Sergeant Delroy Smellie of the territorial support group, Metropolitan police, is to be charged with assault for striking Nicola Fisher during the G20 protests in London on 2 April.
A video posted on YouTube shows Smellie hitting the activist in the face with his gloved hand, and on the leg with a baton.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has received 282 complaints against the police relating to the G20 protests; 135 concerned the use of force.
Overall complaints against police officers in England and Wales hit a record 31,259 in the financial year 2008-9. 46 police officers were found to have committed perjury, 11 committed “corrupt practice” and six were guilty of sexual assaults.
In Lincolnshire, police are investigating the theft of £1,700 from an unlocked cupboard… in the force’s headquarters in Nettleham, between July and September 2008. Everyone in the building is still a potential suspect.
Back in London, the Met has confirmed that it holds on a computer database at least 1,500 photographs of protesters on a computer database, many of whom have not been convicted of a crime. Scotland Yard told the Financial Times on 17 October that the photos were a mix of people found guilty of offences and those who, “according to intelligence”, help organise or manage “the commission of criminal offences in a public order environment”.
The Met also told the FT that it had cut the photo database by 40% after it was forced by the court of appeal to delete images of Andrew Wood, an anti-arms trade campaigner. (See PN 2510.)
Armed police officers have been on routine foot patrol on British streets for the first time. Armed with Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine guns and Glock semi-automatic pistols, the special armed unit has patrolled on foot, motorcycle and in cars in gun crime hot spots since June.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Black Police Association is continuing its boycott of the force, after condemning as too weak the interim findings of an inquiry into race and faith issues in the Met.
The association will continue to urge black and Asian people not to join the Met because it is too likely to “persecute” them for their race or faith.
A Sikh police officer was awarded £10,000 damages on 2 October after being ordered to remove his turban to carry out riot training with the Greater Manchester police.
Topics: Police