The Mis-trial of PC Simon Harwood

As I mentioned earlier today (19/7/12) a jury at a British Court has acquitted Police Constable Simon Harwood of the unintentional homicide (manslaughter) of Ian Tomlinson who was walking past the anti-G20 protests that took place in and around the Bank of England on April 1st 2009 (1/4/09). Although the case transcripts are not yet available and I must confess I've not been following the case in much detail it appears that faced with overwhelming video evidence PC Harwood admitted the offence but ran a defence of "reasonable force." The jury accepted that defense.

The problem is that the video evidence clearly shows that when he was struck Mr Tomlinson was walking away from PC Harwood with his hands in his pockets. Therefore PC Harwood could not have reasonably believed that Mr Tomlinson posed a threat to him or anyone else. Also neither PC Harwood nor any his colleges made any effort or expressed any intention to arrest Mr Tomlinson for any offence such as obstructing a police officer. Therefore PC Harwood seemed to arguing that he was simply attempting to move past Mr Tomlinson in much the same way you would try to move past someone as you try to board a crowded train but over-estimated the level of force required.

As they always say ignorance of the law is not a defence under the law so simply over-estimating the level of force you're allowed to use does not constitute a defence of "reasonable force" especially for a police officer who has been trained in control, restraint and use of force. Therefore if the trial Judge has allowed PC Harwood to present a "reasonable force" defense to the jury they have misdirected the jury under the law so a mis-trial must be declared and PC Harwood must be re-tried for the offense.

Mind you Britain might just be trying to raise the temperature in order to make our Olympic visitors paranoid that a fresh bout of rioting is about to break out.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2