The Guardian revealed that Ian Tomlinson had been attacked by the police at least once before he died of a heart attack at the G20 protests last week. The video footage shows the 47-year old being pushed violently by a police officer and falling to the floor. He had his hands in his pockets, was walking slowly away from the blockade and was definitely not a threat to the police or anyone else. Here is the video:
I was at the protests that day, held in front of the Bank of England for about 10 hours. These pictures make me feel sick. They are a sad culmination of the extreme way the police handled the protests that day. A recap with some of the pictures I took.
I arrived at Moorgate station at around 11, and started walking with a friend towards the Bank of England in a peaceful demonstration. An hour later, when I wanted to see the protests from another side, I reached a blockade of policemen who told me I couldn’t leave. We thought it was strange, but were sure this was only for a while, so we went on.
One of the many Police blockades
Later, the march stopped. There was a blockade at the corner of the RBS branch which is next to the Bank of England. We noticed a lot of masked demonstrators, and soon saw the windows of RBS being smashed. Next to us were a few visibly drunk teenagers smashing a computer they got out of the building seconds before. The pushing and the red smoke made it difficult to breath.
A lot of pushing when the mounted police horse unit arrived.
We soon realised that the Police was kettling protesters: lines of police men gradually moved in from every corner on the square, letting no one out. We tried it with asking politely and showing our student cards. Then they took out their batons, and started moving in more quickly, so that we had to run all the time, and there was no place where weren’t between rioters and the police. This was around 6pm, and we hadn’t drank or eaten anything since the morning, the three dixie toilets were long behind the police blockade. So there we were, empty stomachs and full bladders, running back and forth and wondering when the hell we were let out of this madness.
Protester facing police
At around 8pm, we heard from someone in the crowd that they were letting people out….One by one! So we started queuing. Half an hour later, we were on the other side of the blockade, where policemen were singling out the ones they thought suspicious. Some were questioned, others were asked their details, filmed and photographed. It looked like a checkpoint in a war zone. There were only police men in those streets.
On the other side of the blockade some demonstrators were being questioned and/or arrested.
I only went there to march for 2 or 3 hours, but ended up there for about 9 hours. I’ve never felt so weird because of the Police. They made you feel like you were actually causing trouble by protesting, even though 90 per cent of the people were peaceful; the music and the many masks and costumes even made it feel like a carnival!
Most of the demonstrators were peaceful
I do understand that the police often has a hard time at protests and I still don’t get why there are always people who just come along to drink and smash stuff. BUT the beating peaceful protesters experienced at the end of day at the climate camp in Bishopsgate, the hour-long kettling and the stop and search tactics were completely exaggerated. The helicopter sound and the mass of geared-up police men that I saw everywhere even made me forget about how peaceful the protests actually were.
I do think that these tactics are primarily meant to have a psychological effect on protesters. They tell us the police want us to stay home and watch the protests or hopefully something completely different on TV instead of going to the streets. This makes me want to continue marching every time something makes me happy or angry, as I don’t think the kind of tactics the police used should be successful!
Many joked about the amounts of cameras at the G20 before they delivered crucial evidence of police violence used against Tomlinson.
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Share the same feeling with you (the last pharagraph). That’s exactly the thing that the political elite by a help of repressive organs tries to do: prevent every kind of protest/opposition. After etg was messed up… It’s time to march :)!