On Friday 13 August, 500 days will have passed since the death of Ian Tomlinson during last year’s G20 protests in London and yet the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer has still failed to announce a decision about whether to bring charges against police officers involved in his death.
This continued and unacceptable delay has left the Tomlinson family in a legal limbo, worried that speaking out and demanding answers may be used to blame them for jeopardising the prospects of a fair trial. Whilst other aspects of the protests around the Bank of England and at Bishopsgate on 1 April 2009 have been the subject of reports, investigations and pledges to change the way that public order situations are policed, the DPP’s failure to make a decision also means that Ian Tomlinson’s death appears to have been all but forgotten about.
So on 13 August, I’d really like you to take action. There are a number of things you can do:
If you are a blogger or journalist – please write about Ian’s death, about how his family are still awaiting justice and about how 500 days is far too long for the DPP to sit on a decision to prosecute or not. You can find background information about the case at:
www.iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk
And feel free to use the badge on the right – you can download it from here.
If you use Twitter – let’s see if we can make sure that both #iantomlinson and #500days are trending, leading up to 13 August and on the day itself.
Please send letters to the press demanding that Starmer stops stalling:
The Guardian letters@guardian.co.uk
The Independent letters@independent.co.uk
The Times letters@the-times.co.uk
The Daily Telegraph dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
The Observer letters@observer.co.uk (subject field of email should say “Letter to the Editor”)
Daily Mail letters@dailymail.co.uk
Mail On Sunday letters@mailonsunday.co.uk
Daily Express express.letters@express.co.uk
Financial Times letters.editor@ft.com
The Sun letters@the-sun.co.uk
The Mirror mailbox@mirror.co.uk
News of the World your.letters@news-of-the-world.co.uk
The Morning Star lettersed@macunlimited.net
Send messages of protest to the Crown Prosecution Service on 13 August via its online feedback form
