Ian Tomlinson

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What do people think about the death of Ian Tomlinson and the trial of PC Harwood?

For the people not aware of this, the summary is as follows:

April 2009 there are G20 protests in London, Ian Tomlinson a newspaper vendor trying to get home from work dies.

The coroner rules that he died of a heart attack and the police issue statements claiming the brave officers did everything possible to assist him but they were under heavy fire from bricks and bottles being thrown by an out of control mob at the time.
But then some bloody pesky American tourist goes and sends a video to the Guardian newspaper showing Ian Tomlinson, with his hands in his pockets posing no threat to anyone getting beaten to the ground by a PC.
In the video, the PC is not wearing his epaulettes (very bad) but is wearing a balaclava to hide his identity.
More and more video and photo evidence of the day is uncovered, the identity of the officer more information about events on that day come to light.

Two more coroners examine the body and rule that he died from injuries sustained during the attack, the original coroner is found to be the worst coroner in the country, the coroner lied on his CV and had previously done things like autopsy the wrong body, and rule that a prostitute found in a blood splattered room, lying on blood soaked sheets with multiple knife wounds had died of natural causes. That particular ruling meant the police didn't launch an investigation and more young women were raped and murdered by a serial killer.

The police and the Home were found out to have been lying about reports of being under attack while trying to help Tomlinson, video & photographic evidence show no riot taking place and despite PC's vastly outnumbering the few protesters in the area, it was the protesters and passers by offering assistance to Ian Tomlinson and not the police.

Then more information about the PC, Simon Harwood came to light.

It turns out he had previously been investigated for a road rage incident and also allegations of excessive force, he resigned from the police force before any investigation was carried out only to rejoin a different police force. (The UK has different police forces in each area and complaints against officers are dropped if they resign so if you want to avoid an investigation, switching forces is a nice and easy to do it)

At the time of the G20 protests, PC Harwood was a member of the TSG, the highest trained 'elite' police officers in the country he was officially supposed to be on driving duty and looking after radios that day but had attempted to arrest someone with a spray can by attacking them and slamming their head into a police van, the chap escaped into the crowd which jeered and laughed at PC Harwood. Harwood then throughout the course of the day he took a swing at another protester, dragged a BBC cameraman to the ground while he was filming, used a palm-strike to the face on one person and pushed another man to the ground for allegedly threatening a police dog handler. Immediately after this he ran over to Ian Tomlinson and started to hit him with his baton despite there being dozens of other officers around not attacking anyone.

PC Harwood has also already admitted to lying several times at the inquest of Ian Tomlinson.



A little bit about the British legal system and British Police in general:

Officially, police officers are part of the community and have no special privileges in front of the law, unofficially, over 5000 people have died while in police custody or after 'an encounter' with an on-duty police officer, not a single police officer has ever been been found guilty of murder or manslaughter for any of them. The Police have 'an understanding' that they are above the law when it comes to them being 'overenthusiastic' in it's enforcement.

As far as finding someone guilty of manslaughter for hitting someone who then falls over and dies of their injuries, this happens a lot in Britain. Drunken brawl outside the pub or a bit of happy slapping for a laugh, someone falls over and hits their head on the pavement and later dies. In all of these cases, without exception, the attacker is charged with murder and found guilty of manslaughter.



Sorry about the long post, but I'm interested in what people of other nationalities think of the situation.

Should PC Harwood, a man paid to protect people, someone who has received the highest levels of training be held to account for his actions like a normal member of the public and be found guilty of manslaughter?

Do you think the British courts will actually enforce the law against one of it's own and set a precedent of accountability for the police?