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.
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Tags: authoritarian, civil liberties, civil liberty, CPS, Crown Prosecution Service, flashed, Grimsby Magistrates Court at, harassment, Jean Ellerton, Keir Starmer, Michael Thompson, motorists, oppressive, photography, police, Radio 4, speed gun, student demonstrations, terrorism, unaccountable
Prosecuted for flashing his lights
Open Email to Keir Starmer via CPS web site
Sir,
I just heard on Radio 4 that the CPS have prosecuted a driver ( Michael Thompson ) who flashed his lights to warn motorists of a mobile police speed gun. They charged him with wilfully obstructing a police officer in the course of her duties.
This is an outrageous infringement of civil liberties. The speed gun is to catch people who are actually speeding NOT people who may be INTENDING to speed. By flashing his lights Mr Thompson could not have affected anyone who was actually speeding.
More and more the police are taking authoritarian stances and feeling that they are entitled to harass individuals. Often this takes the form of stopping ordinary people taking photographs in public by pretending that there is some terrorism threat.
From the point of view of the general public this clashes dreadfully with the police inability to prosecute their own officers even when they have been photographed in the act of assaulting a member of the public.
I have been critical of police tactics at various demonstrations but had been sympathetic during the recent student demonstrations because of the obvious violent intent of some demonstrators (fire extinguishers etc).
However, incidence such as the prosecution of Mr. Thompson, merely reinforce the negative image of the police as an oppressive organisation who take advantage of their position and are unaccountable to anybody.
I suggest that you remember that you are British officers in a country with a long tradition of civil liberty and not mindless officials from some soviet satellite state.
Stop harassing ordinary people and start effectively disciplining your own officers.
Regards
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I understand from this What’s On Xiamen that the presiding magistrate was Jean Ellerton of Grimsby Magistrates Court.
Why not email them and register your disgust? You could use the text above as a template.
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