The miners strike left scars on most people who lived through it and were affected by it close up. The politicisation of the police force was one of its more disturbing elements and Thatcher wasted no time in bringing the Met in and police from other non-industrial areas to do her bidding for her. It was no great secret that certain constabularies (most notably South Yorkshire) had more than just a degree of sympathy with the miners, many of whom they went to school with and had grown up with etc Stories of abuse have of course gone into police folklore and its quite probably that a sense of being above the law prevails, and this is just the latest manifestation of what happens when a police force starts to go out of control. It's a slippery pole.
I'm actaully struck by how quick the police are condem the public for their failure to come forward and report crime, yet alone act as witnesses, and their complete apathy to do like wise when its one of their own. The murders of Rhys Jones and Letita Shakespeare being two that immediately spring to mind. This fella died quite a few days ago now, and as early as Sunday and Monday reports from eyewitnesses were filtering out as to what had happened. I'm also struck by the fact that the press reporter who was named as an eyewitness over the weekend who claimed to have seen Tomlinson being beaten prior to the pushing incident, has mysteriously only repeated her allegation on condition of anonymity now. What's happened inbetween?
Something doesn't look right here. At about 6 o'clock this evening the police were saying that some of the officers had come forward (almost certainly as a result of the American footage finding its way to the Guardian and they being so easily identifiable that they had no choice). It was only at 7pm today however, that the assailant finally decided to come forward!!! Is it conceivable I wonder that those police officers who had earlier come forward, had failed to name the officer to their superiors? Is it possible that teams of police working alongside each other in a close quartered environment where communication is presumebly of paramount importance didn't know the name of the person they'd been standing alongside for hours all day? They couldn't possibly claim not to have seen the incident surely? "He fell down the stairs guv". There's at least half a dozen of them watching it happen!!! They knew this man had died by 11.00pm that night when they issued a statement saying they'd been no contact between Tomlinson and the police. There's at least half dozen police officers who've witnessed an aggravated assault which might or might not have led to a mans death, and not one of them appears to have been able (or willing) to name the officer concerned.
Luckily of course, IT has moved on leaps since 1984-85 and its now much harder to for the police to run amok as they used to, and be certain that no ones capaturing beyond disputed witness statements. That's not to say they can't or don't, it's just that they need to be a bit more careful now. I suspect we'll start seeing them seizing cameras and portable video equipment in the future now, in much the same way as they do in continental Europe or Zimbabwe