Nicola Fisher, 35, and her injury POLICE DID THIS TO ME Friday April 17,2009
By John Chapman
express.co.uk
THE woman protester struck by a baton-wielding policeman at the G20 demonstrations said yesterday she was attacked "by a coward and a bully boy". Elfin-faced Nicola Fisher said her injuries made her look like a victim of the Taliban. She said: "I was weeping and in the most dreadful pain. I looked like I had been whipped by the Taliban. I had a bruise measuring seven inches by four across the back of my thigh. And I had another purple four-inch bruise across the back of my calf."
Miss Fisher, 35, was last night lodging a formal complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission. She said: "This policeman is a thug with a weapon which he is legally allowed to use. He can do what he wants. It is as if he got his kicks out of hurting a woman. There were a lot of men around me but I was singled out for this awful treatment. I am glad he has been identified. I donıt want him to lose his job. He might have a family. But he needs to be punished."
Footage of the attack appeared on YouTube and soon after was viewed by millions of television viewers, prompting Scotland Yard chiefs to suspend a sergeant and order an inquiry into police tactics. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has admitted that video footage of the incident was "clearly disturbing". He was also angered that officers were not wearing their identification numbers at the time a clear breach of official guidelines. Demonstrators gathered outside Scotland Yard last night to protest about the way police handled the situation.
Softly-spoken Ms Fisher who describes herself as "a tree hugger" with a passion for animal welfare and the environment said she had travelled to London from her Brighton home on the second day of protest and was expecting a carnival atmosphere. Accompanied by her boyfriend Gavin Shepherd, 30, she first visited the ExCel Centre in Londonıs Docklands district where world leaders had gathered. Hearing that climate campaigners were congregating in the City to keep a vigil for Ian Tomlinson who had died during the protest 24 hours earlier the pair then made the short journey to the Bank of England.
Recalling the events of April 2, grammar school-educated Ms Fisher, who was brought up in Buckinghamshire, said: "We went to the ExCel Centre but they werenıt protesting about anything we know about. My interests are animals and climate change. We spoke to some protesters who said there was a vigil for the man who had died the day before. This was being held by the climate change protesters. We thought it would be a carnival atmosphere and we wanted to pay our respects. We jumped on a train and got to the Bank of England in the City. It was cordoned off and police said if we entered it, we would be stuck there for ages.
"The two of us stayed in a street overlooking the scene and we thought we would be quite safe. It was very calm but the police started getting heavy-handed. They formed a line and started pushing us away up the street. I could hardly move because there were people behind me. One very large policeman who was a giant of a man just came at me. I put my hands up to stop him pushing against me and the next minute I thought he had punched me in the face. But in fact he had backhanded me across my left cheek.
"It was very painful and I screamed 'How can you hit a woman in the face?'. I admit I was angry but I certainly wasnıt hurling abuse at the police. I was in shock at being attacked. The policeman was very aggressive. His eyes were bulging and he was clearly looking for a fight. The next moment he lashed out at me with his baton, hitting me across the back of my left thigh. The pain was excruciating and lifted me off my feet. At the same time he again brought his truncheon crashing down on my calf.
"Other protesters saw the incident clearly and were shouting 'shame on you'.I felt my legs buckle. The cop was a thug out for blood. He was a thug with a weapon. For all he knew, I was a child. After all, I am only 5ft tall and even now, at 35, I am often asked for ID when I buy cigarettes. "
"The incident sparked an outcry of anger, all started by the actions of this bully boy. I couldnıt believe he was so violent. There had been no violence, no scuffles. I was not taunting him. I only responded angrily to being struck in the face. People were asking me if I was OK. His blows had knocked the glasses off my face and I also dropped my camera. I felt as if I had been whipped by the Taliban. I was very tearful and in dreadful pain. I thought I was bleeding.
"The officer had his badge number covered up. That says to me that he intended to do something illegal that day. I am sure no one would have believed me unless that YouTube footage emerged. I would say to this policeman: 'You are a coward and a bully. You have not got any place on the police force. Why would you hit a woman? His colleagues must have seen what happened. They probably got him out of there very quickly."
Fearing that she and her partner of seven years would be severely hurt, Ms Fisher then retreated to safety. She said: "I thought I was bleeding and went to the side of the road. I pulled down my trousers to take a look. I was wearing girl boxer shorts. A police officer came over and said 'if you don't pull your trousers up I will do you for indecent exposure'. They knew who I was, and what had just happened but they didn't care. I asked them who he was and his badge number. But they refused to give it to me."
Ms Fisher, unemployed and living in a basement flat in Brighton, said she went to St Bartıs Hospital because she was in so much pain. They checked her over and gave her painkillers. The couple took a late train back to Brighton and the next day the bruises looked even worse. The bruise on her thigh measured seven inches by four. The other one on her calf measured four inches by two.
She said: "Everyone I have spoken to is outraged when they see my injuries. My solicitor described them as 'horrific'. I now have problems sleeping. I dream about being beaten and wake up in a cold sweat. I am getting panic attacks and have a fear of policemen. If I see a policeman in the street I have to cross to the other side. There are a lot of good officers out there but a few thugs are spoiling their image. Police are trying to pass the blame. They created the tension that day. All they had to do was be there and react if they saw any violence. But they didn't. They started the chain of events."
Mr Shepherd said: "I was appalled. How could they strike such a little woman? She looks young and defenceless and it was a terrible thing to witness."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has received 145 complaints following the clashes between police and protesters at the G20 summit. They include 70 claims of excessive force by alleged victims or witnesses to brutality. Forty concern police tactics during the protests, including the crowd control technique to corral large groups known as 'kettling'.
Government inspectors have been brought in over the two alleged assaults by police. The first concerns newspaper vendor Mr Tomlinson, who suffered a fatal heart attack on April 1 minutes after coming in contact with a police officer who was seen shoving the 47-year-old to the ground in video footage. The second incident concerns Ms Fisher's ordeal the following day. Two officers from the Metropolitan Police territorial support group have been suspended in connection with the incidents and the IPCC is scouring hundreds
of hours of film footage to investigate the police action.
The IPCC said that a further 40 complaints would not be investigated because they did not qualify under the Police Reform Act. Many of these were made by people who saw footage of the protests on television. On Wednesday, Mr Stephenson asked Her Majestyıs Chief Inspector of Constabulary to review policing tactics.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee which is due to question Denis OıConnor, Her Majestyıs Chief Inspector of Constabulary next week on how the 'police are policed', said the video of Ms Fisherıs beating raised 'enormous concern'. A Scotland Yard spokesman last night refused to comment on complaints submitted to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Miss Fisher admitted she fell into a bad ways during her teenage years and said the break-up of her parents' marriage was 'traumatic' for her. Ms Fisher said she went to Brighton in her late teens where she was befriended by other youngsters experimenting with drugs. She said: "I have had a problem with drugs and smoked heroin and cannabis. It has made life difficult for me. I have two convictions for shoplifting and have also received cautions for drugs possession."
But she insists she is now drug-free and deserves to be treated by the authorities as a law-abiding citizen. She said: "I decided to go to London a couple of weeks ago because I thought it would be fun and have a Glastonbury atmosphere. How wrong I was."
Police beat another G20 protester New evidence in violence against demonstrators
At 4.50mins in to this clip an officer is clearly seen smacking a protestor across the head with his shield. At 7.49mins in an officer punches a protestor in the face.
GRAPHIC new video evidence showing a policeman hitting a protester with a shield during the G20 demonstrations in London is being released by The Sunday Times today.
Lawyers have included this and another film of a policeman punching a man as part of a dossier alleging 10 serious assaults. It will be passed to MPs.
Footage filmed at the Climate Camp protest on April 1 shows an officer in riot gear punching a man hard in the face as a crowd retreats from a police line.
A second video shows Alex Kinnane, 24, an IT technician from London, being hit on the back of the head with a shield by an officer in riot gear. In both cases the victims appear to pose no threat to the officer.
The evidence has emerged after a second postmortem examination on the body of Ian Tomlinson, 47, found he died of abdominal bleeding rather than a heart attack after being hit by a police officer.
"the police officer suspended over a video showing him beating a female protester at the demonstrations was already the subject of a complaint for an alleged similar attack on a woman the day before."
This story just gets worse and worse - for that fucking bully. I hope that he is battered to within an inch of his life or perhaps becomes victim of a road 'accident' leaving him paralysed, or something else equally fitting.
Of course, his immediate boss must have known about the complaint yet still sent him out to do more. Some weasly little inspector will be shitting himself now - but you'd never know, because they all smell the same. All of them are scum and should be treated as such.
Some might say that it's wrong to tar them all with the same brush, but that's exactly what these cunts did, and if that's how they think justice should be served then it's only fair they are treated the same.
G20 police 'used undercover men to incite crowds' MP demands inquiry into Met tactics at demo
An MP who was involved in last month's G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.
Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.
Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.
Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament's joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.
"When I was in the middle of the crowd, two people came over to me and said, 'There are people over there who we believe are policemen and who have been encouraging the crowd to throw things at the police,'" Brake said. But when the crowd became suspicious of the men and accused them of being police officers, the pair approached the police line and passed through after showing some form of identification.
Brake has produced a draft report of his experiences for the human rights committee, having received written statements from people in the crowd. These include Tony Amos, a photographer who was standing with protesters in the Royal Exchange between 5pm and 6pm. "He [one of the alleged officers] was egging protesters on. It was very noticeable," Amos said. "Then suddenly a protester seemed to identify him as a policeman and turned on him. He legged it towards the police line, flashed some ID and they just let him through, no questions asked."
Amos added: "He was pretty much inciting the crowd. He could not be called an observer. I don't believe in conspiracy theories but this really struck me. Hopefully, a review of video evidence will clear this up."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has received 256 complaints relating to the G20 protests. Of these, 121 have been made about the use of force by police officers, while 75 relate to police tactics. The IPCC said it had no record of complaints involving the use of police agents provocateurs. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We would never deploy officers in this way or condone such behaviour."
The use of plain-clothes officers in crowd situations is considered a vital tactic for gathering evidence. It has been used effectively to combat football hooliganism in the UK and was employed during the May Day protests in 2001.
Brake said he intends to raise the allegations with the Met's commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, when he next appears before the home affairs select committee. "There is a logic having plain-clothes officers in the crowd, but no logic if the officers are actively encouraging violence, which would be a source of great concern," Brake said.
The MP said that given only a few people were allowed out of the corralled crowd for the five hours he was held inside it, there should be no problem in investigating the allegation by examining video footage.
that's some going - hopefully there's video of the worms that will be published. After the carry-on with the protests being undermined by police agitators in Canada last year you'd think they'd have tried to be less obvious.
Then again, they are just thick, violent, unlawful, cops.
Third of Met riot officers investigated in last year 547 separate allegations have been made against territorial support group officers
A third of the Metropolitan police's unit of specially trained riot officers have been investigated for alleged misconduct over the last year, according to figures .
More than 280 officers at the Met's territorial support group (TSG) had complaints made against them by members of the public prior to the controversial policing operation of last month's G20 protests.
Scotland Yard said there were 547 separate allegations against TSG officers, of which 29% related to serious and sexual assault. None of the complaints, which were investigated by the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards and the Independent Police Complaints Commission, have so far been upheld.
The figure will add to mounting concern over the conduct of the Met's 730 TSG officers, a unit who operate in mobile squads in some of the force's most challenging operations. TSG officers combat serious public disorder, carry out anti-terror arrests and police public order events such as a large demonstrations.
Two TSG officers were suspended for alleged assaults at the G20 demonstrations and one has been questioned on suspicion of the manslaughter of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson. The second, a sergeant, was suspended after footage showed him striking protester Nicola Fisher.
Yesterday's figures showed that more than 130 complaints are still under investigation.
These are people that can hardly feed and clothe themselves when we have a huge welfare state where the rest of us all have to work a bit longer to earn the tax to help them out because of their inadequacies.
It's ironic they would be the first against the wall if their revolution ever came.
The cop that hit that woman is an arsehole but at least when we pay for him there is a chance that he may do something vaguely useful occasionally like traffic duty or rescuing a cat out a tree or something.
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I think my sign will read "Chevrolet Movie Theatre's For All!"