The IPCC enquiry

If this ends up in a witch-hunt for one policeman, justice will not be done. Any inquiry needs to look fundamentally at the tactics used both on the day and in the run up to it.

The media frenzy about expected levels of violence and vandalism has 3 effects: i) Peaceful protesters stay away ii) non-peaceful protesters are attracted, whether they have any political grievances or not and iii) whatever level of force used by the Police on the day is pre-justified.

Riot Police are kept in vans all day, in almost full kit. By the time they confront the crowd they are tired, hungry, edgy and hyped-up. Combined with 'kettling' the protestors, many of whom are peaceful and, by now, also hungry, edgy and frightened, there is little wonder that incidents occur.

If the protestors are all violent anarchists, as some of the media portray them, they are pretty useless at it. The one RBS branch with broken windows is a fairly poor return for thousands of 'hooligans'.

The Police are supposed to allow peaceful protest and have a duty of care to protestors and passing members of the public, such as Ian Tomlinson, alike. No such care was taken and the entire nature of the Policing of protests needs to be examined closely, including the almost unreported and quite violent dismantling of the entirely peaceful Climate Camp.

While it is true that there was some trouble outside the cordon, this removal took place entirely after dark. The Police say they will work with peaceful protestors who contact them beforehand. Yet on this occasion they let the camp set up, in the full knowledge that its intention was to stay for 24 hours, and kept a low profile until night-time, when the cameras had all left, and they moved in.

This is not facilitating legitimate protest, nor is it legal. After the de Menezes case, can we really trust Police statements in the immediate aftermath of an incident. The very sad death of Mr Tomlinson semms to show that we can not and only a root and branch public enquiry into both top-down and on-the-ground policing tactics on the day will be good enough.