Police beating up G20 protesters – and bystanders

Posted on | April 9, 2009 | No Comments

What is it with some law enforcement officers and their absurd way of keeping peace during protests against financial summits such as the recent G20-meeting? It seems that the people protesting against hypercapitalism are considered as outlaws by just being present. How many examples of police brutality against such rallies have we seen in recent years? Some police offers (I am not generalizing here) tend to go nuts when dealing with people who are critical towards the current economical structure of the Western world – why is that? And why is it not dealt with on the very top level within their own ranks?
I am not in favor of any violent uprising, but when a large mass of protesters stand peacefully holding their arms in the air, chanting, “This is not a riot.” – how can any country live with having some of their cops start beating those people up?

Cory Doctorow, one of my heroes, wrote about this on the Boing Boing blog.

See the footage of the police attack here.

As if that wasn’t enough, an innocent bystander coming home from work also died of a heart attack during the G20 protests. As amateur footage now reveals, it turns out that the heart attack was caused by a preceding unprovoked and very violent assault by a police officer.
From Doctorow on the Boing Boing blog: “A London cop charged Ian Tomlinson, an innocent bystander at the G20 demonstrations who was on his way home from work, who was walking peacefully with his hands in his pockets, clubbing him and throwing him to the ground without provocation. Shortly after, he suffered a fatal heart attack.”

Watch the video of the assault below, and read a detailed account of the event, covered by UK newspaper The Guardian. It is truly shocking.

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