Police

Police Brutality in Nottingham

Meanwhile, in dear old Britain the paramilitarisation of our police continues. The Home Office has announced an extra £8m to help provide police forces in England with Tasers. It’s only a matter of time before someone is killed by one of these weapons. Watch this footage of a police arrest in Nottingham and tell me if you think the police actions are appropriate and proportionate. Granted, some context is missing from this film. The BBC reports that the man being tasered had, it is said, assaulted a police officer. Nonetheless, when he is tasered he is a) lying on the ground and b) there are two and then four police

When is Victory Really Defeat? In the Drug War, Silly.

There was a crazy puff piece for the Endless War on Drugs on the BBC News tonight in which the reporter, Mark Easton, was handed a story by the Serious Organised Crime Agency full of dramatic pictres and supposedly encouraging figures. Coincidentally, this appeared the day before Soca releases its annual report and at a time when the government is said to be keen on overhauling the agency. Fancy that. According to the BBC, however, the international cocaine industry is “in retreat” and prices are rising while the purity of cocaine bought on the street has “plumeted”. Well, perhaps. But the weakness of the pound is the most likely explanation

Ian Tomlinson

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