No justice, no peace

My heart goes out to the family of Ian Tomlinson, but it is no surprise to me that PC Simon Harwood was cleared.

The statistics are truly shocking: 1000 deaths in 42 years, 300 of those in the last ten, and not a single conviction.  This is the stark reality of a police force drunk on power, that has lost all respect for human life.

I was at the G20 protests that fateful day in 2009, and whatever the tabloid apologists may tell you, the police were like animals.  One man just in front of where we were standing was literally running with blood from multiple wounds.  He had his hands raised in surrender, but they kept on beating him.

A girl in our party sustained a baton wound to the scalp.  She is under five feet tall and did nothing wrong, simply had the misfortune to be in hitting range of a thug in uniform.

Time and again mob mentality takes over, and it's getting worse.  The increasing criminalisation of dissent and the fact they know the toothless IPCC will let them get away with it means the police are literally getting away with murder.

And the deaths are only the most visible and appalling symptoms (not to mention the disgraceful character assassination of Tomlinson's family by Amanda Platell in the Mail, suggesting they were exaggerating their grief for money and "fifteen minutes of fame".  The family, for the record, have refused all financial offers for their story.)  Jean Charles de Menezes.  Mark Duggan.  Sean Rigg.  No surprise that a disproportionate number in this ghastly parade had black or brown faces.  Nor that the police tried to demonise these victims after the fact, in justification.

But the thuggery and inhumanity is demonstrated in a thousand smaller ways every day.  For example, the notorious treatment of Pamela Somerville, dragged through the station by Mark Andrews and thrown so violently into a cell that her face poured blood.  Pamela Somerville is fifty seven and tiny.  Her "offence" was falling asleep in her car.  Surprise, surprise, Andrews was acquitted on appeal.

Or the use of tasers at the eviction of Dale Farm, in direct contravention of rules which forbid their use in public order situations.  I find this a particularly interesting example, as the Dale Farm situation involved travellers - arguably one of the police's unofficial categories of those who don't really count as human beings.

An example from my own experience at this juncture.  Several years ago I was living in a squat in central Brighton.  The building, an old church, had been empty for ten years before being squatted and we used it for workshops and social events and ran a soup kitchen, as well as it obviously being our home.  We were well liked and supported in the local community, many of whom gave comments to the local press to this effect.  Nonetheless we were evicted, and the police turned up mob handed.  I saw them being rough with a couple of my friends, and tried to intervene (verbally, I hasten to add).  At which point an officer twice my size picked me up and threw me out of the way, but not before grabbing and twisting my left nipple so hard it was bruised for a week.  This is a clear example of a policeman doing something because we were just squatters, just the scum of the earth; and because he COULD, because he knew he'd get away with it. 

I reported the incident, after being made to wait five hours (they clearly hoped I'd just go away).  I was then told the officer's number, which I had carefully written down, didn't exist.  I persisted in my complaint, but all that happened was that after six months I received a letter saying they could offer me an apology, without accepting any responsibility.

Clearly I am not comparing my experience to the death of Ian Tomlinson.  I still have my life and health.  Yet this was a sexual assault committed in the full knowledge of impunity.  Acts huge and murderous or small and spiteful, the police are getting away with them all and laughing all the way to the barricades and picket lines.

As Nina Power in the Guardian comments, CCTV in the back of black Marias would be a good start.  The rest of us have had to get used to constant surveillance and most of us aren't habitually violent.  But it's the culture that's the problem, that protesters are fair game, that travellers and squatters and the homeless and the non white and on and on don't really count as real people, just animals who had it coming.

Until the police actually respect the public they are supposed to serve - and while they continue to be demonstrably unregulated and above the law - nothing will change.  There will be more senseless violence and more senseless deaths.

(To sign the UFFC petition for full and transparent enquiry into suspicious deaths in custody, go to http://uffc-campaigncentral.net/about/uffc-no10-e-petition/).