We have heard how the officer – who had been expected to remain stationed by his van – strayed from his post after grappling with a protester he tried to arrest for spraying graffiti on a colleague's vehicle. He then swung a coat at another protester, pulled a BBC cameraman to the ground, used a palm strike against a man trying to get through a cordon and finally pushed a man he said was threatening a dog handler. Harwood said he was confused, isolated and fearful of his life, and was dealing with a "very hostile" crowd. When we resume in the next few minutes, we should hear finally about his encounter with Tomlinson.Liveblogging the Ian Tomlinson inquest: Police Constable Simon Harwood explains his alleged attack on Ian Tomlinson
Questioned by the assistant deputy coroner, Judge Peter Thornton QC, Harwood has accepted that the account of events he put in his notebook two weeks after the protests was incorrect.posted by orthogonality at 2:31 PM on April 5, 2011 [10 favorites]
These relate to Harwood's explanation of the aftermath of his attempt to arrest a protester for daubing graffiti, when he said he came under attack from hundreds of protesters and was in fear for his life. Video cast doubt over that, and Thornton specifically went through the list.
Harwood: At the time I wrote this, I thought I fell to the floor.
Thornton: Do you now accept that this is not correct?
Harwood: Yes
Thornton: That you lost your baton – that is not correct?
Harwood: Yes
Thornton: That you received a blow to the head – that is not correct?
Harwood: Yes
Thornton: And that there were violent and dangerous confrontations – that is not correct?
Harwood: Yes.
Thornton: And you were struck by a missile – that is not correct?
Harwood: Yes.
12.15pm: Harwood is now being asked to go over all that again. He said that, in the seconds before he struck Tomlinson, he saw another officer push him in the back. "He seemed to remain defiant," he said. "He didn't seem to be moving away."Really, it's worth reading the entire live blog.
He then saw at least one dog near Tomlinson. He believed he saw the dog bite Tomlinson in the area of his ankle, he said. "He [Tomlinson] didn't seem to make any adjustment to his direction or speed," he added. "He seemed to remain where he was."
10.25am: The jury is being shown footage of this moment. In the days after Tomlinson's death, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) claimed there was limited CCTV in the area. It was one of the explanations given for not opening a full investigation into Tomlinson's death for almost a week.posted by zamboni at 2:41 PM on April 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
But this inquest is suggesting the opposite: almost every relevant moment has been captured, albeit much of it on cameras and mobile phones held by bystanders and handed to the Guardian or uploaded on to YouTube.
Keeping the peace.posted by ericb at 3:14 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
No realistic prospect of conviction.
3.45pm: Testimony is now focusing on the moment, earlier in the evening, when Harwood was based with fellow van drivers stationed around their vehicles.posted by Jehan at 3:29 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you recall, Harwood had been expected to remain by his carrier on the evening Tomlinson died.
He conceded that he was bored at some points. He joined his colleague PC Hayes in his vehicle. Harwood's evidence is that he then could not get to his carrier because the crowd became too dense. He then spotted a male protester daubing graffiti on a van.
It has been pointed out that it was not too crowded for him to try to arrest the suspect, but "too dense" to travel just over two metres further to get to his van.
3.55pm: The man doing the graffiti was just a few metres from a crowd which, according to Harwood's notebook, had been acting very violently toward a police cordon.
The jury has been shown footage of the carrier Harwood said it had been too difficult to get to. Ryder points out that it was surrounded by other police officers.
The jury is also shown footage of the crowd at the time Harwood said they had been throwing missiles. There were no missiles being thrown in the footage.
Ryder has repeatedly asked Harwood about his claim to have been under serious attack by protesters, in fear for his life and unable to return to his carrier after trying to arrest the suspect.Fact is definitely a two-edged sword on this one.
He mentioned that Harwood's colleague, PC Hayes, was able to return to the van.
Ryder asked repeatedly: "Is that the truth, PC Harwood. Are you telling the truth?" Harwood said it was.
The counsel then asked the jury to be shown new footage. The CCTV footage shows that Harwood is surrounded by a number of other officers, and turns his back to the approaching protesters.
"Whatever. So, I'm out there relieving my bladder, and maybe three or four people can see or take note of what I'm doing. It's New York, so most of those people will be busy, in a hurry, or in a bad mood. Also, since it's New York, they will have seen things a million times worse. Do you remember when you used the bathroom in the subway?"posted by hippybear at 4:07 PM on April 5, 2011
I shuddered and nodded. I remembered. I can never forget.
"Well, that means it's statistically non-existent. No one saw it, no one recorded it in their brain, and no one will care, even ten seconds from now. It didn't happen."
"That's not true, is it?"
"Yep. You are just something in the air here, like a random pigeon flying by, and as long as you don't take a dump on someone's sport jacket, you just disappear. That's one of the great things about New York, don't you think?"
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Does this vicious bastard not realise that we have eyes to watch YouTube videos? Fuck the Met.
posted by Decani at 2:28 PM on April 5, 2011 [6 favorites]