Police Officers Accused of 60 Other Assaults

In the wake of last week's demonstrations about the G20, a Metropolitan Police officer is accused of striking an innocent passerby.

Camcorder footage reveals the officer allegedly striking a man on the back of the leg as the man was walking away. The man is seen to fall over, and died shortly thereafter.

Interestingly, the passerby was white. It is a rarity for white people in Britain to suffer assaults from the police except in large demonstrations such as the Wapping pickets and the miners' strike of the 1980s. Or at least, such assaults are rarely pubicised.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission asked newspaper The Guardian to remove the video from their website.

It would be even more interesting if we could produce film footage of police officers' assaults on members of the Black community, similarly to the Rodney King incident.

It remains to be seen what, if any, action is taken against the officer involved. In the Jean Charles de Menezes case, no one was found to be guilty of causing his death even though this innocent Brazilian man was shot at point-black range following the London 7/7 bombings of 2005. It was claimed they officers involved thought he was a suspected terrorist involved in the bombings.

The Jury recorded an open verdict and made it clear that they did not believe the court testimony of the police officers involved, who stated that a warning had been given before de Menezes was shot. For more on this, see Q&A: The Day de Menezes Died

Nubiart Diary recently reported on four officers who were recently convicted of assaults on a British Muslim man, who have been accused of involvement in 60 other incidents.

The article cites a string of other recent complaints against London's Metropolitan Police. To read more, visit News and Views: ANC Welcomes Ruling.

This article also includes a report from the ANC on the Pretoria High Court's refusal to grant parole to someone who murdered two ANC members.