The death of Ian Tomlinson: Guardian release video

The Guardian tomorrow publishes an investigation into the death of Ian Tomlinson, the 47-year old newspaper seller who died on April 1st when heading home past the G20 protests.

The newspaper has tonight released remarkable video footage showing a police officer assaulting Tomlinson from behind and knocking him to the floor, just before he died. The video can be seen here, along with frame by frame analysis.

The video forms part of a dossier of evidence which is being submitted to the police complaints watchdog, which is investigating the death.

Duncan Campbell writes about the dossier here. As he suggests, this will raise many questions about Tomlinson's death, and the policing in London on April 1st more generally. It also seems probable that this will become a watershed moment in capturing the consequences of recent shifts in the changing media landscape for public accountability.

Only a week ago, Times Comment Editor Daniel Finkelstein wondered if the presence of four LibDem parliamentarians as legal observers at the climate camp protest the same day was Nick Clegg's idea of an April Fool's joke, condemning it as "an extraordinary insult to the police, [which] it misjudges the public mood about the protests". That was strongly challenged by LibDemVoice.

Finkelstein's comments did reflect the endurance of an instinctive trust in the police which may well be shaken by this case.

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