Comments on Alice In Blogland: Ian Tomlinson - It Happens All The Time

Alice, if you're getting the cover on that tunnel ...

2009-04-18T12:05:00.000Z

Alice, if you're getting the cover on that tunnel any time in the next month then I have a proposal and a few seeds for you, so drop me a line - the address is in the article you responded to over at HWzD.

Sadly, I chatted to my 16-year-old son in advance of the G20 protests, and predicted that police would be covering up their ID; that some would try to find a straggler to vent their frustration on; and that although CCTV might prove mysteriously patchy there would be some amateur footage. This morning I added 'and if you think THIS is a fuss, wait and see what happens when it's a policeman who gets killed'.

It's human nature. Talk two groups of tribal apes and stick one group in uniforms, then watch what happens...

Right-o, Alice, you're great.

2009-04-12T01:28:00.000Z

Right-o, Alice, you're great.

Hi, delurking some more to add my two penn'orth. I...

2009-04-10T15:06:00.000Z

Hi, delurking some more to add my two penn'orth. I think that this kind of behaviour is only to be expected because it has been a management decision. I have been appalled at the coverage of G20 in the lead up to the day itself. All of the papers and other news were filled with stories of how much trouble there was going to be, and how they were expecting terrorists etc. If you brief for this, through the press, and at police briefings, of course you are going to get trouble (although even the Met has agreed that it was much less than they had geared up for). It is the police management's equivalent of standing at one end of a football stadium yelling 'come and have a go if you think you're hard enough'

What i hope for the enquiry (but am not too optimistic we will get) is that these kind of issues are raised as well. Without a change from the top, we will always have to put ourselves at unneccesary risk of harm because the police are wound up too tight by being told we are all rabid and out for a fight, and then the management do not show them that they will be held accountable for their behavoiur by covering it up afterwards.

Actually, Blair Peach was killed 30 years ago when...

2009-04-10T12:55:00.000Z

Actually, Blair Peach was killed 30 years ago when there was much less footage of anything, but isn't it funny how you can't walk anywhere on the London Underground without being able to see several CCTV cameras at the same time - including inside carriages - but there were apparently no pictures captured at all of what happened to De Menezes?

And Blair Peach.

2009-04-10T12:51:00.000Z

And Blair Peach.

And then there was JeanCharles de Menezes.

2009-04-10T12:44:00.000Z

And then there was JeanCharles de Menezes.