Escaping Justice
The acquittal of Simon Harwood - the police officer accused of the manslaughter of Ian Tomlinson (a Big Issue seller) at the G20 protests in London in 2009 - aroused lots of comment in the press over the weekend.
Many people were rightly astonished that Simon Harwood was a serving police officer - in the first place.
Because the man has an extensive disciplinary record which included taking early medical retirement in 2001 - after being accused of a 'road rage' assault on another driver with whom he he had a minor traffic collision while off duty.
Simon Harwood picked up a job as a police civilian almost immediately after his retirement on medical grounds - before returning to front line duty a few years later with the Surrey Police.
Now all of this is a crazy as it sounds - but the rules which govern police discipline are as old as the hills and completely discredited - by any modern standards at least.
For example, Simon Harwood will have been suspended on full pay since 2009 - and no internal disciplinary action will have been taken against the police officer - until the recent criminal proceedings were concluded.
Now we will find more months, perhaps even years of internal disciplinary action - with the officer still suspended on full pay - before justice, of a kind, is finally done.
But these internal rules are the result of cosy relations between the Police Federation (the police trade union) and the police employers - which deserve to be well and truly shaken up and brought into the modern era.
A court has decided that Simon Harwood was not guilty of the manslaughter of Ian Tomlinson - a decision which is likely to have turned on the higher standard of proof required to convict someone in a criminal court - i.e. 'beyond reasonable doubt'.
But the sight of a police officer violently attacking an elderly man - who was walking away from police lines at the time of the assault - is a clear sign that Simon Harwood should never have been recruited to the force in the first place.
Arguably Simon Harwood escaped justice earlier in his career in 2001 - but having made fools of us all once he certainly should never have been allowed to return to attack Ian Tomlinson - who was completely innocent of any crime, of course.
I wonder what the Police Federation will have to say - but I doubt it will have the courage or leadership required to do the right thing.
