Policing at the G20

[mirrorshard]

As you've probably seen by now, the policing tactics used against protesters in London on April 1st were appalling. libellum has an impressively detailed roundup here.

I've written to my London Assembly Members -

Dear (people),

I'm writing to ask you to look into the police tactics used in response
to the G20 protests, and in particular at the Climate Camp.

As the collection of eyewitness accounts at
http://g20police.wordpress.com/ shows, police baton charged a peaceful,
unarmed prayer meeting and aggressively destroyed private property
rather than allowing protesters to depart peacefully when they
attempted to do so.

The tactic of kettling, and the ensuing aggressive attacks, are very
much counterproductive - besides completely failing to promote or
maintain public order, they drastically erode public trust and
confidence in the police.

Yours sincerely,
Me.


Here are the responses I got, from the Lib Dem Members -

Dear Sam,

Thank you for your email via the writetothem.com website about last
week's G20 demonstrations. I am responding on behalf of my colleagues
Mike Tuffrey and Caroline Pidgeon as spokesperson for policing issues
for the Liberal Democrat Group at City Hall.

I share your concerns and have written to the Commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, and I will write to you again
when I have received his response.

The Liberal Democrats on the Metropolitan Police Authority will also be
raising this issue at the next Full Authority meeting.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us.

Yours sincerely,

Dee Doocey AM
Chair, Economic Development, Culture Sport & Tourism
Greater London Authority
Member of the Metropolitan Police Authority

- and from the Labour group.

Dear Mr Kelly

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns over the policing of the G20 protests in London. Yours is one of a number of communications I have received criticising the methods adopted by the police.

I have appended a copy of the press release issued today by the London Assembly Labour Group, in connection with the tragic death of Ian Tomlinson. It calls for “a full and open debate on the legitimacy and appropriateness of tactics used on the day” and states that the police “have a duty to explain and justify their actions”.

It also calls for a full report to be presented to the Metropolitan Police Authority, where our representatives will ensure that the police are held to account.

Kind regards

Murad Qureshi AM

London Assembly Labour Group

Statement on the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Ian Tomlinson

A spokesman for the Labour group on the London Assembly said: "To maintain confidence in the police, and for the sake of Mr Tomlinson’s family, the IPCC investigation into the events surrounding the death of an apparently wholly innocent man should be carried out thoroughly and swiftly.

"If the public is to have confidence in the ability of the police to manage protests in a safe and appropriate manner, the circumstances surrounding Mr Tomlinson’s death must be fully disclosed as soon as is practicable. There needs to be a full and open debate on the legitimacy and appropriateness of tactics used on the day. The police have a duty to explain and justify their actions.

"We expect a full report to be presented to the MPA and an open, full and frank debate to take place. While it would not be appropriate to comment on the specific events leading up to Mr Tomlinson's death until a full investigation has been completed, Labour Assembly members and others will be questioning the police about their actions on 1 April.

"Once the IPCC and any criminal investigations have been completed, we expect full disclosure of the circumstances and events leading up to Mr Tomlinson's death and some reassurance that action is being taken to ensure there are no more such tragedies."

Comments

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. I would caution you against spreading around the "they baton-charged a prayer meeting" line uncritically, for reasons I explain in the edit I've just made to the "stay balanced" section of my entry. But thankyou for being so pro-active. The responses are certainly encouraging. :)

Edited to say that my edit wasn't targeted only at you - the reason this made me suddenly a bit wary is that you're the third person to focus on that particularly tidbit, and it's one of the least "provable" elements of the thing.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Looking at your edit, you're entirely right - and of course it's impossible to say from the outside whether prayer was going on, or any one of a number of other things.

The reason I used that phrase was because I picked it up from the_lady_lily - I've been following the issue right through, but that was what impelled me to write.

I'll be using "baton-charged unarmed, peaceful protesters" or some similar phrase in the future, I suspect.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

The pratice of kettling is a worrying development in the police repertoire of tactics against crowds; I've been signed up to the Climate Camp newsletter since julietk Tweeted from the power station Climate camp about police intimidation and attacks, and the last newsletter just before the G20 protests described kettling and recommended that protestors avoided meeting up on the concourse of Liverpool Street Station as they'd had intelligence that suggested the Met police were planning to kettle protestors there, before they could even get to the proposed protest site. On the basis of that, I actually warned reddragdiva to avoid Liverpool Street on his way home from work during the lead up to the protests for fear he'd get caught up in a kettle.

As it turned out, the anticipated kettle didn't happen at Liverpool Street, but based on the reports now filtering through I think I was right to be concerned. I'm very worried about the new legislation that effecively makes it illegal to film or photograph the police now though - the police will feel that they can behave with impunity against unarmed protestors, because the media will not be allowed to film them. :-/

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect that we'll see a lot more "citizen journalism" videos appearing in the media - news cameramen are a lot more vulnerable to that law than others, after all.

Where I was, outside Bank, every third protester had a camera, and every tenth was filming. I didn't see a single one get hassled, and certainly wasn't myself.

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

the difference in responses is almost like a parody. if only.