So
PC Harwood was found not guilty, well he joins a long list of police
officers who have got away with what any reasonable person can only
describe as murder. While death after contact with the police is not
a rare event, a police officer being prosecuted is a very rare thing,
to be found guilty is even more rare. It is 42 years since a police
officer has been prosecuted regarding death in police custody, this
despite innumerable unlawful killing verdicts and the fact that there
have been more than 3,000 such deaths since 1969. Deaths in police
custody and deaths from direct contact with the police, it doesn't
seem to make much difference, if there ever is a prosecution we
should expect a not guilty verdict to come up.
How far back do we go? Blair Peach 1979, killed by a baton blow to
the head, Stephen Waldorf, 1983, shot by police officers, James
Ashley, 1998, shot, Harry Stanley, 1999, shot, Jean Charles De
Menezes, 2005, shot making his way to work, Abdul Kahar, 2006, shot,
Mark Duggan, 2011, shot, and of course the 2009 assault and death of
Ian Tomlinson. From that list, one prosecution and a not guilty
verdict.
Ian Tomlinson's death at the hands of a police officer must be the
first where there was clear video evidence of the assault and dozens
of eyewitnesses but that didn't make any difference, the verdict was
still not guilty, and now we get the full story, PC Harwood, it
seems, had a record of violence with 10 formal complaints against
him. Ten complaints, one videoed assault and death, one
prosecution, one not guilty verdict. The British judicial system at
work.
Of
course the police are the police the world over, from recent figures
it appears that in America, an African American dies in an
extra-judicial killing every 36 hours. Who are they protecting?
