The appalling thing – apart from his death, of course – about the death of Ian Tomlinson after he was assaulted by the Metropolitan Police during the G20 protests last week is that if it weren’t for the fact that Tomlinson collapsed from a fatal heart attack moments after he was attacked by the police, there’d be very little fuss about the incident. It would just be another example of heavy-handed police thuggery and, consequently, of no news value whatsoever. (incidentally, it also shows why it is important that the public be allowed to take photographs of the police.)
The policeman who attacked Tomlinson who was, as the video footage obtained by the Guardian clearly shows, minding his own business as he walked home from work, wasn’t to know that the newspaper vendor was going to die moments later of course, but that’s not the issue either. Unless – as may be possible – some other evidence arises to exculpate the police, what we have here is a grotesque abuse of authority.
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