A flood of disturbing reports of police violence is emerging in the aftermath of London's G20 protests, with at least two confirmed deaths and nearly 150 official complaints made about police behaviour during two days of protests.

The video below shows an unprovoked attack on Ian Tomlinson, who later died of internal bleeding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ

The initial reports which stated that Tomlinson died of a heart attack were revised after a post mortem examination showed internal bleeding. As you can see from the video, he has his hands in his pockets and is walking away from the police as he is struck with a baton and then pushed from behind. A policeman has been interviewed under caution on suspicion of the manslaughter.

According to an AFP report today the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the death of another man, although there are no details at this point.

In another video, 24-year-old IT worker Alex Cinnane is shown being forcibly hit in the left temple with a round shield by a policeman wearing a balaclava and a visor.

In yet another incident, a woman was filmed being struck by a police sergeant. Video footage shows an officer hitting Nicola Fisher, 35, from Brighton, across the face with his hand and on her leg with a baton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwjL6ARBGRE

These are all cases where the police have acted in an unprovoked manner, using extreme force against unarmed protestors. In the case of Mr. Tomlinson this led to his death. This is happening in the heart of the modern "free world". I hope that we all realise that this is not excusable, and it demands reform, not just prosecution of the perpetrators.

There is a culture of brutality and total disregard for humanity which is becoming normalised in our western "democracies". The same underlying culture with incidents of extreme violence could be seen in Sydney during the APEC protests in 2007.

This is now a global phenomenon which must be resisted if we are not to fall into even deeper tyranny.