G20 Policeman Almost Tells The Truth About Why He Lashed Out At Ian Tomlinson

Ian Tomlinson – the passer-by who collapsed and died shortly after being beaten to the ground by Territorial Support Group officer Simon Harwood during the G20 summit in 2009 – had adopted an “almost defiant” posture and was “almost inviting a physical confrontation”, the officer insisted as he gave something which was almost evidence to the inquest into the newspaper vendor’s death.

PC Harwood’s almost-testimony began with the interesting claim that Mr Tomlinson had been obstructing the police line and had not had his back to the riot police when he was pushed to the ground and almost missed with a baton.

PC Simon Harwood: almost a credit to the force

"The problem is that we have video of that day when you were there," pointed out Matthew Ryder QC, representing Mr Tomlinson’s family. "That is rubbish, I suggest to you, PC Harwood, and you know it."

After changing his almost-accurate statement, PC Harwood almost remembered the specific instructions he had received at the Metropolitan Police public order training centre in Gravesend when asked by Mr Ryder: "Does your training tell you if someone is not a threat to you or any other person it is acceptable to baton them? Is that your training?”

“Yes,” replied the almost brave upholder of justice, almost choosing the right answer.

"Someone who has his back to you, you push him with that force, from behind and you didn't expect he might fall to the ground?" demanded Mr Ryder.

Almost grasping the basic physical principles of force, motion and gravity, PC Harwood answered almost heroically: “No.”

Later, under questioning from his own QC, the exemplar of London’s almost finest ably demonstrated that he was almost a reliable witness when he admitted that he found it difficult to distinguish between his recollections of the day and what he had subsequently seen on video footage filmed by bystanders.

The inquest continues.

Footage Shows Met Police Breaching Heath & Safety Regulations Again

The Metropolitan Police have admitted that they are still struggling to get to grips with health and safety rules, after mobile phone footage revealed that innocent bystander Ian Tomlinson was attacked for no apparent reason by a police officer, minutes before he collapsed and died in the general vicinity of last week's G20 protests.

The video clip shows the unsuspecting Mr Tomlinson casually ambling past a line of riot police with his hands in his pockets, until a highly-trained officer suddenly rushes up behind him, strikes his knees out from under him with a baton and knocks him to the ground.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Kim Jong-Stephenson said he was very concerned about the battering his force is receiving in the press at the moment. "We are currently studying this footage to see if perhaps it has been faked in CGI by some anarcho-terrorist with access to a Silicon Graphics workstation. If we can't duck out of it that way, then it is clear that our officers are still experiencing great difficulty in negotiating the minefield of silly health and safety regulations which they have been forced to observe since we shot Jean Charles de Menezes - who, it should be remembered, won't be committing any more visa-related offences."

"Obviously my thoughts are with the family of the officer concerned, who is probably a bit difficult to be around right now as he considers the prospect of having to cry his eyes out and act like he cares at some pointless, annoying inquest a couple of years down the line," he added.

The chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, Peter Smyth, told reporters: "Sometimes it isn't clear, as a police officer, who is a protester and who is not. I know it's a generalisation, but anybody in that part of town at that time, the assumption would be that they are part of the protest. Basically, in case you hadn't noticed, we can twat anyone we want to and get away with it. We're the Met, we're above the law and we know where you live."

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, took time out from deleting her husband's porn collection to say that it may be possible, at some unspecified point in the future, that she might think about setting up a public inquiry to declare that the police had done a fantastic job under very trying circumstances.