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Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has gone on the offensive and defended his officers against charges they were out of control. The new pro active strategy comes as a third post mortem is carried out on Ian Tomlinson. The Scotland Yard chief defended the 'overwhelming majority' of his officers who he said acted in a professional manner despite extreme provocation from protesters during 5,000 shifts in two days.
Stamp out "excessive force"
Stephenson has also vowed to stamp out "excessive force" during public order events and privately is thought to be furious that officers failed to display their identification numbers and some continue to do so in open defiance of a direct order.. Stephenson added that it was the most complex and challenging operation the Met had ever faced and much of the criticism levelled at his force was unfair.
Suspended officer requests third post mortem
Lawyers acting for the suspended police officer who has been questioned under caution over a manslaughter, requested the new post mortem. Last Friday the second examination by the Independent Police Complaints Commission showed that Ian Tomlinson died of an abdominal haemorrhage, massive internal bleeding - his family was told by police that he died of natural causes on 1 April. Such an injury could have been caused by blunt trauma - a video shows Tomlinson calmly walking away from police lines with his hands in his pockets then struck with a baton to the back of the legs and forcibly pushed forward, falling heavily. He was not a protester, but was caught behind police cordons on his way home.
Cover up denied
Indications were that the man had died of natural causes, and then there were briefings that he had been struck by a missile. Scotland Yard has denied there was a cover up. Riot police and mounted officers were involved in sporadic violence all day around the Bank of England, in what has been dubbed "the Battle of Threadneedle Street". Thousands of peaceful demonstrators were sealed off around the Royal Exchange without access to water or toilet facilities for hours in a controversial police crowd control method called 'kettleing' that hemms people in. Last week, the Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson asked Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, the highest inspectorate in the land, Denis O'Connor, to review policing tactics. The review was prompted a second video showing a woman being slapped and struck with a baton after shouting at a sergeant at a solidarity march for Ian Tomlinson. 145 people have complained to the IPCC over the police's handling of the protests.
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