G20 Death: Still No Autopsy Report?

In November 2008 Greek police shot and killed Alexandros Grigoropoulos. This murder of an unarmed 16 year old boy sparked six weeks of ferocious rioting across Greece and led to ongoing social unrest in the country that has seen government buildings bombed and policemen killed in drive by shootings. In January 2009 Oakland police shot and killed Oscar Grant while he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by several officers. This event led two days of rioting which saw over 100 people arrested and caused over $200,000 worth of damage. These events have meant that the state's belief that it can kill with impunity has become the defining issue of 2009.

Against this inflammatory backdrop the events of the G20 protests in London were probably enough to send the British security services into a tailspin of panic and lies.

At around 19:30 on April 1st London Ambulance Service (LAS) attended a man who had collapsed with breathing difficulties in the Bishopsgate area of London where the police where clearing demonstrators from the Climate Camp protest. While the Ambulance crew were in attendance the man went into cardiac arrest and at around 20:00 was pronounced dead in hospital. By 22:00 the Metropolitan Police had issued a statement declaring that the dead man was not a protester. Instead they claimed he was a family man returning home from work when he was attacked by a group of protesters causing him to have a heart attack. These same protesters then prevented the man from receiving medical attention by attacking the police coming to his aid with a barrage of bottles. This story was widely presented as fact by the national press the next day.

Throughout the following day (April 2nd) a few problems began to emerge with the police's version of events;

• Although the man had a wife and nine children he did not live with them. Instead he lived in bed & breakfast accommodation near Whitechapel.

• He had not been at work. Instead he had spent most of the day loitering around Monument Underground station where his friend had been selling newspapers from a street stall.

• When he collapsed he had been running away from police lines which had been baton charging the crowd in order to clear the street.

• The first person to give the man medical assistance was one of the protest's own first aiders. The first aider immediately contacted the LAS control room by telephone and was following a paramedics advice to establish and preserve the casualties airway.

• When the police first arrived on the scene their first act was to attack the first aider(s) with batons and shields.

• There was no barrage of bottles

• When the police finally sent two of their own first aiders to attend the casualty those officers refused to continue contact with a more qualified paramedic who was already monitoring the casualties condition.

• The police first aiders moved the casualty before they had stabilised his condition.

• No cause of death had been established. The autopsy was not even scheduled to be performed until the afternoon of April 2nd.

On Friday April 3rd detectives from the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch transported the victims widow to the Bank of England for a sick little photo shoot where the officers encouraged her to tear down messages of condolence from a memorial. This level of contact between the victims family and the police force under investigation breaks the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) own guidelines for investigating a death involving the police.

Now an autopsy has been performed and cause of death has been established the police are keeping that COD secret and have gone very, very quiet on the matter.

If they continue with their silence I will have little choice then to believe the well informed rumours that the dead man had been sprayed in the face with CS gas causing respiratory distress leading to cardiac arrest. This is something an unobservant pathologist would record as death by natural causes negating the need for a coroners inquest.