Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

PC SIMON HARWOOD didn't kill IanTomlinson alone...

War of Attrition | 22.07.2010 16:13 | World

: Ch Supt ALEX ROBERTSON; PC ALAN PALFREY; Ch Insp PETER MILLS & others G20KillersHaveNames


EYES OF THE WORLD LOOK ON WITH INCREDULITY AS FAMILY BRAND DECISION OF DPP NOT TO PROSECUTE OFFICER WHO STRUCK IAN TOMLINSON A JOKE

The decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to bring any criminal charges over the death of Ian Tomlinson follows a line of previous decisions when police conduct has resulted in death or serious injury and no charges were brought.

Ian Tomlinson WAS KILLED BY Simon Harwood on 1 April 2009 in the context of a heavily-policed and high profile demonstration that generated significant public interest. The failure of the Independent Police Complaints Commission to initiate an independent investigation until seven days after the death, on 8 April 2009, led to the potential for the loss, suppression and/or distortion of crucial forensic evidence in the ‘golden hours’ following Mr Tomlinson’s death. This repeats a pattern in previous contentious deaths following police contact where the death has not been treated from the outset as a potential homicide. INQUEST believes there should be an inquiry into the role of the City of London Police, the coroner, the pathologist and the IPCC, who have all played a part in ensuring no charges were able to be brought.

Responding to the decision, Ian Tomlinson’s son Paul King said,

After 16 months of waiting, to hear nothing is being done is a complete joke. Today they gave us no hope. This experience has broken our family apart. The DPP has told us there was an unlawful act, yet no charges are to be brought. This is no justice – everyone has failed us.

Deborah Coles, Co-Director of INQUEST, said:

The eyes of the world will be looking on with incredulity as yet again a police officer is not facing any criminal charges after what is one of the most clear-cut and graphic examples of police violence that has led to death.

This decision is a shameful indictment of the way police criminality is investigated and demonstrates a culture of impunity when police officers break the law. It follows a pattern of cases that reveal an unwillingness to treat deaths arising from the use of force by police as potential homicides. It demonstrates yet again the flawed procedures that follow contentious deaths involving the police and stands as testament to their unaccountability.

The family’s solicitor, Jules Carey, said:

The CPS decision is a disgrace. They have accepted the officer’s conduct is unlawful, but have determined not to prosecute him for anything. We shall examine this decision and challenge it if possible. There must be an inquiry into whether the failure to charge is a lack of competence or of will.

 http://www.iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk

While we’re on the subject of Britishness, here’s something we can all feel proud of: cops without guns. That we don’t yet live in a police state where officers of the law can shoot first and ask questions later, or where innocent people can be killed at random for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because that would be awful, wouldn’t it? That would change the entire nature of the contract between state and citizen. Nobody would want that.

Thurs 22 July that the police officer Simon ‘Harwood’ responsible for the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests last year will not face any criminal charges. The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, announced this morning that the Metropolitan Police officer who was caught on video attacking the 47-year-old father-of-nine with a baton, and shoving him to the ground, will not face criminal charges, because of conflicting evidence in the post-mortem reports.

You know, those post-mortem reports, the first of which seemed to confirm that Tomlinson had died of a heart attack, as per the initial police account, an allegation that was undermined by the second report, conducted on behalf of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which found that Tomlinson died from internal bleeding.

Tomlinson’s family wanted a charge of manslaughter brought against the officer in question, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is adamant that there is not sufficient evidence to conclusively prove

a causal link between the assault on Mr Tomlinson and his death. On that issue, there is disagreement between the medical experts.

Hypothetically speaking, one might imagine that a disagreement between medical experts would be easy to engineer on any matter, given a compliant coroner or two — even if there were video, CCTV and post-mortem evidence suggesting that, contrary to police reports, a certain innocent bystander was knocked violently to the ground and prevented from receiving proper medical assistance as he collapsed and died of his injuries.

Hypothetically speaking, one might imagine that it would be simple to get your tame experts to disagree about absolutely anything, especially if that disagreement were likely to impede embarrassing and uncomfortable further inquiry, of the sort that might challenge the gradual erosion of innocent citizens’ right to feel safe when the police are out on the streets.

The announcement comes five years to the day after the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station, south London, on 22 July 2005. Again, in that case, nobody was charged in connection with the death of the innocent Brazilian.

As i blog 22 July 2010 Tomlinson and de Menezes families are currently gathered outside Scotland Yard — a building with more CCTV cameras than the whole of Finland — to stage a protest, along with concerned members of the public. Last night, I spoke to some of the protesters as they were preparing for their demonstration. Even before the announcement had been made, the organisers were firmly convinced that the CPS would “find some technicality or other to make sure that no charges are brought”.

No police officer has ever been charged in connection with the death of a civilian in Britain or Ireland. And clearly, even in the digital age, when the public can use technology to hold wrongdoers to account, like the state, there is no reason to interrupt that pattern.

The message is clear: video evidence is the prerogative of the state alone. The police watch us, and our attempts to watch them back are fundamentally suspect, especially when we happen to catch them doing something a bit naughty, like, just by way of example, pummelling an innocent newspaper salesman to death. Let’s not rock the boat, eh?

 http://www.newstatesman.com

As part of the new comix anthology that Last Hours is producing Peter Hogan has written a piece on why the police do more harm than good, exploring their formation in the nineteenth century and their ongoing violence against individuals since then, it also looks at some alternatives that may be considered to the police force.

One of the first objections to anarchism you’ll hear will be a question along the lines of who will deal with crime. And it’s a good question. People will frequently criticise the actions of the police, but their role within society rarely meets with more than a cursory and simplistic analysis. But this is understandable, given the effort with which the importance and necessity of the police is forced down our throats every evening on the telly and the wide ranging responsibilities which they now have within society. It is hard enough to imagine a world without authority, let alone a world in which problems like crime are dealt with by ordinary people coming together to resolve the issue.

When the police were established in London in 1829, it was ostensibly because the existing measures were not working. The piecemeal system of constables and watchmen, it was argued, was inefficient and they were unable to deal with the problem with which they were faced. A new, pan-London body of men was the solution arrived at, but underlying this new police was a dichotomy. Although they were charged with detecting and preventing crime, they were also given the primary responsibility for maintaining public order.

On the one hand the police were expected to be a civilian force, while on the other they were to be the new coercive face of the state.

So, on the one hand the police were expected to be a civilian force, who would solve murders and rapes as well as thefts and criminal damage, while on the other being the new coercive face of the state. While they were to be nominally independent, they were to also uphold the existing order, an existing order which had traditionally called in the army or the yeomanry – forerunners of the Territorial Army – to deal with riots. The Metropolitan Police was therefore born as a part military and part civilian institution.

Yet as well as dealing with crime and public order, the police were considered for other roles too. Over the years the police have been given a number of remits which have seen their tentacles spread throughout society. As Clive Emsley describes, in the nineteenth century they became responsible for regulating traffic, ensuring the pavements weren’t blocked, looked out for unsafe buildings and burning chimneys, gave first aid at accidents, drove ambulances, administered aspects of the Poor Law, looked for missing people, licensed street sellers and cabs, and supervised the prevention of disease among farm animals.

This wide range of roles has continued into the 21st century; in contemporary times the police have received a number of powers which have, among other things, made their knowledge of a loss or theft a prerequisite to an insurance claim. In short, the police have accumulated a range of responsibilities which place them among the most powerful bodies in modern society. They are by no means limited to dealing with crimes and keeping the peace.

Despite claims to the contrary, the history of the police has not been a happy one.

Despite claims to the contrary, the history of the police has not been a happy one. When reviewing The Blue Lamp, the 1950 film which introduced Dixon of Dock Green, the Times critic said it did not depict “policemen as they really are but policemen as an indulgent tradition has chosen to think they are”. There has not been a great decline in policing in the past fifty years. The police have always been effectively as they are now. They have never been a neutral institution – they could not be, as the laws they enforce are laws made in Parliament for the benefit of the state and the powerful.

The periodic debates about the politicization of the police, whether they are a political body, misses out the simple fact that they have always been a political body. For example, a brief article in the Manchester Times and Guardian of 22 August 1829 outlines the new Metropolitan Police. Strikingly it does not mention what most people now would say to be the primary purpose of the police – the detecting and preventing of crime – but it does say, “The whole police force will gradually be placed under such a degree of discipline as may enable it to act with effect, should any situation arise for its services, as an united corps – for instance, the late riots of Spitalfields, or tumultuous mobs of any kind”. In other words, the suppression of dissent was at the heart of the police project from the start. If proof were needed, the police famously attacked a meeting of the National Political Union in 1833, and during the ensuing disorder one constable was killed – the inquest jury bringing in a verdict of justifiable homicide. The use of the police at strikes throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – notably at Grunwicks, throughout the miners strike of 1984-85, and at Wapping during the News International strike of 1986-87 – clearly shows the political nature of the police. This is compounded by the police’s attacking of demonstrations and harassment of protesters since 1829.

However, the most significant aspect of police behaviour has been their role in keeping the working class in their place. While this is most overt in times of upheaval and conflict such as during the miners strike, there is a strain of low-level harassment of working class communities which occupies the police on a day-to-day basis.

Young men and women have long been targeted for no other reason than their youth, beaten up and fitted up by the police.

Young men and women have long been targeted for no other reason than their youth, beaten up and fitted up by the police. Obvious cases of this include the Tottenham Three, who prior to their conviction for the killing of Keith Blakelock, had come to the malign attentions of the police, facing harassment and intimidation. Every day, young people throughout the country get stopped and searched without cause, while the police let them know they consider them second class in their own land. When communities have had enough of this sort of oppression, like Brixton in 1981 or Broadwater Farm in 1985, and fight back, their rebellion is met with all the power the state’s ‘justice’ system can muster, with entire communities criminalized1.
Police as crime fighters

When one considers the police’s role in fighting crime, it has to be said that they really aren’t that successful. Some crimes, like murder, are frequently cleared up, while others, like rape, have long run into a number of brick walls, notably a long-standing police inability to deal appropriately with rape victims. Crimes which affect people’s everyday lives, like mugging, burglary or theft, are frequently dealt with cursorily by the police. This is not to say they don’t have successes or that the police don’t at times make an effort to do something about crime. Clearly they do. But it is to say that the police often target ‘crimes’ they don’t need to work on to get results, things like faredodging in London, street drinking, or traffic offences. Throughout their activity, however, several key pointers determine which victims of crime they deal with effectively. And high among these is class. People who are working class are more likely to be victims of crime than middle or upper class people, but they are also less likely to see any real action taken by the police. Examples like that of Peter Woodhams, of Canning Town, who was murdered after a campaign of harassment the police did nothing to investigate are thankfully rare. But there are vast numbers of cases where working class people are the victims of crime which the police do not deign to investigate. A burglary on a council estate is much less likely to receive the same attention as a burglary in the more salubrious parts of Kensington and Chelsea.

What we’re faced with is a police force which is oriented towards maintaining the current social order

What we’re faced with is a police force which is oriented towards maintaining the current social order, a force which has itself become a power in the land above and beyond the considerable authority it was given at its inception. More, it is a force which even on its own lax terms is riddled with corruption. The recent scandal of the police credit cards is indicative of the problem. And the Met’s refusal to do anything about the 1,000+ officers who have abused them, is, if anything, greater than the 1970s scandals which saw the famous fall of Scotland Yard. The 70s saw a score of Met detectives jailed, hundreds more leave the force in disgrace and a wholesale reorganization of the CID. In comparison the recent scandal has been acknowledged but goes unpunished beyond a slap on the wrist. It continues a sorry history of police corruption, stretching from the birth of the police to the present, which has seen no depths too low for the police to plumb. One of the higher profile cases was at Stoke Newington police station during the late 1980s and early 1990s where police confiscated drugs of people they’d arrested, and then sold them on themselves.

There is no point setting up and declaring no-go areas for the police if we’re going to be left with the dregs of society preying on those in the ‘liberated zones’

Against this background, it seems clear that we should look forward to the day when these swaggering bullies are swept from our streets. However, the absence of police we desire brings with it its own pitfalls. There is no point setting up and declaring no-go areas for the police if we’re going to be left with the dregs of society preying on those in the ‘liberated zones’. If the vulnerable among us feel no safer without the police and would like to see them back, it’s not a revolution but the creation of a safe haven for anti-social elements. The old Class War slogan of ‘No muggers, no burglars’ must have action behind it if when we drive the police off our streets we are to make a revolution where we live. The solutions which groups like the IRA have tried in the past – things like punishment beatings or tarring and feathering – are unlikely to strike people as acceptable replacements for the criminal justice system we currently endure.

We need to consider how we would deal with anti-social criminals in the absence of the police. What would you do if you saw someone attacking your neighbour or breaking into a flat or house across the way, if doing nothing is not an option? How do we build a community in which we work together to maintain safe streets and ensure that parasites don’t prey on the elderly or vulnerable? What form of justice would be dispensed which avoids the excesses of vigilantism? These are by no means easy questions, but ones which people seeking a better society need to address.

A good place to start is why we seek the removal of the police. Their bullying, their frame-ups, their all too frequent harassment of people – coupled with the fact that all too often they provide no solution to deep-seated problems within society – makes their presence unwelcome. Their imposition of an arbitrary order which takes no account of local conditions, provides no lasting solutions and makes them part of the problem rather than part of the solution. But instead of creating local police for local communities, our aim must be rather to foster and nurture those elements of community which have survived. A strong community, self-organised together, will be in a better position to deal with anti-social elements without resorting to the uglier forms of vigilantism. And possible ways forward from there could be boycotting offenders, or forms of restorative justice, rather than our current, punitive, criminal justice system.

Excessive Force, which features this essay, is published on October 22nd. To order a copy visit the Last Hours shop.

War of Attrition

Comments

Display the following 15 comments

  1. opinion not reality — anon
  2. re: opinion not reality — anon
  3. does anon 1 even know — 22
  4. wrong — anon
  5. pc xxx licensed to kill — Dude509
  6. re.re. opinion. — anon
  7. reality, not coplicking — Jason Sands
  8. This isn't the place for reasoned debate — F%%% this
  9. Arguing but missing the point — RaoulMoatControl
  10. Distractions — Harry
  11. re: Distractions — anon
  12. Because? — Harry
  13. re, something or other — anon
  14. More fiction from anon — Jason Sands
  15. Police a necessary evil? — Sean Jameson
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech