Back Towards The Locus

As you might have heard, a man died after collapsing during the G20 protests. This was immediately notched up to natural causes. Yup, natural causes. No doubt about it.

To understand why someone may have been so affected by le cause naturali, one should look at the treatment of the protestors. Yesterday, the police used a tactic called ‘kettling’, whereby cordons are imposed and enforced to stop protests spilling out into the city. This left demonstrators in appalling conditions. There are numerous accounts of “cordon-induced claustrophobia“, with Rowenna Davis and Sunny Hundal reporting that “one woman sat down because she was feeling faint“. Water was scarce and there were no toilet facilities, forcing people to piss in the streets…

I was told by a police officer informed of my bad back that I’d ‘better go and sit on the floor then’ (cos that’s great for your back – sitting in piss on a concrete floor).

The victim, it seems likely, had just endured a police charge with batons and German Shepherds. One witness has reported that the man (seen here and here?) had blood on his face.

It must have come as a terrible shock to find that subjecting people to cramped, stressed conditions, without the chance for relief or nourishment, has adverse consequences.

The police have fiercely proclaimed that bottles were thrown at them as they tried to treat the unconscious victim. Unfortunately, this may very well have been a fib…

Sky says that protesters threw bottles at police trying to help him – this is definitely not true.

I have an eye witness account from on the ground who saw a man who’d collapsed (rather than pushed or beaten to ground or whatever, although he may have been concussed from an incident earlier).

Protesters called for assistance from the police and helped medical assistance get through. The police were not obstructed in any way.

It is definitely and absolutely untrue that the police were pelted with bottles. This did not happen.

As Justin points out, the police/press combination has past form for this…

“Days after the Hillsborough disaster (whose upcoming 20th anniversary is brilliantly commemorated by Merrick), The Sun newspaper printed a story headlined ‘THE TRUTH‘.

The story ‘told of Liverpool fans attacking ambulance crews, pissing on coppers, pickpocketing dead bodies and beating up coppers giving the kiss of life.’

The story was a vile and lying load of old shit. Nobody saw it because it didn’t happen. It instigated a boycott of The Sun on Merseyside that still holds to this day.”

Anyone who witnessed the incident, or has pertinent information, should write a full statement and contact the legal team at Bindmans Solicitors on 020 7833 4433 (h/t Lenin).