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G20 police blame media for violence - but who gave them the information to hype?

So what would the riot police have been like if their commanders hadn't calmed them down? I think we can safely discount this latest spin from the Met. The cops are now blaming the media for hyping the prospect of serious violence on the day. Well, we did have some very serious violence, and it was from the police.

Also, who are these supervisors who didn't ensure 'officers displayed ID numbers' and does the silence on the result of third postmortem probably mean it's not looking good for the unnamed police territorial support group policeman that carried out the attack on Ian Tomlinson?

Officers policing the G20 protests in London were told to remain "calm and restrained", says a Met police report.

Supervisors also had to ensure officers displayed ID numbers, says the report being presented to a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting later...

...The results of a third post-mortem, requested by the interviewed police officer's legal team, have not been released.

Temporary Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison's report says that in the run-up to the G20 meeting, the media had "exaggerated" the potential for violent disorder.

more at the BBC

Join today's lobby of the Metropolitan Police Authority at City Hall - 9.00am onwards.

Meanwhile, the Met has been forced to pay out compensation to five protesters after illegally detaining them following a vigil outside the Mexican embassy over the killing of a US filmmaker by police during a teachers' strike in the city of Oaxaca:

Five protesters who were assaulted by officers and kept in police custody for two nights have been paid tens of thousands of pounds in an out-of-court settlement.

The five have received £85,000 in compensation plus costs, together totalling more than £100,000, in a settlement recorded at the high court this week. Their detention after a demonstration in London three years ago was "unlawful" and a restriction of their "democratic right to peaceful protest", the Metropolitan police accepted in a statement released this week.

The admission follows criticism of police behaviour at the G20 summit this month and campaigners say the payout will reinforce concerns about the Met's handling of public order events and may encourage others to seek compensation.

The peaceful rally outside the Mexican embassy in October 2006 was attended by about 20 activists calling for action over the murder of an American filmmaker, Bradley Roland Will, during a teachers' strike in the city of Oaxaca. The shooting was blamed on local state officials. more


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