Ian Tomlinson. Killed By The Police.

Ian Tomlinson was found dead at the G20 demonstrations in London. Within hours of his death the police announced that he died of a heart attack and had no contact with the police. The next day an autopsy was performed and conveniently it fully supported the police's version of events. This meant that the Independent[sic] Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) saw no need to open an investigation and instead let the City of London Police carry out their own inquiry.

Six days later a video emerged showing Mr Tomlinson being struck and knocked to the ground by a police officer. As the video showed that Mr Tomlinson had significant and violent contact with the police the IPCC were finally forced to open a full investigation and the Tomlinson family exercised their right to have a second autopsy performed. That autopsy was completed on April 11th and since then the IPCC have been pressurising the Tomlinson family not to make it's findings public. Yesterday the family broke their silence and it immediately became apparent why the IPCC and the police wanted the results to remain a secret.

The new autopsy showed that Mr Tomlinson did not die of a heart attack. Instead it showed that he had died from internal bleeding in the abdomen. This is exactly the sort of injury that is caused by traumatic impact to the Liver, Kidney's or Spleen. All vital organs located in precisely the part of the body where police officers are seen striking Mr Tomlinson. Since then a police officer has been interviewed under caution of suspicion of manslaughter but has crucially not been arrested. No action has yet been taken against Dr Freddy Patel, who performed the first autopsy, even though it has been revealed that he noticed the internal bleeding but refused to accept it as the cause of death.

Knowing that the second autopsy was about to be made public the police yesterday took the cynical decision to turn off the life support machine of an officer who was injured in East London on April 11th. In this incident four people have already been arrested, charged and remanded in custody to allow the police to determine who, if any of them, struck the fatal blow. Don't expect anything like that to happen in the Tomlinson case because the IPCC's decision to allow the police to run the investigation for 6 days means that vital evidence has been destroyed and police suspects have been allowed to make sure their accounts of events match. As a result the IPCC investigation will have no option other then to conclude that "There is insufficient evidence to prosecute any individual for the death of Mr Tomlinson." and the state will get away with murder yet again.

This killing and subsequent cover up has led to protests outside Scotland Yard and today's demonstration in Jacqui Smith MP's home constituency in Redditch where protesters will call for the beleaguered Home Secretary's resignation. A Mayday demonstration has also been called outside the Bank of England at 5:04pm on May 1st. For this demonstration protesters are being advised to wear stripes and bring a sense of humour. The police, as always, are being advised to wear balaclava's and remove their numbers if they plan to go clubbing.