After last week's G20 centred shenanigans, the conduct of the police was not foremost in my mind. Perhaps needless to say, they didn't cover themselves in glory. But when do they? Of course their job is impossibly hard. The personal sacrifice is immense. Additionally, you'd have to be a fool not to acknowledge that the chaos that ensues at places like football grounds would increase tenfold were it not for the boys, and gyal dem, in blue. But like Nas once said, this is the life you chose. And if you can't stand the heat.

As the weekend approached I began to notice more and more that the police were becoming the main focus of some of the news stories and the more intelligent blogs. The letters sections in the various free London papers contained often alarmed accounts of the way the Met boxed people into pre-designated areas and the resulting difficulties. This included people defecating in the street 'cos they weren't allowed to leave the cordoned off sections to find a toilet. Damn. Think how desperate you have to be to resort to that kind of action.

Now, if you are a person of colour in the Western World, police brutality is, very sadly, a part of your life. Last Wednesday will not have been the first time you witnessed the police clobber someone for no good reason. This doesn't make me happy to say this. Far from it. But it's like that and that's the way it is.

However, for many of last week's protestors - many of whom were obviously white - this is the first time they will have had to deal with such an abuse of their human rights. For that is what it is people. It makes for an interesting, and very scary, state of affairs. Interesting, 'cos if a well to do, rich, protestor decides to take things up with the proper authorities the justice system will take them a lot more seriously than they will your average black or working class white person. A well to do person will also have more money to splash on lawyers. They will most likely receive more sympathy from the mainstream press should they choose to report it (because we know how selective they can be).

It's also very scary because if they are just beating anyone up regardless of race or social position who knows where that will lead to? As the saying goes, 'who protects us from you?'

Things are not as bad as they used to be. Anyone with relatives old enough to remember the days of the 'sus' laws will have heard some terrible horror stories. But while you don't hear of severe beatings as often as you used to, the harrasment is something you get used to very early in life. I used to get stopped by the police when I was 13 on my paper round. Yes, that's right. A young kid with a bright orange paper bag and they used to waste my time, and sometimes make me late for school, by asking foolish questions about burglaries in the area and me fitting the description. A few years ago, I only had one full seven day period without being stopped and searched for no good reason throughout the two months of September and October.

This is an often overlooked, or conveniently forgotten, aspect of the (many, many) factors that will convince young black kids that a life of crime is right for them. Olders can quite easily convince them that they're gonna get hassled by the law anyway. You might as well make some money while you're being hassled.

The silver lining is that the public in general will now be more aware of the realness. Back when I was a young teenager, people would balk at the idea that the police would ever abuse their powers. Even the Rodney King beating - which occurred when I was 14 - did little to change the minds of those who couldn't see the wood for the trees.

Stop the presses and hold your horses. All of the above was written before the video footage of 47 year old Ian Tomlinson was released to the media late last night. The footage speaks for itself. A very, very big thanks to the newspaper who released and publicised said footage. Bear in mind, Mr Tomlinson wasn't even a protestor, he was simply walking home from walk.
Prior to the release of the self explanatory footage it didn't seem like anything would be done. The issue had certainly not been a part of news bulletins or front page stories this week. Apparently an invesitgation was underway.

As is to be expected, CCTV footage was reviewed by those in charge of the investigation. The IPCC must have had CCTV footage of the same incident. Was anything going to be done about it? Who knows.

But now that it's so public it'll be intriguing to see how this one plays out. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has been forced to comment. But look what it takes. Someone with a family has to die in the street, and someone else has to capture it on camera, for there to be any hope of justice.
 

Photo: Patrick Cordwell