Protesting the G20 summit

[luke]

Ian Tomlinson's family accuse police of cover-up over his death
Widow and son of 47-year-old newspaper seller who died after being hit by policeman at G20 protests speak of their anger and frustration

The family of Ian Tomlinson, who collapsed after being hit by an officer at the G20 protests in London, have accused the police of engaging in a cover-up to stop them finding out the truth.

In an interview with the Guardian, Tomlinson's widow, Julia, and son, Paul King, spoke for the first time about the anger, hurt and frustration they have felt in the months since his death.

They said they felt they had been pressured by the City of London police, Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) not to speak out, but could no longer keep quiet because of their concerns.

The family said police had prevented them from viewing Tomlinson's body for six days after his death.

Police initially tried to persuade them there was nothing suspicious about the death and gave them only an edited version of his first post-mortem exmaination.

Telling the family he had "died of a heart attack", police made no mention of significant injuries found on Tomlinson's body.

Family members now believe the injuries were caused by a police officer who struck him and pushed him to ground.

Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper seller, collapsed and died near the Bank of England at around 7.25pm on 1 April, moments after the attack by an officer in the Metropolitan police's Territorial Support Group (TSG).

The family said they could no longer keep silent when the IPCC announced this week that it had completed its investigation and handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Prosecutors are now deciding whether to bring charges against the officer, who was questioned by the IPCC on suspicion of manslaughter after the Guardian released video footage of the attack.

Julia Tomlinson criticised the IPCC failing to properly investigate her husband's death until after the video was broadcast – almost a week after his death.

"The IPCC should have been there from day one – definitely – not left it five days later," she said.

King added: "We've asked to see the evidence that [the IPCC] passed to the CPS. We're still waiting for it ... we haven't seen it.

"Everyone knows that there was a lot of cover-up in the beginning. The truth will come out in the end."

The family believe police misled them over Tomlinson's death from the outset.

"It was half past four in the morning – a knock at the door and Stephanie, the second youngest daughter, answered the door," Julia Tomlinson said.

"There were two police officers standing there and they asked to speak to Sam, my eldest daughter. I came down the stairs and they asked if I was Mrs Tomlinson, and I said yes.

"They said: 'Have you heard about the G20? I said: 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

"They said: 'If you'd like to sit down, then we'll explain to you. And they said: 'Your husband was caught up in the G20 riots, and he suddenly collapsed and died of a heart attack."

Police then refused to allow her to see his body in the Royal London Hospital, she added.

"Six days later, I wasn't allowed to go and see him," she said. "I didn't understand why they didn't want me to go and see him – if someone dies of a heart attack, you get to go and see him. But they weren't letting me."

They also disclosed that, when a post-mortem examination was completed three days after Tomlinson died, police gave them an edited version of the results.

The family were not told that a forensic pathologist had found large amounts of blood in his stomach, a suspected dog bite on his leg and a number of other injuries.

"Now we know that it wasn't a heart attack ... that he died of internal bleeding."

King said: "We've been confused by the City police, Metropolitan police, IPCC to not say anything: 'Don't say anything, because you'll jeopardise the case'.

"I think we've been so confused with all that – don't say this, don't say that, even down to don't talk to the media – they've made us quite scared to talk.

"The IPCC have finished their investigation, we haven't been able to talk, and we just want to let people know how we feel. We are grieving."

from http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/06/ian-tomlinson-family-accuse-police-of-cover-up

Video : Ian Tomlinson's family break silence over his death - Son and widow of 47-year-old newspaper seller who died after being struck by policeman at G20 protests in London give exclusive first interview following conclusion of IPCC investigation into his death

[Skylace]

Grumblings are beginning for the G20 summit happening here next month. It seems that some protesters wanted to use Point Park as a main base but can't due to The Great Race (which was scheduled a year ago) will be setting up shop there. Some of them are now asking to use North Park (which is the park I use). It's causing a bit of a concern due to it's location, the fact that it is the largest dog park in the area, the elementary school that is located there, the National Aviary, no facilities for anyone to camp out there and a few other things. Should be interesting to see how it pans out. One thing for sure though, the dogs won't be coming with me to the park if that many people are there. And I might not go as well, as I know that some protesters here will have guns.

[faceless]

Protesters will have guns? Where did you hear that?

The worst situations I've seen in America on this type of protest have been in Portland. And the worst there was some coordinated bin-burning.

[Skylace]

They will here. It has nothing to do with rumors. There will also be non-protesters with guns. It's just the area *shrugs* there was also an open statement on some pro-gun websites to make sure to have your firearms with you to protest certain recent court cases in Pennsylvania. You don't need a license to carry a gun here, unless it is conceal carry. There have been some cases lately surrounded by it, especially in Pittsburgh. Just because it's protesters it doesn't mean it will all be G20. Here they will use it to just get attention.
Believe me face, I'm not just getting rumors. I know the place where I live. And Portland and Pittsburgh are two very different places.

[luke]

i think it was on the daily show the other day, they was showing some footage from one of these town hall health care meetings with the protesters outside and one of them hand a gun strapped to his leg!

[Skylace]

[faceless]

The police in London have requested that Climate Camp organisers inform them of where their next protest will be - this video is their answer...

[Brown Sauce]

splendid !!

[Skylace]

The protesters here have officially been allowed to use Point Park for their first protest which will be the day before the G20 starts. Tent cities in the city parks have been denied. Quite a few protesters are upset about this but they should still have the option of setting camps in places like the Strip.
We should be going out to some of the protests if our schedules allow. Will be great to see.

[luke]

G-20 objectors promoting varied agendas
Protesters range from anarchists ( like skylace ) to some government leaders

The G-20, an assemblage of heads of state and central bankers meeting here next month, deals with abstract billions in capital in the hopes its policies will benefit flesh-and-blood billions of people.

They haven't heard of Don Shaffer.

But if any one of them has climbed a ladder, chances are they went up rungs first conceived in Greenville, Mercer County -- a scant 50 miles north of the meeting hall -- and affixed by Mr. Shaffer in his own climb up the economic ladder and the fall that made him one of the G-20 skeptics.

Werner was the world's largest ladder maker and a family-owned company when it hired Mr. Shaffer. Things went well enough that, with overtime and benefits, he was bringing in $40,000 a year -- a comfortable wage that put a blue collar man firmly into the middle class.

Then family members decided to cash out. The company was sold to a Bahrain-based investment bank. In due time, Mr. Shaffer and his co-workers were unpacking boxes for the new company's widened product line.

The boxes carried a stamped American flag, touting Werner's American heritage. When Mr. Shaffer looked on the underside, the world economy peeked back at him: Made in China.

Werner went through a few more incarnations. Today, it's headquartered in Greenville but makes its ladders at nonunion plants in Louisville, Ky., southern California and Juarez. Mexico.

Gone are the days of $17-an-hour workers. Werner won't say what its assembly workers make in the United States. In Juarez, estimates from locals figure the employees bring in $3 an hour.

Objections to the G-20 and its policies are best captured in that dash of capital across international borders, in search of cheap labor and wider profit margins.

"When we have creativity, we ship it elsewhere because it can be produced or made cheaper in another country," said state Sen. Jim Ferlo, one of a dozen or so prominent leaders who says he is both welcoming the G-20 and planning to take to the streets to protest its policies.

Groups objecting to the G-20 range from environmentalists who want to press governments to drastically curtail greenhouse gases to a range of anti-authoritarian anarchists who see the institution as undemocratic and the free-market theories it promotes as flawed beyond redemption.

"It's hopelessly undemocratic," says Noam Chomsky, a renowned linguist and a guiding light to much of the anti-authoritarian left.

Mr. Chomsky is among those who see the G-20 as a body that largely reflects concentrated private economic power and the small circle of people that possess that power.

"Too much of what they're putting forward are economic needs as defined by the multinational corporations," said Paul LeBlanc, a college professor who is heading up the Peoples Summit Project, a proposed series of meetings to counter the G-20 meeting here.

Complaints of closed doors and minimal democratic input aside, G-20s advocates are quick to point out that the 19 nations represented in the group are a far cry from the five nations that first met to deal with world economics during the crisis of the 1970s. And of those 19 heads of state, the majority are democratically elected leaders who must devise some kind of fix to current problems or risk seeing the world economy spiral into chaos.

"Not having a global steering committee means that the world's free market is the only governance mechanism. And that has already failed the people," said Colin Bradford, an expert on global finance and the G-20 based at The Brookings Institution in Washington.

In the middle of that debate, and largely unheard, are the Don Shaffers of the world, as well as his Mexican counterpart in Juarez, where capital crossed the border in a bid to expand wealth that critics say falls into the hands of a lucky few.

"It signifies that private capital acts exactly as we should expect it to," said Mr. Chomsky. "It seeks profit and power and is indifferent to the effects on others."

If Mr. Chomsky and his allies on the left are chary of G-20 policies, seeing them as answerable primarily to the economic elite and undemocratic in their execution, they have surprising company in their discomfort.

"We're going to see odd coalitions forming," said Kiron Skinner, professor of international relations at Carnegie Mellon University and research fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution.

Dr. Skinner foresees neo-Marxists making the same objections heard from Main Street Republicans about what she calls a "supranational" economic policy. She worries about the United States ceding aspects of its economic sovereignty to international agreements designed to stabilize an increasingly complex world economy in which a crisis in India can trigger a slump in other nations.

"I'm deeply concerned about whether those U.S. interests which I still believe include maintaining sovereignty over political and economic decision-making are going to be eroded by international institutions and forums like the G-20," said Dr. Skinner.

Mel Packer, a longtime figure on Pittsburgh's political left, puts it plainly:

"Capitalists have no flags."

Capitalists might or might not have flags, but some experts wonder if the world leaders who will be seated alongside their flags when G-20 meets here have any other option than to create a centralized economic agenda to prevent wild fluctuations in a global economy.

"Regulation is part of that. It's about making markets work and making sure that those who don't have any protections, that they have some kind of fallback mechanism," said Nita Rudra, a specialist on globalization at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Regulation of world markets -- a policy that could have colossal implications on the domestic policies of every G-20 nation -- is among the top items to be addressed in September's summit.

Dr. Rudra spoke from a conference in South America where fellow academics discussed the love-hate relationship of average citizens with global economies.

One, she said, noted a study of subjects who were shown different photographs. Shown a picture of consumer goods, they responded in favor of globalization. Shown photos of auto plants or agricultural fields, opinions swung to the negative.

A large measure of acceptance for global economic policies, she added, could hinge on old-fashioned domestic politics. In Scandinavian countries, she said, citizens are far more comfortable with the global economic policies that move capital and, with it, local jobs, into other places, all part of the "creative destruction" once explained by economist Joseph Schumpeter.

"They have a healthy social welfare system," she said. "Because we don't have the institutional mechanism in the U.S., you as an individual are going to have to deal with those short-term costs."

Al Hart, an official with the United Electrical Workers union, and one of those planning to take to the streets next month against the G-20, says those effects should at least reflect some input on the ground level.

"If sovereignty means sovereignty for democracy, that people should have a say in the policies of their government and shouldn't be trumped by bodies like the World Trade Organization or the International Monetary Fund then, yes, that is a problem," he said.

Access to power isn't simply a street-level protest, though.

While a yet-to-be determined number of protesters, ranging from environmentalist accountants to self-proclaimed anarchists, make plans to chant their demands outside the convention center, entire nations are trying to crash the hall, too.

Meet the G-5 Plus Egypt. It comprises Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Mexico. Egypt recently aligned with them.

Several of those countries are part of the G-20, but they're looking for access to an even more elite corps, the so-called G-8 nations, the economic mega-powers whose treaties and policies often trump the influence of the G-20.

Brazil, India and China, for instance, are considered emerging economic powerhouses and see themselves as shut out from key decisions.

That struggle could presage yet another round of protests -- not in the streets of Pittsburgh, say experts such as Dr. Skinner. Rather, expect meetings in places such as Brussels.

"We will see other countries having parallel meetings trying to find their way into the diplomatic room," she said. "It's becoming a broader process. It's getting much more difficult to keep countries out of the discussion."

from http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09235/992693-482.stm

[faceless]

[Skylace]

Well, it's almost here. I can tell you the tension is pretty tense, especially around the downtown area. With a good chunk of downtown being closed to all traffic I do know that getting to work on Thursday is going to be a bit more difficult than usual as so much of it will be rerouted to where I am at.
There have already been quite a few clashes in the courtroom between protesters and the local government. Since none of the protesters are actually allowed to demonstrate downtown (they left Frick and I believe Schenely Park for them, which is pointless)I honestly think it's all going to kick off near the North Side Park close to the National Aviary and the Strip.
Our regular police force is 900 and with extra help we are having about 4,000 on hand. About 100 prisoners have been released from jail early in anticipation of arrests during the protests.
I am going to try to get down to take pictures and video but it will depend on the work schedule. I will also have to try and go with a group of friends (as my husband will be out of town) because it will be mayhem and there is safety in numbers.
Should be interesting to see how all this goes.

[Skylace]

Empty tent cities are going up today at Point State Park.

[faceless]

are the tents for people coming to town or for when the government stormtroopers send them all for re-education?

[luke]

Pittsburgh beefs up security to greet G20 protesters

Pittsburgh is beefing up security with thousands of extra police, as anti-globalization, anti-war, anti-government and anti-poverty activists descend on it for the G20 summit.

Protesters say they plan to air their opposition to "the undemocratic way in which the G20 operates and the decisions the group makes, which affect the more than six billion inhabitants of this planet."

World leaders gather in this once rough-and-tumble US steel town on Thursday and Friday, and while most of the protests are expected to be peaceful, 29-year-old mayor Luke Ravenstahl is taking no chances.

He wants Pittsburgh to show off its new clothes. Once known for smog and smelters, the southwest Pennsylvania city on the Ohio river has undergone a rebirth to emerge as a haven for green business and young professionals.

The fear in the minds of residents, officials and security forces is that violent demonstrations such as those seen in 1999 in Seattle -- where protesters and riot police faced off for days, disrupting a meeting of the World Trade Organization -- will mar this week's G20 summit.

"I hope they'll keep the protesters under control so Seattle doesn't repeat itself," said resident Nancy Provil.

Ravenstahl has said protesters will be allowed to exercise their constitutional freedom of speech and assembly "within sight and sound" of the summit venue.

It turns out this will be in a strictly delineated area outside of the downtown cultural area where the likes of US President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao will be sitting down with other world leaders.

Ravenstahl has also called in 4,000 highly trained federal police officers to back up local security forces during the summit.

"We know that there will be some individuals who will seek to do harm to our city," said Pittsburgh director of public safety Michael Huss.

The bill for ensuring security during the summit is expected to be in the region of 18 million dollars, but the two-day meeting of the world's top developing and developed nations is likely to bring more than that into the city's coffers.

While the authorities were busy gearing up for the summit, the protesters were, too.

The Pittsburgh Organizing Group held a "Mass Action 101" workshop for students last week, and will conduct a similar training session on Sunday.

"It's less about advocating doing one thing or another and more of 'how-to' participate in a mobilization," Patrick Young of POG, an anarchist group, told AFP.

"These are questions you want to ask yourself about what you want to participate in and where you want to put yourself and what kind of preparations you want to make before coming to a major demonstration."

Activist groups around Pittsburgh have been trying to organize housing for the thousands of demonstrators from around the world who are expected to stream into the city for the summit.

The Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project (PGRP) has created accounts on the micro-blogging platform Twitter and a website where activists can find information on everything from where to get a meal to how many people have been arrested.

At least four major marches and rallies have been scheduled in Pittsburgh in the build-up to and during the summit. The first is a "March for Jobs" on Sunday, which is expected to draw several thousand people.

On the eve of the summit on Wednesday, workers and environmentalist movements will be holding a concert, which 10,000 people are expected to attend, according to Young.

The following day around 1,000 people are expected to march towards the summit venue in a protest organized by the Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project (PGRP).

"They have not applied for a permit, nor have they pre-emptively been offered one," said Young.

And on Friday, as the summit winds down, protesters have been called to take part in the main event: a mass march on "institutions that pepper the landscape where the G-20's worldview manifests... the places that symbolize the kind of world the G-20 works to protect and sustain," according to the PGRP website.

"It's important that we show the world that the G7 is a body that is self-appointed," said Edith Bell, a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom who, at the age of 85, hardly fits the stereotype of anti-G20 activist. The G20 comprises the G7, plus the European Union and other leading world economies.