Heavy handed policing is never a thing of the past

In response to a forum thread concerning the manslaughter of news-seller Ian Tomlinson by a police officer on the channel 4 website, I posted the following regarding an incident when I was beaten up in police cells back in 2005:

I for one hope that these latest incidents provide the impetus for a truly independent, less biased, open I.P.C.C. With a view to exposing and uncovering hundreds of similar cases where police officers abuse their position and assault and mistreat members of the public. I was a teacher for a while until I had a nervous breakdown and developed full blown symptoms of Bi-Polar disorder, back in 2000. In 2005 I was arrested after I had been drinking heavily and got into an argument with an ex-friend, outside their house. The police were called and I was taken to the local station and put into a cell. For some reason my shoes and clothes had been removed and I had been given a set of green forensic clothing. After a time of being in the cell, I decided I would attempt to hang myself and tied a leg of the trousers around my neck. I remember looking around the cell for somewhere to attach the other leg, when the cell door burst open and an officer (I recognised him as the desk sergeant) rushed in drawing his ASP and stood in the right-hand corner, away from the door, and began hitting out at me. I was not very happy at this attack so I began swearing at him and I also nearly managed to grab the Asp from his hand. At one point I remember that the blows were not hurting me, so I began to laugh at him. It was at this point when two other officers stormed in, one each side of me, grabbing both my arms and pinning them to my side. Within a moment, another officer entered the cell and punched me full in the face with his right fist. I was then pushed to the floor with my face down. One officer stamped on my feet and then knelt on my legs whilst the other two forced my arms behind my back. They removed the blankets and remaining clothing and left the cell, leaving me in a considerably bloody state. In fact there was enough blood coming from my mouth that I was able to write the words PIGS in 4FT high letters on the cell walls. After an hour or so they sent in a police photographer to take pictures of my wounds, along with pictures of the bloody writing. They told me that they would be charging me with criminal damage of the cell for the graffiti. I was then left all night without clothing or blankets and had to try and keep myself warm under the thin mattress. In the morning my foot had swollen so much, that I was unable to put my right shoe on. On my release I informed the police I would be making a complaint against the officer who punched me, as I believed that it constituted excessive force and was totally unwarranted action. A few days later I was visited by the station inspector who offered me a deal to drop the charges against the officer in exchange for the police dropping a charge of assault against me on another officer which they claimed happened during the course of the evening. The inspector told me that I my leg had struck an officer in the stomach as I was taken to the floor, causing him some pain. She also said that the aforementioned officer would be prepared to drop the charges against me, if I dropped the charges against his colleague. I refused to comply with this request and subsequently went to a solicitor to help me file my complaint. From the start the solicitor was highly sceptical about the success of my complaint, but agreed to pursue it. At this time I also found out that the charges for criminal damage had been dropped. I speculate that this was because of the means by which I was able to write the word PIGS - my blood and its potentiality to substantiate my claims of unfair treatment. The upshot of the whole saga was that, after six months of due process, the I.P.C.C. found the officer not guilty and I was convicted of a section 5 public order offence and assault against a police officer. I have a facial scar (on my lip) which I have to mind when I am shaving, that I don't reopen it. During the course of our consultation my solicitor had told me of several other cases, which seemed more extreme than my own, whereby the charges had been dropped and the offending officer had been reinstated and allowed to continue working. If only there had been some independent photographic evidence at the time of the assault against me. Maybe I would not now have to explain the reasons for my conviction for assaulting police to every organisation I work for? Yeah, the police do a good job in some respects - I class them as a necessary evil now. But I certainly think it is time for this type of police brutality to come to an end. At a time when civil rights are being constantly eroded, I think it is poetic justice that us filming them has shown the police in a more realistic light. I only wish it had not taken yet another innocent (Just like Jean-Charles de Menezes) to bring these issues to bear.