Ian Tomlinson Killing & Sri Lanka Genocide – 2009

Ian Tomlinson Killing & Sri Lanka Genocide: On Saturday 11th April 2009 people marched from Bethnal Green Police Station to the spot were news vendor died after an unprovoked attack by police officer Simon Harwood. I also photographed a much larger march by Tamils against the genocide taking place in Sri Lanka.


March in Memory of Ian Tomlinson – Bethnal Green Police Station & Bank

Ian Tomlinson Killing & Sri Lanka Genocide - 2009

G20 Meltdown, the organisers of the protest at Bank on April 1st 2009 where police officer Simon Harwood attacked Ian Tomlinson leading to his death, had organised a memorial march from Bethnal Green Police Station to the place where he died a few yards away from the attack.

Ian Tomlinson Killing & Sri Lanka Genocide - 2009
Police discuss the march with Chris Knight

Tomlinson was not involved in the protest, but simply trying to make his way home after having been working, selling newspapers in the City. The protest would probably have been over by the time he was killed, but police had turned what had been intended as a carnival party into something far more sinister, kettling and then attacking many demonstrators and killing Tomlinson. There were numerous injuries and one photographer had his teeth knocked out, but I had seen the kettle coming and had left the area to cover another event.

Ian Tomlinson Killing & Sri Lanka Genocide - 2009

At the Tomlinson family’s request, the march was peaceful, silent and respectful. Before it started his stepson Paul King spoke briefly, describing the family’s trauma from the tragic death of his step-father, a “much-loved and warm-hearted man,” and pain at seeing the video of the assault, and he hoped that the investigation would be full and that “action will be taken against any police officer who contributed to Ian’s death through his conduct.”

Ian Tomlinson Killing & Sri Lanka Genocide - 2009
Paul King

As usual the investigation was carried out by the IPCC and the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge Harwood. After an inquest verdict of unlawful killing the CPS had to change their mind and charged him with manslaughter.

The sisters of Sean Rigg, murdered by police at Brixton the previous August were on the march

The jury was unable to hear evidence about his behaviour in previous incidents and was seriously misled both by some of Harwood’s own evidence and the evidence given by the first pathologist who had examined the body, Dr Freddy Patel. He had destroyed some vital evidence, puring away body fluids and had a long record of botched postmortems, having previously been suspended twice and finally was struck off the medical register in 2012.

After Harwood’s acquittal he was dismissed from the police. Tomlinson’s family took civil proceedings and in 2013, “the Metropolitan Police Service paid Tomlinson’s family an undisclosed sum and acknowledged that Harwood’s actions had caused Tomlinson’s death.

I left the march before it arrived at Bank, but returned the following day to photograph the flowers that had been left in Royal Exchange Buildings where the assault had taken place and a vigil was being held by Chris Knight, one of the G20 Meltdown organisers and a few others.

More at In Memory of Ian Tomlinson.


Tamils March – Stop Sri-Lanka Genocide – Temple to Hyde Park

A huge crowd had assembled on the Embankment at Temple, perhaps as many as 200,000, a very high proportion of Tamils in the UK who are thought to number around 300,000, around two thirds of them of Sri Lankan origin. It was a crowd with very few white faces.

Despite the size of the protest there appeared to be very little UK media interest and I saw no photographers or TV crews from major UK media covering the march to Hyde Park. Where there are usually a crowd of photographers in front at the start of large marches in London, for this one there was just me and three other freelances, none of whom get regular work for the mass media.

By April 2009 the civil war in Sri Lanka was clearly coming to an end, with the Tamil Tigers having been pushed back into a very small area. They had been defeated at a major battle at Aanandapuram on 5th April and the final assault by the government forces came at the end of the month with Sri Lanka declaring victory on May 16th.

Many of those taking part in the march were clearly supporting the “the LTTE, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. A few carried actual tigers, fortunately only large toys, but many more wore the colours or carried flags or portraits of the founder and leader of the Tamil Tigers, Velupillai Pirapaharan.

The LTTE was proscribed in 2000 and they were clearly committing an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000 by supporting the group or wearing clothing which arouses the “reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation.” But clearly the Tamils were not intending to cause any serious trouble and police sensibly made no attempt to arrest them all. Only three arrests were reported.

The Tamils had lost in Sri Lanka and many both civilians and combatants were killed during the civil war – possibly almost 150,000 in the last 8 months of the civil war. Around 300,000 were transferred into special closed camps, described by many as concentration camps – they were slowly released and the camps were closed by the end of September 2012.

Many more pictures at Stop Sri Lanka Genocide.


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Ten Years Ago – Chariots & Custody Deaths

Ten Years Ago – Chariots & Custody Deaths – On Sunday 17th June 2012 I photographed two very different events in London


Hare Krishna Chariot Festival – Hyde Park

Effigy of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) the founder of ISKCON (Hare Krishna)

More than a thousand Hare Krishna devotees turned up in Hyde Park on Sunday morning to pull three giant chariots through the streets of London to Trafalgar Square.

People pull the chariots with ropes and others sweep the path for it

The Rathayatra Chariots Festival first took place at the Jagannatha temple at Puri, Orissa on the east coast of India probably at least a thousand years ago. It celebrates the attempt by Krishna’s childhood friends who were cowherds to try and kidnap him after he became a great lord and take him back to their village on a cart.

There are three chariots to carry the three deities worshipped at Puri, e Krishna in the form of Jagannatha, his half-sister Subhadra, and Balarama her brother. Jagannath means ‘Master of the Universe’ and his name and the chariots in the festival give us the word “juggernaut”.

Subhadra’s representation on her chariot

Hare Krishna disciples celebrated the festival in San Francisco in 1967 and it was first celebrated by a small group here in 1969, but only became a large event in London much more recently. It is one of the more colourful annual events in the city. I left as the procession left Hyde Park.

More pictures: Hare Krishna Chariot Festival


Fathers Day Vigil for Custody Deaths – Brixton Police Station

Family members call for Justice for Ricky Bishop, Justice for Sean Rigg

It was Father’s Day and the families of men killed by by police held vigils on outside police stations across the country. At Brixton, the family of Ricky Bishop was joined by the sisters of Sean Rigg and friends.

The inquest into Sean Rigg’s death in Brixton Police Station in August 2008 had begun the previous week. Following his killing police issued an incredible number of false statements, lying to protect the officers involved and the IPCC backed them with further deliberately misleading statements.

Although the police failure to make investigations and properly question officers involved, along with the destruction of evidence made prosecutions of the officers involved impossible the inquest jury delivered a damning and substantial narrative verdict which included a majority view that the improper and unnecessary restraint of Sean Rigg ” more than minimally contributed” to his death.

Although later three officers were arrested for having committed perjury at the inquest the IPCC cleared one of them and the CPS decided to drop the two other cases. The family appealed and one officer was charged with perjury but was acquitted by a jury despite having admitted giving false evidence.

You can read a fuller account of the efforts by the family to get justice on Wikipedia. Although two inquiries have found a long list of failings by the police there have been no successful prosecutions of the officers involved.

Ricky Bishop was arrested by police in Brixton in November 2001 and taken to Brixton Police station. A healthy 25 year old he suffered a heart attack and was restrained by police who only later called for a paramedic. It took several hours for police to take him to hospital where he died.

None of the eight officers involved in this death have been suspended or prosecuted and they remained on active duty.

These were not the first or the last suspicious deaths involving Brixton Police station – and a woman came up during the event to tell us of her relative Colin Bardley who she said was beaten to death there around 30 years ago. And there are similar cases elsewhere. My post on My London Diary quoted from a report published by the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody in 2011 which states ‘in total, there were 5,998 deaths recorded for the 11 years from 2000 to 2010. This is an average of 545 deaths per year. Despite the fact there have been 11 unlawful killing verdicts since 1990 there has never been a successful prosecution.

More about the event, on deaths in custody and more pictures at Fathers Day Vigil.