Let's be realistic though M.O.A.B., you're post tacitly suggests that anyone with pockets is not to be trusted and is a potential threat and therefore subject to whatever heavy-handed force the police deem necessary. I don't think anyone with an ounce of good judgment can watch that clip and view the officer's response as anything other than heavy-handed. Walking slowly away from the police is not a good enough reason to warrant physical force.M.O.A.B wrote:
I'm still wondering why they suddenly decided to do a second post-mortem. Just seems strange is all.
As much as it is a tragedy what happened to Tomlinson, he must also take some of the blame. He was walking very slow in front of a line of riot police, hands in pockets which could be holding something. When you watch the clip, just before the masked officer takes him down one of the officers (one with the dog I think) gives him a nudge, but he doesn't respond by quickening his pace or anything. I can understand that he looks like he is being defiant of the police but I dunno. Unfortunate incident really. The copper probably never expected anything like what happened to actually happen, after all, people are pushed to the ground to be cuffed by police all the time and Tomlinson's hands do leave his pockets before he lands.
Yes, the cop might have been having a tough day. Yes, the cop may have been paranoid towards people with pockets. Yes, the cop may have been in a bad mood... but all this in no way changes the fact that the officer attacked a non-aggressive member of the public and this attack, it would now seem, led to this member of the public's death. He needs to be held to account by the same laws as the rest of us.
