G20 protestors plan new march

Tuesday, 7 April 2009 1:41 PM

By politics.co.uk staff

The activists behind last week's G20 protests around the Bank of England plan to march again this Saturday.

This week's march will centre on allegations about police culpability in the death of Ian Tomlinson, a newsagent who appears to have been trapped in the standoff on his way home from work.

Demonstrators will march from Bethnal Green on Saturday to the spot where Mr Tomlinson died in a campaign for a public inquiry into his death.

Today in parliament, police were again being accused of heavy-handed tactics against a Tamil protest, with attempts to charge protestors leading to accusations of broken bones and dislocated shoulders.

One demonstrator told politics.co.uk a man had had heart attack following a police attack on him, although that report remains unconfirmed.

Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth backed those calls, saying: "Eventually there will have to be a full inquest with a jury. It is a possibility this death was at police hands."

Mark Barrett, from G20 Meltdown, told politics.co.uk: "We want an independent public inquiry for Mr Tomlinson and the police operation on the day. We want to know the reasons for doing what they did, how much they paid attention to health and safety for protesters and our right to protest."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the death, is examining several statements by people at the scene which suggest Mr Tomlinson was beaten by police before his death, contrary to a police post-mortem examination which attributed his death to natural causes.

IPCC commissioner for London, Deborah Glass, said: "Initially we had accounts from independent witnesses who were on Cornhill, who told us that there had been no contact between the police and Mr Tomlinson when he collapsed.

"However, other witnesses who saw him in the Royal Exchange area have since told us that Mr Tomlinson did have contact with police officers. This would have been a few minutes before he collapsed."

Today, Mr Timlinson's family released an appeal for information.

"Ian was a massive football fan and would have looked distinctive in his Millwall top. He was probably on his way back from work to watch the England match and got caught up in the crowds," the statement said.

"There were so many people around where Ian died and so many people with cameras, that somebody must have seen what happened in the Royal Exchange passageway.

"We know that some people who were at the protest may not feel comfortable talking to the police. "But we really need them to talk to the people who are investigating what happened."

Just after 19:00 BST on 1 April, Mr Tomlinson can be seen on CCTV walking up King William Street and approaching a police cordon opposite the Bank of England. It is believed he wanted to get through the cordon to continue his walk home from work. Police officers refused to let him through.

A short time later, Mr Tomlinson can be seen on CCTV walking around the corner into Royal Exchange Passage. A number of witnesses have described seeing him there, getting caught up in a crowd and being pushed back by police officers. This is the aspect of the incident that the IPCC is now investigating.

Minutes later he is seen on CCTV walking back onto Cornhill from Royal Exchange Passage.

Mr Tomlinson walks for about three more minutes, before collapsing on Cornhill. The CCTV shows that Mr Tomlinson was not trapped inside a police cordon at any stage.

A female protestor who did not want to be named gave a statement to the IPCC saying Mr Tomlison was aggressively pushed by police.

"I saw a man violently propelled forward, as though he'd been flung by the arm, and fall forward on his head," she said.
"He hit the top front area of his head on the pavement. I noticed his fall particularly because it struck me as a horrifically forceful push by a policeman and an especially hard fall."

Jenny Jones, a councillor with the Green party on the London Assembly, has been receiving several complaints from members of the public about the policing of the demo, and is urging people to write in to the IPCC.

Tags:
• police
,
• policing and crime
,
• public services