Police Officer to be prosecuted over Ian Tomlinson's death

[Guest]

A Police Officer is to be prosecuted over Ian Tomlinson's death at the G20 summit in London in 2009

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13519281

[Norfolk Born]

What one can one say, other than: 'And not before time'.

[MrGongGong]

What one can one say, other than: 'And not before time'.

indeed

[Mr Pee]

What one can one say, other than: 'And not before time'.

Well, one could say "What a waste of public money".

If police officers are going to run the risk of prosecution every time they give somebody a gentle shove, then they're going to find it well-nigh impossible to police these kind of demonstrations in the future.

[MrGongGong]

BINGO

don't be daft (he said in the style of Canute !) of course the Police should be held to the same scrutiny as the rest of society
lets hope you never end up on the receiving end of a "gentle shove"

[amateur51]

BINGO

lets hope you never end up on the receiving end of a "gentle shove"

Oh I don't know ....

[ahinton]

Well, one could say "What a waste of public money".

If police officers are going to run the risk of prosecution every time they give somebody a gentle shove, then they're going to find it well-nigh impossible to police these kind of demonstrations in the future.

It's hard not to treat your response with the contempt that it deserves by not replying to it, but I'll make the effort for the (hopeful) benefit of others.

Almost everyone British citizen and organisation runs the potential risk of civil or criminal prosecution unless Parliament happens to have granted to them that rarest of rare priviliges known as statutory immunity from prosecution. Are you really claiming that police officers ought to be entitled to that immunity? If so, why? The Prime Minister doesn't have it. I'm not even certain that the Queen does. In fact, the only case of it that I have encountered is the organisation that is the brain(less)child of one Gordon Brown and is known as the Financial Services Authority, Britain's now outgoing financial services regulator (and why they have it I have less than no idea and even theirs excludes human rights breaches and acts of bad faith).

If an innocent party not causing affray and who simply happens to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time is given a "gentle shove" (shome euphemishm, that!) by a serving police officer while on duty and later dies as a direct consequence, do you really believe that the police officer and his superiors should be exonerated from all risk of prosecution? While we're about it, you should be reminded by your own reference to a "waste of public money" that the police officer concerned was spending public money by reason of being on duty when he gave the most unfortunate Mr Tomlinson that fatal "gentle shove"; would you consider that bit of public money to have been justifiably spent or do you consider it to have been "wasted"?

[scottycelt]

Don't like this one little bit... looks like the Police Officer is finally being offered as a sacrificial lamb to bring an end to this matter once and for all.

Of course the Police Officer was wrong in his actions (easy for me or any other to say) and indeed he has repeatedly expressed deep regret at Mr Tomlinson's death.

The most nauseating (if hardly surprising) thing for me is the way our left-wing 'liberals' are exploiting this tragic event to promote their anti-police propaganda.

I'm willing to bet people like Amateur51 and Ahinton would run screaming to the same police officer if they were caught up in any sort of trouble ...

[amateur51]

Don't like this one little bit... looks like the Police Officer is finally being offered as a sacrificial lamb to bring an end to this matter once and for all.

Of course the Police Officer was wrong in his actions (easy for me or any other to say) and indeed he has repeatedly expressed deep regret at Mr Tomlinson's death.

The most nauseating (if hardly surprising) thing for me is the way our left-wing 'liberals' are exploiting this tragic event to promote their anti-police propaganda.

I'm willing to bet people like Amateur51 and Ahinton would run screaming to the same police officer if they were caught up in any sort of trouble ...

And what point are you actually making, scotty? That I shouldn't as a tax-payer expect to receive a decent service from the police when I'm in trouble because I expect them to behave properly and to be held responsible for their actions which may allegedly have contributed directly to the death of an innocent civilian?

That's pretty tortured stuff, even by your standards

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

several points:
Rule of Law - an inquest determined that poor Mr Tomlinsons was unlawfully killed and cleared up issues with the evidence that might have hindered a prosecution
PC Behaviour - my recollection of the press reports is that the officer who pushed Mr Tomlinson had had a busy day being aggressive with protesters
Kettling - Locks protesters and joe citizen in willy nilly and plod can be obdurate about letting anyone out
Plod have been behaving badly quite a lot , whacking women and not wearing ID
If i run to a plod i need to know that she will obey the law and respect my and other's persons
Pour encourager les autres ... no question that the police need reminding of the legal limits to their behaviour and not just in this case

[scottycelt]

And what point are you actually making, scotty?

I would have thought it was pretty obvious, especially to you, amateur ... by all means play politics but not in this tragic case.

[amateur51]

I would have thought it was pretty obvious, especially to you, amateur ... by all means play politics but not in this tragic case.

Who is playing politics, scotty?

A man has been unlawfully killed.

Do you not think that the case should be investigated and suspects should have the case against them assessed and then brought to court?

What is your problem with the due process of law?

[Flosshilde]

Mr Pee & Scotty making their predictable & illogical responses.

The police should not be above the law. However, too many individual officers, and forces, have appeared to believed that, because they enforce the law, they should be able to twist it to suit themselves. We should all be able to expect that the police will behave lawfully themselves. Unfortunately the Met, in particular, seems to have developed a culture where they feel that they can behave above & outside the law with impunity; this has been supported by a lack of disciplinary action & political will to change it. It might indeed have become too entrenched to change. I'm beginning to wonder if the Met, like the old RUC in N. Ireland, has to be disbanded & a new force created in its place.

Yes, Scotty, of course I'd 'run to the police' if I was the victim of a crime. But not all crimes have been equal in the eyes of many police forces, & in the not too distant past if I'd approached the police as a victim of anti-gay assault I would have been the one arrested.

[ahinton]

Don't like this one little bit... looks like the Police Officer is finally being offered as a sacrificial lamb to bring an end to this matter once and for all.

Of course the Police Officer was wrong in his actions (easy for me or any other to say) and indeed he has repeatedly expressed deep regret at Mr Tomlinson's death.

That's true, but it does not and sadly cannot exonerate him from what happened.

The most nauseating (if hardly surprising) thing for me is the way our left-wing 'liberals' are exploiting this tragic event to promote their anti-police propaganda.

Not being one of them and having less than no desire to "exploit" this or indeed any other tragic event to promote anything, I cannot possibly comment.

I'm willing to bet people like Amateur51 and Ahinton would run screaming to the same police officer if they were caught up in any sort of trouble ...

Then you would lose your bet on my account at least. I am not at all unsympathetic to the police officer concerned in this situation, but those who kill, even accidentally, in such situations have nevertheless to be brought to due account in accordance with the law of the land that they are charged by the paying public to uphold - as indeed do their commanding officers whenever appropriate - otherwise the price of British justice will risk being irrevocably devalued; there is such a thing as police discipline and training and the public who pays for the police service has a right to be assured at all times that such discipline and training is more than up to the job and does not fail, especially to the point where deaths might occur, accidentally or otherwise, at the hands of police officers.

Mr Pee writes in the most tasteless and insensitive manner about a waste of public money; he and others of his ilk (if any) would do well to be more conscientious in their consideration as to how public money is invested in police service activity before making such wild and wildly unfounded generalisations as he has done in this thread.

[Vile Consort]

I am far from being a left-wing liberal, but it seems to me that the police's tactics have amounted to an attempt to intimidate decent people like myself from ever considering joining a protest. The police have a duty to facilitate that which is lawful (e.g. getting workers through picket lines and Catholic children to school through Protestant areas of Belfast, getting veal calves on to ferries to France, etc. etc.) and they don't appear to be making too good a fist of it, to say the least, when it comes to protests.