the corner office

You can argue for and against why the policeman who pushed Ian Tomlinson should have been prosecuted or not, and even with all the facts at hand I suspect most opinions would still come down to the level of sympathy one normally has for the police.

As for the now-outraged 'family', though... according to Wikipedia:

At the time of his death, he was working casually as a vendor for the Evening Standard. Married twice with nine children, including stepchildren - five girls and four boys, aged 15 to 32 at the time of his death - he had a history of alcoholism, as a result of which he had been living apart from his second wife, Julia, for 13 years, and had experienced long periods of homelessness. He had been staying since October 2008 in the Lindsey Hotel, a shelter for the homeless...

Separated for 13 years, long periods of homelessness, living in a homeless shelter at the time of his death... oh how that close family bond has been ruptured! The tragedy of it!

If Ian Tomlinson had quietly curled up and died as a John Doe in an alleyway in central London, I wonder how long it would have taken for the caring family to even notice. If there weren't TV cameras and stories to sell to the tabloids, what would they all be saying now?