Ian Tomlinson lies on the ground in the City of London - photograph by Kris Sime

The man who died during the G20 demonstrations in the City of London had been pushed back minutes earlier by police officers, the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed yesterday.

Revealing that it was now managing the City of London police’s investigation into the death of Ian Tomlinson, the IPCC said he had been blocked from walking home from his job at a newsagent’s by a police cordon. Owen Bowcott and Paul Lewis, The Guardian.

At the G20 demonstrations the police used a tactic known as kettling, which is basically containing demonstrators and refusing to let them leave for hours – in the G20 case eight hours. There are many problems with kettling or containment and the death of Ian Tomlinson highlights one – he was not even involved in the demonstration.

The death is bad enough, but to compound matters the police openly lied, with the latest witness statements and photographs contradict the version of events put forward by police immediately after his death.

What is happening to democracy in our county, surely we’ve the right to protest? We should be thankful that people took photographs as photographing a police officer carries a 10-year-sentence under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 and if they hadn’t we’d only be left with the word of the police.

I’d like say when are we going to rid ourselves of this government: the trouble is the alternative will be worse – indeed what has happened to our democracy when photographing a police officer carries a 10-year-sentence?