Another G20 policeman in trouble as May Day looms

The ramifications of the policing of the G20 protest on April 1 continue to reverberate in London with the resignation of a Metropolitan Police officer who posted "inappropriate comments" on a website.

The officer was not named by acting Deputy Commissioner Tom Godwin when he made the announcement today. Nor was the precise nature of the officer's online offence.

But it follows the disciplining or temporary suspension of three other policemen as a result of their behaviour on or around April 1 - one for seeming to strike the newsvendor Ian Tomlinson, who died later the same day; another for striking a woman who was attending a vigil for Tomlinson on April 2; the third, a north London constable called Rob Ward, for using the social networking site Facebook to announce that he planned to use the excuse of the G20 protest to "bash some long-haired hippies".

In all, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has received more than 145 complaints in the aftermath of April 1 and the Met has clearly lost the trust of a good proportion of Londoners as a result.

Deputy Commissioner Godwin announced the mystery resignation while addressing a public meeting about the policing of the G20 protest alongside London mayor Boris Johnson.

Godwin sought to persuade his audience that bad behaviour was not endemic in the Met - "the vast majority of officers acted professionally and at times with great courage," he said - but his remarks were met with derision by the crowd, who also jeered when Johnson praised police for a "fantastic job".

‘It is a retrograde step... it is an infringement of civil liberties’

As well as individual officers being investigated, the policy of 'kettling' protestors - basically corralling them into a confined space and making them sweat it out for several hours - is also in question following April 1. Several MPs, human rights activists and even former police officers have

claimed that this style of containment denies peaceful protestors the right to demonstrate.

John O'Connor, a former Met officer, said: "They are using this more and more. Instead of sending snatch squads in to remove those in the crowd who are committing criminal offences, they contain everyone for hours. It is a retrograde step... it is an infringement of civil liberties."

Human rights observers are now on high alert for May Day protests planned in London tomorrow, Friday, May 1, and in Brighton on Bank Holiday Monday, May 4.

Demonstrators on May 1 are expected to gather at Clerkenwell Green at midday and then march to Trafalgar Square for a rally at 4.30pm. But there is also talk of a protest group known as the Space Hijackers planning to demonstrate outside the Bank of England - the scene of the attack on Ian Tomlinson - in protest at what they see as Britain's gradual slip into a "surveillance state".

Details of the Brighton gathering on May 4 are less clear. It is advertised by Smash EDO as a "street party against war and greed" but the timing and route of the demonstration and the anticipated numbers are not yet known.

As for tomorrow's march in London, the Met has issued a statement saying: "An appropriate policing operation will be in place." The trouble is, that's pretty much what they said on the eve of April 1.