another update on Police violence, campaign grows!

Hi all, thanks for staying with the group and respect to all those who are doing their own individual work on this issue. Update on news and actions you can take below. As I write this the group passed 1000 members. More importantly, the police officer shown here hitting Ian Tomlinson has come forward

NEWS
IPCC CAVES TO PRESSURE AND TAKES ON INVESTIGATION
David Howarth, an MP and barrister assisting some of the protestors assaulted at the G20 demonstrations has called for a criminal investigation and removal of the city police from the investigation due to their involvement in the organisation of the G20 demonstrations and likely bias. The IPCC today removed them from the investigation and will be conducting a full independent investigation.

OFFICER INVOLVED IN TOMLINSONS DEATH COMES FORWARD
No news yet on his identity (likely to be concealed I would imagine whilst investigations go on)

TAKE ACTION – 8th April

WRITE TO YOUR MP OVER IAN’S DEATH!
http://steflewandowski.com/2009/04/a-letter-to-my-mp-about-ian-tomlinson/
A standard letter you could use as the basis to write to your MP about Ian Tomlinson. If you were at the demo and have your own accounts here that will really add weight but you could also add weight to this groups objective of stopping all disproportionate violence as follows.
You could write about your disgust for such tactics, cite article 5 of the human rights act and article 13, which relate to right to protection from cruel and degrading treatment and rights freedom of movement.
You could mention the ‘systematic abuse of power by the Metropolitan police at the G20 demos’ and ‘A disproportionate and dangerous use of force on numerous occasions, leading to the tragic death of an innocent man’

DEMONSTRATE AND SPREAD THE WORD!
There is a rally in in solidarity with Ian Tomlinson at 11.30am on Saturday starting at Bethnal green police station. It is not associated directly with this group but I believe the organisers hope to keep it non-violent. Protest against police intimidation will be calling for justice and an end to the deployment of over-excessive force and the tactics of 'kettling' protesters in.
Volunteers from this group will be joining the demo to distribute leaflets and help spread the word to the general public about the campaign.

SIGN THE PETITION REMINDER
A reminder to sign this to petition the Prime Minister to disallow the use of kettles, batons and other aggressive police tactics at entirely peaceful protests:http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/climatecampg20/

CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT
'We are not the only group working on this topic but we are in the process of instigating the following
- We are aiming to launch a website in the next couple of days
- We are building a campaigns team and activist base
- We are building links with Journalists and sympathetic parliamentarians, MEPs and LGA members. If you work for one of these individuals please PM me.
- If you are interested in helping in any way at all pm me or email me on no2policeviolence@googlemail.co.uk Please list any marketing, campaigns, activism, art/design or any other skills you can employ.