Ian Tomlinson - Video shows Police Officer's attack as he walked away

My heart goes out to the family of Ian Tomlinson. To lose someone so suddenly is awful. To do so in the way they have done is so much harder.

Mr Tomlinson was walking home from work last Thursday in the area where G20 protests were taking place. Video footage has now emerged and has been reported in the press.

It shows him a few moments before he collapsed and died of a heart attack. He was walking away from Police with his hands in his pockets when an officer came up and walloped him on the leg with his truncheon. The officer then appeared to lunge forward, which sent Mr Tomlinson flying.

If that wasn't shocking enough, you then see the whole group of officers just stand about while protesters had to rush to Mr Tomlinson's aid. Once he was back on his feet, he walked off and it was further down the street that he collapsed.

We need to have confidence in the agents of the state who are supposed to protect us. This footage raises serious questions about the conduct of the Police last week. There needs to be an enquiry into this and appropriate action taken to ensure that needless tragedies like this do not happen.

I personally don't think there's any excuse for what happened, but it's worth pointing out that it doesn't seem that the situation round about was particularly fraught. I can't see any reason for what looks to me to be an assault on an innocent man which had awful consequences.

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