to it!"
Thats what any normal person would think, totally. But then ... this is the police we are talking about ... not exactly known for their common sense, then or now when dealing with protests!
Reminds me of some good old school hardcore this story, 'They're the Pigs with the guns/
ReplyDeleteThey watch us steal; they watch us run/
'Cause they can kill us/
And they'll be free in a couple of days'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhJnL79xEdE
Indeed Richard (welcome to Munguin's Republic btw). I recall too some story about a massive number of police surrounding a house, battering down the door and shooting someone who protested about it, because they thought that there were terrorists in the house.
ReplyDeleteOf course they were wrong. But the person they shot, remained shot and the children probably traumatized for months.
Still, plod will be plod.
Yes Dean. Whitewash, but like the House of Lords people who tried each other, there is not the same sort of justice as there is for "ordinary people". The worst that can happen here is a sacking. Like, as I say, some of the peers who wilfully lied and stole money from us and who have been suspended for 6 months for bringing "Their Lordships' House" into disrepute. What happened to 2 years in the pokey?
ReplyDeleteAhhhh one rule for some and one rule for others.
Yes Lasaruzsine... revolution is indeed in the air..... or it would be if Brits weren't so supine.
ReplyDeleteBut who knows how long that will last...
this is good site
ReplyDelete03147891418