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UK officer probed after striking woman twice at G20
Admin - Jun 11, 09
http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/uk-officer-probed-after-striking-woman-twice-at-g20
June 11, 2009 (Raw Story) - A London police officer is under investigation following multiple complaints that he attacked protesters during the G20 financial summit earlier this year.
In a video captured by protester Tristan Woodwards and published by The Guardian in April, a police sergeant slaps a woman on the face with the back of his hand and then raps her on the legs with his baton. While no physical provocation is readily apparent in the footage, the woman did approach the officer in an aggressive manner. She was allegedly struck a third time, but the blow was not captured on Woodwards’ video.
The woman was later identified as Nicola Fisher, a 35-year-old climate protester from Brighton.
“It was like I’d been whipped by the Taliban,” she told The London Paper.
“This giant of a man just came at me. I put my hands up to stop him pushing against me and the next minute he had backhanded me across my left cheek. 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. Then he brought his truncheon crashing down on my calf.”
She told Sky News: “Almost straight away there was a big welt there and they lasted for over a week. The one at the top of my left leg was seven inches across and three inches down and the circumference of my leg at that place is 18 inches so it was nearly half my leg.
“It obviously was a case of assault and battery and if it hadn’t been a police officer then the person probably would be looking at possibly a jail sentence. I thought they were there to protect us and from my experience of that day they were there for a fight.”
The officer, who was not identified by name and had allegedly covered his badge number, was suspended in April. Following a complaint from another woman, he was placed under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), The Guardian reported Thursday.
“[A] journalist demanded the officer’s number after noting what he saw as the aggressive treatment of demonstrators around the same time,” the paper noted. “By the following day, when he was filmed striking Fisher, the sergeant’s badge number was concealed.”
The IPCC is also investigating the death of Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor who collapsed during the protests. Video was later released showing police attacking Tomlinson without provocation.
