Permits to photograph!?

MISSING CCTV FOOTAGE (AGAIN)

http://gizmonaut.net/blog/uk/missing...age-again.html

A good article giving a good timeline of events surrounding the death of Ian Tomlinson.

As early as February, Met's Superintendent David Hartshorn was extolling that the 'Police are preparing for a "summer of rage"'. Predicted highlights included the G20 Summit: Xmas coming early for activists, and industrial disputes in reaction to the downturn in the economy. That gave plenty of time for the Police to ensure they were fully prepared for the - mostly peaceful - demonstrations and climate camp scheduled for April 1st.

Met CCTV campaignThe police, and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), know the importance of video footage for evidential use. They already went through much controversy about missing CCTV footage in Stockwell tube station at the scene of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by a police officer. (In my case, CCTV footage was lost because no police officer actually requested it from Transport for London.)

That's why the Police promotes 'a few simple rules to ensure that CCTV is not rendered useless' (image on the right taken from this campaign). And that's also a justification for the police using their own photographers and videographers, the Forward Intelligence Team (FIT), as was exemplified at the previous climate camp in Kingsnorth.

In light of the above, it could have been expected that as part of its preparation, the police would have checked that all the CCTV cameras in the City of London were in good order. As soon as incidents had been known to happen the relevant footage would have been secured.

Witnesses rapidly came forward about police brutality against peaceful protesters and about the assault on Ian Tomlinson. The IPCC has already received 120 complaints relating to police actions at the G20 demonstrations. However, key CCTV footage is still lacking.

• 2009-04-01 During the G20 protests in the City of London, Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor, collapses in Cornhill. He is pronounced dead at the hospital. He had been assaulted by a police officer minutes before collapsing....

It's the City of London Police getting their hands grubby on this one. Remember that the City of London is like the Vatican- an independant city state sitting at the heart of a seperate nation.