2009-04-15

Met chief acts over riot police attacks

Sir Paul offered no apology for the actions of his officers which have been criticised after the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson and new footage of a Territorial Support Group sergeant attacking the female protester.

A spokesman for the Met said: “Government inspectors will review public order policing tactics in the aftermath of clashes at the G20 protest.”

Scotland Yard has now suspended the two officers and both cases have been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. In shocking images of the latest attack, the officer hits the woman across the face with the back of his hand saying: “Go away”.

The woman, clutching a carton of orange juice and camera, remonstrates with the officer and shouts “I'm a woman”. He is then seen drawing a baton from his pocket and striking the woman on her legs.

Her sister told the Standard today she is “troubled” and has pictures of her injuries as well as her own footage of the attack to hand over to the IPCC.

Natalie Thompson said her sister, who is living with her in Brighton, hopes to take the case against the officer as far as possible. “My sister was terrified after the attack and very traumatised,” she said.

“She has been to see a lawyer and has lots of images and footage of the assault on her. She did not want to come forward earlier because she feared nothing would be done but once the footage was released on the internet, she decided to do something about it.”

She was part of a crowd of hundreds attending a vigil on 2 April in honour of Mr Tomlinson, the man who died of a heart attack minutes after being attacked by police at the G20 protests the day before.

Tristan Woodwards, who posted the footage on YouTube, said: “When I first saw it I thought it was pretty terrible but thought nothing more of it because this sort of stuff had been happening throughout the day. She was by far, not the only one to be hit for no reason."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, also called on the commissioner to respond. She said: “As these two officers came from the same unit, it raises very serious questions about their chain of command. Why were both officers so apparently ready to use violence? Why were their identity numbers obscured? Did they go out to prevent trouble or to start it? Policing the capital is too important to leave these questions hanging. We urge the new commissioner to volunteer answers without delay.”

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “There have been substantial questions in London for some time about the Territorial Support Group, precisely because they are not linked to one particular locality. We need to have a review of their discipline.

“I think it would be helpful in the context of public concerns if Sir Paul made it clear that it is not acceptable to use disproportionate force.”

Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, said the new video footage raised “enormous concern”.

He said: “Even if you accept it is taken out of context it is not acceptable behaviour based on what the person has seen and what the person viewing the footage has seen the officer do. I welcome the fact we have an established process to allow these cases to be looked into.”

Sir Paul said: “G20 was a complex policing operation managing the movement and protection of many heads of state across the capital while balancing the right to lawful protest and maintaining public order for many thousands of people.”

Source: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23676157-details/Met+chief+acts+over+riot+police+attacks/article.do