Back Towards The Locus

The victim from yesterday’s protest has been named. Ian Tomlinson, a 47 year-old newsagent, had apparently been walking home from work.

Where Did He Collapse?

Whatever he was doing, Tomlinson was with the protestors and within cordon. Photographs, press reports and eyewitness accounts all place him there…

“Pictures seen by the Guardian, and corroborated by witnesses, suggest that Mr Tomlinson initially fell to the ground by a window of 11 Royal Exchange, outside the Mont Blanc shop, in front of five riot officers.”

The Mont Blanc boutique is on Cornhill Street, just east of Bank Station where there was heavy police action throughout the day.

“A subsequent picture shows him being lifted off the floor by a protester.

Seconds later, he is seen walking past a line of police dogs. He is believed to have collapsed again close to the junction of Birchin Lane, near a Starbucks and Office Angels.”

There was a police cordon in Birchin Lane, and a member of the public apparently alerted them to Tomlinson’s collapse.

How Did He Die?

The Guardian suggests that…

“The incident appears to have taken place shortly after lines of riot police attempted to clear protesters out of Cornhill Road and away from the Bank of England.”

This “attempt” is given rather more vivid detail in Red Pepper’s report…

“…just off a side road from Cornhill Street, came the police with their German Shepherd dogs without muzzles. I went to check on this because I thought I saw someone get chomped by one of the dogs. Getting closer didn’t make for much fun, however, because things were in full psycho mode by that time. The police were moving fast and got either side of me, and when I moved after a cop told me to move, another one was behind me, baton at the ready and German Shepherd barely under control on his leash. Since I had just seen a cop let his dog loose by accident, and only just get the dog under control before it was too late, I was not a happy camper.”

It seems highly likely that Tomlinson sustained the injury – or, at the very least, the afflictions conducive to collapse – during this charge. After he’d been helped to his feet, he was clearly in a bad way…

“The picture I have of him is of him stumbling in front of the protesters and in front of the police dogs looking dazed,” he said. “He had a glazed look on his face. Then it was drawn to my attention that somebody shouted to the police with a loud hailer that there was a casualty and said, ‘Can we get a medic?’”

Photographs show bruising to the temple and face, which could have been caused by batons, or, as some of the press have suggested, a fall onto the pavement. After he had collapsed for the second time, one witness “noticed he had blood on his face and was losing consciousness“.

Press/Police Misinformation

“Natural Causes”: After Tomlinson’s death, press reports swiftly filed it under “natural causes“. As I hope I’ve demonstrated, ideas regarding the cause of the death remain inconclusive, but the bruising alone shows that such a quick diagnosis would have been impossible.

“Bottles”: Throughout the day, the press has been reporting that officers attempting to treat Mr Tomlinson were attacked with “a number of missiles – believed to be bottles“. Eyewitnesses have challenged these assertions, and The Guardian – while perplexingly suggesting that the police were “pelted with at least one missile” – has quoted a photographer as saying that “there were a couple of people throwing bottles in that general direction…but they were told to stop doing that by the crowd. In fact, some people in the crowd threatened to kill them if they did anything to disrupt the treatment“.

WTF? As Justin demonstrates, the press doesn’t always feel the need to blithely regurgitate. When necessary, it can pluck things directly from its cavernous rectum…

The inimitable Evening Standard went one better. Earlier today it was saying the ‘police were pelted with bricks‘ as they helped the dying man…

The story, along with the bricks, has now gone, changed without explanation as is the case with these things.

Merrick, in the comments, expounds…

I have a copy of the West End Final edition of the Evening Standard in front of me. The front page story second paragraph opens with ‘police were bombarded with bricks, bottles and planks of wood’.

The detailed report on page six, though, can only name ‘fruit and paint bombs’, and ‘one officer was struck with a pole’.

My guess is that the front page was pre-written. And, y’know, bricks and bottles, it just sounds right for a riot.

My previous post on the death is here. There are more interesting reports at LibCon, HarpyMarx and Penny Red, while Jim Jay has a comprehensive roundup.