Best of Three

One aspect of the continuing furore over MPs’ expenses is that Ian Tomlinson has been quietly forgotten by the media. The last we heard was that there had been an initial post mortem (heart attack) then a second post mortem (internal bleeding) and a third PM was planned by the Met. (in some kind of bizarre “best of three” attempt to ping-pong the blame back and forth. )

In the meantime, other stories of supposed police brutailty at the G20 have emerged, with video clips of people being smashed in the face by riot shields. As I have said before, these clips are just that – isolated snapshots of a much larger and more complicated story. What happened before and after the flashpoint?

You can argue (and I’d probably agree with you) that it is never right for a big burly copper to smash a young girl in the face with a riot shield. Deep down, though, I know that there are situations in life where I might feel angry enough to lose control and do something violent, however much I regretted it later. It’s there in all of us. Everyone has a flashpoint, somewhere – all that varies is how deeply it’s hidden, and where the trigger is located.

The thing about the G20, not that it excuses their behaviour in any way, though it might help to make it more understandable, is that the police were on an adrenaline high that day. They knew there was going to be trouble, because the media had been telling them so for days. They, in turn, had been posting on their blogs, and on Facebook, about how they were going to duff over a few hippies and give them a good kicking. Which, in turn, was probably read by the more loony fringes of the hippy world as being some sort of gauntlet being thrown down.

Add a further dash of spince to the mix, in the form of agents provocateur planted by the security services to foment trouble and discredit the activists (and anyone who thinks this is fanciful and paranoid obviously hasn’t read the story of the young woman activist approached by police intelligence – an oxymoron if ever there was one – to act as a “mole”). Bake in a warm street somewhere in the City of London, kettle it until it simmers and then boils over, et voila! The perfect recipe for civil unrest.

The police should remember though, that the ineptitude of the operation is no excuse. And those who formulate their tactics should remember that policing in this country is by consent, and every time something like the Ian Tomlinson case happens, it hastens the day when we are forced to either endure anarchy, or live under a police state.