The man who many believed was killed by a heart attack during the anti-G20 protests in London a few weeks ago turned out to be treated aggressively by the police. The Guardian has released a video where a London Metropolitan Police officer appears to have pushed - with a stick - the street-newspaper-seller on the back while he was not facing the police but walking calmly away from it.
According to the Guardian, Ian Tomlinson, who was happily married and had a son was discovered to not have been drunk when the attack occurred and although his death was diagnosed by official coroners to have died from a heart attack, both coroners and doctors (interviewed by the BBC News Channel) have speculated that Mr. Tomlinson's heart attack might have been caused by the push he received from the police officer shown on the video above.
The BBC News Channel reported that Mr. Tomlinson's death might have caused the protesters to increase their aggressive behavior. The BBC News Channel also reported how Mr. Tomlinson fell over minutes after he was attacked by the police. A G20 protester left a comment on News In-Depth Blog saying: "I was there and the police were swinging at anyone who came near regardless of gender, age or threat."
Although it is not possible to see Mr. Tomlinson's head hitting the ground when he is pushed by the police officer, it is very clear that such an aggressive push would have caused harm to a 47-year-old man like Mr. Tomlinson. To my point of view, that must have been the action that caused Mr. Tomlinson's death.
However, due to the fact that the video scooped by the Guardian shows one police officer pushing Mr. Tomlinson, it is unfair to blame the whole London Metropolitan Police for the action. I do believe though, that justice must be applied on the police officer guilty for this crime.
The 73-year-old man who died during the anti-G20 protest on Wednesday was discovered to have died not by an abuse from the London Metropolitan Police forces nor was he killed by manifestations carried out by the protesters at that particular moment, but rather by a heart-attack, it was reported by the London Lite today (Friday).
The anti-G20-protest's only fatality is believed to have happened when the man was going home from work and sadly happened to have a heart-attack during the protest. According to the London Lite, the man lived alone in a hostel due to a divorced that took most of his money and it is believed that the man did not take care of his diet and consumed large quantities of alcohol a day.
The London Lite reported that someone who knew the 73-year-old man described him as "a lovely bloke." There are still speculation of why people around the man did not help him when he fell on the floor during the time he was having the heart-attack.
It is very interesting to notice that the only newspaper that published details about the death of this lonely 73-year-old man who died during the G20 protest on Wednesday was such a low-quality newspaper like the London Lite - a free evening newspaper owned by the same family that owns the Daily Mail - and that none of the so-called quality newspapers or broadsheets such as the Guardian or the Times Online weren't interested in this type of story. I guess they thought they would not get any profits from it. After all, the newspaper business is all about money.
When a countless number of people gather together to protest against something as powerful as the G20, disasters happen. Such is the case of the anti-G20 protest that took place in London today (Wednesday), where one person was killed and many others have been injured. It has not yet been identified whether the fatality was caused by the police or by fellow protesters, but it is speculated that the police might have applied too much force on the victim.
So far, according to the Mail Online more than 30 people have been taken into custody, and although today's results were far from peaceful, the big day for protest is believed to take place at the same time in the same place tomorrow, at the exact same time the G20 summit - the event for which many have been waiting - will take place in London.
But what started out as a peaceful protest became a nightmare for the police when the protesters started to get out of control. As early as 13:00 the situation started to get more and more difficult as the adrenaline grew among the protesters and chaos among the city of London, the whole event was soon broadcasted by many national and international TV channels.
According to the BBC News channel - as it was broadcasted live-in-London - the protesters started to get more and more aggressive and took the opportunity of being pushed back by the police to start breaking windows of key economic buildings, including the RBS' main headquarters in London. Protesters started to climb the roofs of many building around.
It is believed that the protesters wanted to throw objects to the police, and that is the reason why the police decided to arrest some of them. It is also believed that the police might have applied too much force against the protesters. It was broadcasted by the BBC News Channel that the protester's purposes was to burn the headquarter building of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Meanwhile thousands of people were protesting and being injured, the heavy weigh economic and political leaders of the world gathered together with Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip - as it was broadcasted by the BBC News Channel - to discuss matters concerning the economic crisis and other serious and yet delicate issues.
Among the many leaders and political figures of the world only one president was able to have a private meeting with Her Majesty the Queen. U.S. President Barack Obama and her wife Michelle met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on a private meeting before they went to meet the other leaders.
As strange and harsh as it might sound, the Against-G20 protesters are only wasting their time, and not because the leaders adopting the G20 summit lack of interest towards the economic crisis or climate changes, the reason why these so-called 'protests' are a big wast of time and money - the London Metropolitan Police has had to spend 7.2 Million on security operations - is because protesters will not change anything by protesting. On the contrary, they are only making the government loose money that could be used for more useful things.
Honestly, to me at least, these protesters are just trying to boycott the G20 summit - an attempt to make the world a better place - and whether protesters like it or not, the G20 is actually trying to solve the global economic crisis. Whether it will work or not is yet to be seen, but I assure the readers of this blog that trying to solve the global economic crisis by talking is better than protesting for nothing.
The BBC News Channel broadcasted a protester saying: "Our bank, our rules." My respond to that is that it isn't the way it works, and one thing is certain, protesting rarely works, and it certainly does not work when the protests are drawn by the wrong reasons.
In this case, sadly, one of the main reasons why people are protesting is because they can't take that bankers get paid so much, and that they get paid seven figure pensions. People seem to forget that not all bankers are like Sir Fred Goodwin and that some bankers do deserve that much money, due to the among of time and effort they apply to their work.
Monday 06, April, 2009. A 6.4 earthquake has struck the central Italian town of L'Aquila today at early hours destroying many old as well as modern buildings and leaving at least 100 people dead and 1500 injured.
Monday 06, April, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama was applauded today in the Turkish parliament after saying "the U.S. is not, and will never be at war with Islam." Mr. Obama visited Turkey today in what is his first official visit to a Muslim country as U.S. president. To find out more click here.
News must be the one topic that I'm most passionate about.
I love waking up in the morning and with a cup of coffee in hand read and analyse the latest news.
That's why I've decided to maintain and update this blog as many times a week as I can. My purpose is to give you a bit of information of how I believe the press treats every bit of information in every main story published by the biggest British newspapers.
