Very pleased about the Ian Tomlinson verdict

[marmaladetwatkins]

But very surprised. I was expecting them to find in favour of the assaulting police officer.

AIBU to hope that boorish police officers might think twice before acting like a bull in a china shop knowing that the won't necessarily be protected by the law?

[sausagesandmarmelade]

Very well said Izzy..re the Menezes case.

[dobby2001]

This makes interesting, and sad, reading, especially the witness statements.
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2009/apr/08/g20-police-assault-ian-tomlinson

[gotolder]

I am of an age when we were always convinced that the police were the "good guys" and one of the saddest days I had was when I had to tell my young son not to go to a particular locality because the police were likely to believe he was "up to no good" even if he was completely innocent (we had had a variety of incidents in that area and the police were scooping up all young boys regardless of evidence).

I punched the air when I heard this particular inquest verdict because I have been becoming more and more disturbed by the apparent inability of the CPS and/or the Police Force themselves to do more than excuse the inexcusable.

I, no less than many others, know how difficult the police's job can be but incidents such as this and de Menendes just make their job more difficult as the public at large are more cynical and less likely to help when needed.

[edam]

It also makes their job more difficult because decent ordinary coppers who just want to do a good job get tarnished by association.

[Snorbs]

edam, you're right. On the other hand the police often seem to "close ranks" around the dodgy ones and lie like fuck suffer from inaccurate recollection when it comes to giving evidence to inquiries and inquests. The Met Police, in particular, seem to suffer badly from such problems.

If the decent coppers did a better job of standing up and telling the truth about what the wrong'uns are up to then they'd do a lot better at weeding out the ones who should be sacked plus do a lot to change people's opinions of them. Not that many police officers get sacked for gross misconduct, but that's another issue entirely.

[takethisonehereforastart]

It's all just incredibly sad. When I read that one of the other officers said he sat up and looked at them and said "I just wanted to go home" I felt so awful for him and his family.

If he were my husband or father (or son in a few years time) that would break my heart every time I thought of it. He just wanted to go home and instead he died in the street without anyone who cared for him nearby and all for no good reason.

[edam]

Quite, snorbs.

Takethis, that's so moving. Made me catch my breath. Poor man.

[takethisonehereforastart]

edam - that's how it took me too. I had to make an effort not think about it for awhile after I read it because it really is too sad.

I think the officer who testified and said it perhaps feels the same way.

[constantlywrong]

Yes, the verdict was right and fair and it's justice.

All the resulting anti-police bollocks about at the moment (not so much on here, in general) pisses me right off though. There are bad'uns in EVERY occupation.

When innocent, very young police officers are stabbed and nearly lose their life while doing their jobs, and people STILL go on about how awful police officers going so far as to say "they got what they deserved" - whilst commenting ON articles about said officer, knowing that their family will be reading it, it makes me feel physically ill. I bet when that court case comes to a head and the officer gets justice, there won't be half as much media attention as there is for this.

Not making myself very clear. It's a subject I feel too strongly about to articulate properly on.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that singular incidents are so quickly used to villianise the police as a whole - ignoring all of the good that they do and all they go through to protect the public.

I'm not belitting at all what happened to this poor man - it is awful and heinous and the police officer in question deserved to be prosecuted for it, and the strongest sentence possible - but it is NOT fair to then paint all police officers as thugs.

[edam]

I take your point, constantly. But equally there is a long and ignoble tradition of police officers colluding in cover-ups. In this case there seems to have been a few who were so disgusted by Harwood they have come forward to give reasoned evidence but only after the Met as a force told lie after lie after lie. The truth only came out because of the video footage. (The Met originally told his family he had had 'no contact' with officers, that he'd died of a heart attack - before the post mortem - Harwood said he was aggressive and not co-operating with officers etc. etc. etc.)

Remember Jean Charles de Menezes and the way they blackened his name, claiming he'd done all sorts of things he hadn't? Someone on one of these threads innocently repeated a lie about him stemming from the original Met statements when it is now proven the poor man did nothing wrong at all.

I know a few coppers myself - one of them I really respect, one of them I worry has changed quite a lot since he joined the Met - he sees the world as divided into 'scum' and 'not scum' and seems to think the 'scum' are fair game for bad treatment (which is not on anyway but also his judgment may be off and someone he thinks of as 'scum' may be entirely innocent). And one is obsessed by his job and leaves rude notes on anyone who parks badly in our street starting 'I am a police officer who lives in the street'... to be honest while I like him as a person, I really wouldn't want to come up against him if I was demonstrating against something.