G20 protester death was ‘manslaughter’

Reading the Twitterati live from the G20 Protest on April 1st, it ended with a peaceful day.

Some said the police were too assertive, but there was not the mass riot everyone predicted and so the government and police thought it was triumph of control over anarchy.

Possibly.

However, since the events unfurled, there have been several obvious examples of police over-reacting to the crowd, as Twittered on the day.  It is especially worth reading from 18:45 on this blog entry, when police start charging the crowd.

In the worst of these incidents Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper-seller, is pushed hard from behind to the ground by one of the police officers.

This was caught on camera and acquired by the Guardian newspaper, now available online:

In the video it is clear that Ian Tomlinson is not causing any issue but, as part of an uncontrollable crowd who need intimidating, the officer concerned was just showing a little force to make it clear they meant business.

Shortly after the incident, Mr. Tomlinson died.

It was thought to be a heart attack.

It was not.

Today, the BBC reports it was an abdominal haemorrhage.

Mr. Tomlinson's family are now very likely to take the officer concerned to court for manslaughter.

Meanwhile, in the centre of the City is this epitaph to the incident:

I saw this yesterday as I walked past Bank tube.

What is the world becoming when it appears that our police are killers, our bankers are swindlers and our politicians are corrupt?

Of course, I exaggerate ...