Man who died during G20 protest was walking home from work

[Turborama]

Source: The Times

A man who died during the protests in the City of London yesterday was on his way home from work when he collapsed and is not thought to have been part of the marches.

Ian Tomlinson, 47, was found unconscious near to St Michael’s Alley off of Cornhill near the Bank of England just before 7.30pm yesterday.

He had been returning to his home near by from working at a newsagents.

His family said that he came from a “large, loving family and he will sadly missed by us all. The police are keeping us informed of any developments".

His death is being assessed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/G20/article6023020.ece

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G20: The strong arm of the law

Source: The Guardian (UK)

As witnesses to the way they mishandled today's protests in the City of London, we hold the police responsible for the violence

Rowenna Davis and Sunny Hundal

There's little doubt that today's and tomorrow's news coverage will prominently feature the G20 protests and the violence that broke out. We think a broader perspective is needed, because when the mainstream media is so ready to take the police's side, it is too easy to brand the protestors as the only troublemakers.

Four of us were Twittering today for the Guardian, trying to get a sense of the protests right from the heart of the City. The protests were, in the morning, very light-hearted and friendly. There were brass bands, lots of singing, chanting and dancing. There were people handing out fake bank notes, flyers to the "alternative G20 summit" and expounding their own theories on what went wrong with the world.

At around 12:15, Rowenna and I ran into each other and decided to head towards the Climate Camp gathering at Bishopsgate. We slowly made our way out from the front of the Bank of England, down Threadneedle Street, before we were stopped by a wide police cordon. This is when things started to turn nasty. By 12:30, no one was allowed to leave the protest, and no explanation was given. When we asked a policeman why, he said it was simply an order to prevent "a breach of the peace". We said we were journalists trying to cover the protests, but it made no difference. We were stuck.

People were feeling claustrophobic, hungry and aggressive. One woman sat down because she was feeling faint. A few others had just come to see all the fuss, and weren't protesting, but were not allowed to leave either.

Read More (with embedded links): http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/01/g20-protest-violence-police

[dave_p]

1. Police break up memorial gathering

Police have moved on protesters who gathered around noon near the scene fo Mr Tomlinson's death. Campaigners are calling for a public inquiry into the incident, which occurred as police prevented people from leaving the ecene of Wednesday's actions. Elsewhere 80 demontrators are reported to have been arrested as hundreds gathered around the Bank of England and in nearby streets Thursday afternoon, many of them thought to have returned from the Royal Docks area after being kept from the ExCeL conference venue.

Police have also raided two of the two activist centres supporting the protests, the Earl Street Convergence Space and RampART social centre. Earl St appears to have fared worst, with forty held in handcuffs and four taken away by ambulance, according to eyewitnesses. At RampART, "The police broke down the doors and stormed in with drawn tazers, screaming at everyone to get down on the ground, jumping on them and handcuffing them... They were insulting people and saying things like "one of you croaked last night", trying to provoke a bad reaction from people." (http://london.indymedia.org.uk/articles/1005)