LONDON — The Metropolitan Police Service said Tuesday they were bringing misconduct proceedings against an officer who struck a man and pushed him to the ground just minutes before he died at last year's G20 protests in London.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said last week it did not have enough evidence to bring criminal charges over the death of Ian Tomlinson, sparking outrage from his family who demanded someone be held responsible.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson told MPs on Tuesday, however, that his force would be taking action.

"I can confirm that the officer has been notified that a decision has been made to bring disciplinary proceedings for gross misconduct," he told a parliamentary home affairs committee.

G20 riot officer filmed striking down newspaper seller will not face charges because of postmortem conflicts, CPS rules

The police officer caught on video during last year’s G20 protests striking a man who later died will not face criminal charges, the Crown Prosecution Service announced today.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said there was “no realistic prospect” of a conviction, because of a conflict between the postmortems carried out after Tomlinson’s death last year.

The newspaper seller died following the demonstrations on 1 April 2009 in central London. The official account that he died from a heart attack was undermined when the Guardian obtained video footage showing a riot officer striking the 47-year-old with a baton and shoving him to the ground shortly before he collapsed and died.

In a written statement the CPS admitted that there was sufficient evidence to show the officer had assaulted Tomlinson, but claimed a host of technical reasons meant he could not be charged.

By Michael Holden

LONDON – A riot squad officer, filmed shoving a man to the ground during violent G20 protests in London last year, will not face criminal charges over his death, Britain’s chief prosecutor said on Thursday.

Ian Tomlinson, 47, died after being caught up in a demonstration outside the Bank of England where confrontations between anti-capitalist groups, environmental campaigners and riot police had broken out.

The newspaper-seller was walking slowly with his hands in his pockets away from a line of riot squad officers when one moved forward, hit him on the leg with a baton and then pushed him forcefully in the back.

Tomlinson collapsed shortly afterwards and died.

Trevor Hemmings

The policing of the G20 summit in London in April 2009 has been severely criticised following an allegation of manslaughter and 270 complaints of police assault. Part I of a report on what happened and its aftermath The London G20 summit of world leaders at the ExCel conference centre on 2 and 3 April 2009 was headlined as a platform for international cooperation in the face of global economic disaster. The “greatest gathering of leaders since 1946” ¹ was estimated to have cost £19 million ², less than a quarter of the cost of the 2005 Gleneagles summit, and a price apparently considered to be value for money by participants hoping to adopt a rescue plan for the global banking crisis. However some leaders, such Brazil’s President Luis da Silva, pointed out that it was the behaviour of western financiers that had brought the economy down in the first place. (download pdf at statewatch.org)

To do nothing but grumble and not to act – that is throwing one’s life away. [William Morris 1834-96]

The first three paragraphs below [in italics] were written at the beginning of the month before internet connection problems stymied the appearance of our April Blog. However I’ll let these thoughts stand and pursue the contradictions below. I have though changed the title of the post to ‘Policing the Crisis’ [the title of an influential book written thirty years ago by Hall, Jefferson et al] to capture the the present mood of concern with police strategy and tactics – see the Guardian’s sudden outrage at thuggish policing – and in memory of the death of teacher and anti-fascist, Blair Peach on April 23, 1979, which is not as neatly connected to the sad demise of Ian Tomlinson as some observers suggest.

At the same time as musing upon Morris’s quote I’ve caught myself grumbling at the poverty of the poorly choreographed spectacle of the G20 Summit with its clichéd script and mediocre performers, watched myself in the mirror grumbling in the face of Brown’s fawning sycophancy at the feet of our contemporary Messiah, Barack Obama.

The Metropolitan Police are facing a compensation bill of £250,000, after admitting a raid on a climate change group the day after the G20 protests in London last April was illegal.

Police burst into the Convergence Centre in east London carrying taser guns, and handcuffed protesters face down.

The Met Commissioner admitted it was unlawful to arrest, search them, and force them to be recorded on film, but he refused to apologise to the protestors.

This was the day after the big city G20 demonstrations. A large convoy and a heavy handed police presence took up positions around a disused office block.

By Dominic Casciani

The Metropolitan Police has paid damages to protesters it unlawfully arrested during the G20 protests.

The force paid £6,000 in damages to Hannah McClure and Andrew Rubens who were held during a raid on a squat.

The arrests came about when officers in riot gear broke up a meeting of some 60 climate camp activists during the April 2009 global summit in London.

Solicitors for the pair said that others demonstrators held during the same operation would now sue.

By Metropolitan Police Authority

Following the policing of the protests in central London on 1 and 2 April 2009, which were timed to coincide with the meeting of the G20 heads of state in London, the police came in for significant criticism. The tragic death of Ian Tomlinson and media furore following the G20 protests, prompted a fundamental questioning of the approach to policing protest. Several scrutinies of how the demonstrations were policed have been conducted, including an inspection by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMCIC), at the request of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).
The panel’s review overlaps the findings of those reports. This was unavoidable, given the panel’s need to understand how the MPS are responding to the recommendations that were made. Where the Civil Liberties Panel felt there were gaps in those scrutinies, we have conducted our own investigations. The Panel acknowledges that the MPS polices thousands of public order events annually and that most of these pass without incident.
However, the impact on public confidence in policing caused by a small number of instances of poor policing cannot be overestimated and it is for this reason that the MPA’s Civil Liberties Panel chose this as their first topic for review. It should be noted that the panel has not conducted a fundamental review of public order policing.

Download report (pdf, 917 KB)

URGENT – If anyone comes across or knows Mindaugus’ prison details could they forward them to ABC Brighton. Thanks.

brightonabc@yahoo.co.uk, http://www.brightonabc.org.uk

This article below includes a re-post of a mainstream media article for the purpose of spreading what little info is known about the situation of Mindaugus.

Solidarity with all those under repression and fighting back.

Solidarity with Mindaugus Lenartavicius – Smash RBS

The facts are well known; the theatre of the London G20, the policing arena which left one man dead and scores injured was a spectacle of state/media hype and constructed ‘disorder’.

Court heard Mindaugus Lenartavicius made repeated attempts to set blinds at Royal Bank of Scotland in City ablaze after fellow demonstrator had smashed windows

A demonstrator at the G20 summit who tried to burn down a bank in the City of London at the height of clashes with police was today jailed for two years.

Mindaugus Lenartavicius, a Lithuanian, repeatedly attempted to set light to blinds at the Royal Bank of Scotland after a fellow protester had smashed windows.

CCTV footage showed Lenartavicius, hooded and wearing a balaclava, stepping back after each attempt to see whether the flames had caught.

Inquiry finds undercover police deployed at G20 protests to spy on activists, contrary to Bob Broadhurst’s denial to MPs

A Scotland Yard commander was accused of misleading parliament tonight after an inquiry found that undercover police were secretly deployed at the G20 protests to spy on activists, contrary to the police chief’s denials.

Commander Bob Broadhurst, who had overall command of the G20 policing operation, told the home affairs select committee in May that “no plain clothes officers [were] deployed at all” during the demonstrations in the City of London.

Scotland Yard's most senior officer in charge of policing protests saidtoday that he would support a government inspectorate which has proposed a radical overhaul of public order policing.

Assistant commissioner Chris Allison said police would in the future be "far more explicit" about their commitment to facilitating peaceful protest, the main proposal made in an inquiry headed by Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of the constabulary.

O'Connor's inquiry was launched in the aftermath of the Metropolitan police's controversial handling of the G20 protests, which saw several thousand protesters contained by officers in so-called "kettles" near the Bank of England. A newspaper-vendor, Ian Tomlinson, died after being pushed by a member of the Met's territorial support group.

Thousands of activists monitored on network of overlapping databases
Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.

The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor “domestic extremists”, the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime.

Senior officers say domestic extremism, a term coined by police that has no legal basis, can include activists suspected of minor public order offences such as peaceful direct action and civil disobedience.

A police officer is to be charged with assaulting a protester at the G20 demonstrations in London, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Demonstrators posted Youtube footage of a police officer appearing to strike Brighton woman Nicola Fisher.

Ms Fisher, 35, was one of two women to complain about the conduct in April of Sgt Delroy (Tony) Smellie.

Prosecutors say there is insufficient evidence to charge the officer in relation to the second allegation.

Sergeant Delroy Smellie has been charged with assault after a video emerged of a woman being hit with a baton during the G20 summit protests in London.

A police officer who allegedly struck a woman during the G20 protests in London a woman is to be charged with assault, the Crown Prosecution Service said today.

A CPS spokeswoman said Sergeant Delroy Smellie would be charged with assault of Nicola Fisher and he will appear at Westminster magistrates court on 16 November. He faces up to six months in prison if found guilty.

Four months after Ian Tomlinson died at the G20 protests, on 1 April, his family has accused police of mounting a cover-up. For six days the investigation into his death was run by City of London police, which assigned the family a liaison officer. He was Harry Adams, of the force's counter-terrorism and specialist directorate. Now extracts from his personal logs, which give an hour-by-hour update of his contacts with the family, have been seen by the Guardian. Key passages are published here, along with contextual explanations by Paul Lewis

Investigators decided there was no evidence of police wrongdoing in the death of Ian Tomlinson just three days after he collapsed at the G20 protests, it has emerged tonight.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) planned to announce that it had completed its assessment into Tomlinson's death on 1 April and discovered nothing suspicious. At 11.30am on 4 April, investigators prepared a document announcing Tomlinson died of a heart attack after being caught up among protesters "dressed entirely in black" who, it said, were charging police.

Chief inspector of constabulary advocates major reforms after controversial handling of G20 protests

There should be a national overhaul of the policing of protests that reasserts the state's obligation to allow lawful demonstrations, a scathing report into how the Metropolitan police handled the G20 protests recommended today.

Advocating major reforms in the way such marches are handled, Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, said national tactics for policing protest were "inadequate" and belonged to a "different era".

"What the review [of policing protest] identifies is that the world is changing and the police need to think about changing their approach to protest," O'Connor said.

Police must urgently review their tactic of 'kettling' demonstrators, MPs investigating the G20 protests say today.

In a damning report, the Commons home affairs committee says holding protesters in a small area for hours is unacceptable.

The first major review of the 7million pounds operation also said officers who work with their identity numbers hidden or missing should face the 'strongest possible' disciplinary measures.

LONDON (AP) - Britain's police watchdog is investigating a new allegation that an officer assaulted a woman during protests over the Group of 20 summit in London, the watchdog said Tuesday.
It is the Independent Police Complaints Commission's fifth inquiry into police conduct during the demonstrations in the heart of London's financial district on April 1 and 2.