Oh blast , we missed the deadline!
The Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said today that PC Simon Harwood, the officer accused of assaulting Ian Tomlinson at the G8 summit in 2009, would not face prosecution. Mr. Starmer stated that doctors could not agree on cause of death and so a manslaughter charge could not be brought and that, though a charge of common assault could have been brought, the time limit of six months for bringing charges has expired.
This stinks!
Whether or not the cause of death was the assault by PC Harwood it is outrageous that the time limit for assault was allowed to elapse without bringing charges.
The review of the evidence leading to the decision not to prosecute was carried out by The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). They, and Mr. Starmer, are experts in the law and the idea that they would have failed to realise that the six month limit was expiring is absurd.
Ask yourself this: If the CPS were reviewing a case that did not involve a police officer or a member of parliament or a senior barrister or a member of the Royal family or any other of the United Kingdom’s elite of vested interests, would they have allowed the time limit to elapse without bringing charges?
The assault was captured on multiple cameras and witnessed by numerous people. As soon as it was clear that an assault charge was possible PC Harwood should have been arrested and charged. The investigation as to whether the charge of murder should be brought could have continued as a separate thread.
The failure to prosecute PC Harwood should not surprise us given the dismal failure of prosecution of police officers in the United Kingdom. Ian Tomlinson is yet another victim of a police force which refuses to hold it’s officers to account. The decision sends a clear message around the world: The British Police are a law unto themselves.
This can only encourage the lunatics who recently glorified Raoul Moat and for that alone PC Harwood should be condemned in the same breath as we condemn Moat.
Check out the Ian Tomlinson Family Campaign and if you have a picture of PC Hardwood send it to me.
Related post:
Another copper escapes justice
Photography
Bob Crow on BBC Question time just pointed out that 1,000 people have died at the hands of police and nobody has been prosecuted. I can’t remember over what period he said but it was roughly since WW2.
That is ATROCIOUS and shows how the police are immune from prosecution.
http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/ian-tomlinsons-death-puts-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-british-justice/
This is a monstrous decision. How can anyone, ever again have any faith in our system of justice? There can be no question but that Keir Starmer must go. He has failed miserably to see beyond the minutiae and detail to the bigger and more important picture. He has failed all of us, each and every individual citizen of this country. Whatever it takes, be it a special Act of Parliament, he must be removed from office and PC Simon Harwood, thug, brute and murderer of Ian Tomlinson must be brought to justice.
http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/keir-starmer-must-go/
Keir Starmer – The Next Lord Widgery
http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/keir-starmer-the-next-lord-widgery/