All charges against the Hijacker 11 have been dropped

In the months leading up to London's G20 Summit in April 2009, the British press hyped up police warnings of an impending Summer Of Rage when public anger would erupt over the government's bank bailout. The streets would burn and anarchists would turn the newly unemployed into foot soldiers of the revolution. Thankfully the police calmed the situation by saying whatever happened they were 'up for it'.

Tuesday 1st December
from 6pm - 7.15pm

At: Royal Exchange by Threadneedle Street, London, EC3V 3LL

Nearest tube: Bank

Climate Camp Protestors win battle for High Court scrutiny of G20 Policing

Publication date: 25 November 2009

Protestors who were ‘kettled' and beaten during the Fossil Fool's day protest outside the Climate Exchange on 1st April 2009 have won the first round of a battle to hold the senior Metropolitan Police officers involved accountable. Granting permission for their judicial review to proceed to a full hearing, Administrative Court Lead Judge Sir Andrew Collins commented that the claim concerned, "issues that can properly be regarded as suitable for the Administrative Court", including the decision to deploy force which was made minutes after officers had noted a "party like atmosphere" at the demonstration.

http://www.bindmans.com/index.php?id=662

The long awaited second report by Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, is critical of many aspects of public order policing which alienate the public and infringe the right to protest.

The report "Adapting to Protest - Nurturing the British Model of Policing" looked at the now infamous policing of the G20 protests in london as well as the Climate Camp protest at Kingsnorth and other mass demonstrations.

See Full Report:
http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmic/special/adapting-to-protest/

In related news, campaigners from Climate Camp have won their legal battle to secure a full hearing for a Judicial Review around the brutal policing of the G20.

Civil Liberties Panel open meeting - come and have your say!

As part of the review of the events surrounding the G20 demonstrations there is an open meeting from 09.30-12.30 on 5 November 2009, in London's Living Room, City Hall, The Queen's Walk, London, SE1 2AA.

http://www.mpa.gov.uk/clp/#h2001

Not sure what to do when your mates are beaten up by the cops?
Help is at hand!

The G-20 meeting to be held in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania is taking place in just under a month (Sept. 24-25, 2009) and it would be nice to receive some advice and/or words of solidarity from London G20 protesters about how to achieve success with this round of protests.  Online support via Twitter updates & Blogs would be helpful too!  You folks have experience and we need to here from you in the states!

The police's behaviour at Kingsnorth Climate Camp last year didn't result in public outcry; it was the events of the G20 protests this April which finally caused greater scrutiny to be focussed on the policing of dissent in the UK. What does this bode for the London Climate Camp next week?

The metropolitan police CO11 Public Order Operational Command Unit has opened an account on Twitter in order to relay information regarding the forthcoming Camp for Climate Action protest in London starting on Wednesday 26th August 2009.

They say it is designed specifically to relay information to participants of the Climate Camp.

The Twitter channel: http://twitter.com/CO11MetPolice currently has one update, simply saying "This is the official Metropolitan Police Twitter channel for #CO11" The account is only following one other twitter account - the Ministry of Justice http://twitter.com/JusticeUK

CO11 is responsible for public order policing as well as the Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) who overtly monitor, harass and try to disrupt political campaigners and others.

Several campaigners have dismissed the move by the MET CO11 unit as an attempt  to repair their image after widespread condemnation following the policing of the G20 protests in which one man was killed after being attacked by police officers and countless others injured. The criticism of the policing of the G20 protests came after several reports also criticised the policing of previous climate camp protests, where protestors and members of the press were systematically abused by police officers over the duration of the protest.

The MET have also given assurances that they will employ a "community-style" policing operation for the Camp for Climate Action protest that will limit the use of surveillance units and stop-and-searches wherever possible.

Francis Wright, a Climate Camp legal adviser who will brief police officers on Thursday. "We're pleased they have been forthcoming and have been making some of the right noises, but we have to see how they deliver on the day."

Kevin Smith, who is helping plan the camp, said: "Given the enormous loss of public confidence that the police suffered as a result of the draconian tactics they used at Kingsnorth last year and during the G20, it's no surprise that they would want to be seen mounting a charm offensive at the Climate Camp.

"But we need to see if the authorities are going to take a more reasonable approach to the policing of protest in years to come when there might not be the massive public spotlight that there will be at the Climate Camp."

Following the G20 protests earlier in the year the police have been instructed to review aspects of their public order policing including the controversial use of 'kettling' protestors. They have also issued new guidelines on their powers under counter terrorism legislation regarding people taking photographs of police officers after a string of complaints that they were misusing powers to intimidate photographers and illegally force people to delete images from their cameras.

Prosecutors have been asked to consider whether the Metropolitan police officer who attacked Ian Tomlinson at the G20 demonstration should be charged with manslaughter.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) announced today that it had completed its criminal inquiry and handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service, which will now evaluate whether there is enough evidence to bring charges and whether a trial would be in the public interest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/04/ian-tomlinson-death-police-charges

Since the G20 protest in London this year the policing methods used over April 1st and 2nd have been dissected and discussed regularly in the media and in parliament. Reports have been produced and protests condemning police violence have been organised. Thousands of words have been published both in mainstream and independent media sources discussing civil liberties and issues around the right to protest. But has anything actually changed?

http://www.lasthours.org.uk/articles/bad-apples-vs-social-change-policing-after-the-g20-protests/

Earlier in the year it seemed to accepted almost as fact that this summer would see waves of unrest and street riots. But half way through summer none have happened. Peter Hogan takes a brief overview of the reasons why people haven’t come out onto the street in any great numbers.

Full article: http://www.lasthours.org.uk/articles/what-happened-to-the-summer-of-rage/

Dateline: Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London, UK, 17:37-18:37, Fri 17 Jul 09 – The Government of the Dead host a G20 Meltdown Reunion slap bang outside that den of iniquity, the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street: a "Bonuses Are Back Pig Party", where Bankers, Politicians and Rozzers are invited to get their snouts back into the tough, filled with the swill of filthy lucre, all at the expense of the 'public' purse.

Bank of England

Threadneedle Street

London

The lying policeman - BBC Panorama footage edited with my Climate Camp G20 protests documentation... Complaints about police actions regarding the police's controversial "kettling" tactics to surround crowds. Two perspectives one of Asst Commissioner Chris Allison and the other of his officers on site who used "kettling" on the peaceful Climate Camp G20 protesters against orders to the contrary given by Chris Allison so we are led to believe, or were they doing "what they were told" ?????? ..!*F*$£

Police floated imposter theory over Ian Tomlinson's death at G20 protests

• Relatives outraged at investigator's comment
• Claim shows inquiry bias, says campaign group

A senior police officer who investigated the death of Ian Tomlinson told his family that the officer who struck him at the G20 demonstrations could have been a member of the public "dressed in police uniform", it emerged last night.

The City of London police investigator made the comment at an emergency meeting with Tomlinson's family and the Independent Police Complaints Commission on 8 April, hours after the Guardian released footage showing the attack on the 47-year-old newspaper vendor.

Read full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/30/ian-tomlinson-inquiry-g20-protests

Climate Camp commence legal battle

Climate Campers have launched an action against the Metropolitan Police to challenge the policing of the G20 Climate Camp in the City protest on 1st April, instigating the start of a David and Goliath legal battle. The specific concerns raised about the decisions and actions taken by the police are:

- The authorisation to deploy force and in particular the use of batons and shields to strike and drive back Climate Campers and others from 7.00 p.m. onwards

- The lack of clear instructions to officers to ensure force would only be used when legally permitted

- The ‘kettling' of the Camp from approximately 7.00 p.m. on no proper legal basis 

- The fact that there was no appropriate way for people to leave the ‘kettle' during the following four and a half hours 

- The decision to disperse the Camp under s14 of the Public Order Act

The litigants include Chris Abbot, who gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 12th May in relation to the G20 policing, and was at the Climate Camp with his partner Louise Broadbent whose account of her experience in the Climate Camp Legal Team's report available at: http://climatecamp.org.uk/node/563.

A representative of the Climate Camp, Jane Morley, commented: "Like so many others, we have all too often experienced aggressive, heavy-handed, and often down-right violent policing. The Camp in the City was an opportunity to express and exchange views about the most serious threat our planet faces and to point to the folly of a market based approach to solving it. What happened shows the extreme measures to which those in power will resort in their attempts to suppress this message. The police stripped those present of their right to protest freely for several hours and violently drove us away. This won't stop us, we'll be back in the Summer, and if the police grossly abuse their powers again, we will call them to account both in the courts and publicly." 

Meanwhile, the Home Affairs Select Committee report on the G20 Policing (published 29 June) stresses the supposed presence of 'untrained' and 'inexperienced' officers at the G20 protests, blaming them for any inappropriate policing. Essentially, Senior Officers blaming their Juniors for strategic decisions. 

Nonethteless, the Metropolitan Police have responded to the Home Affairs Select Committee report by casting aside the few, limited criticisms in the Select Committee report, instead claiming the operation a 'success', despite the widespread use of police violence and the resultant death of Ian Tomlinson.

The Met also took the opportunity to try and blame protest groups for the Police Force's consistent strategy of breaking dialogue. Commission Chris Allison: "For that small percentage of groups with whom we have not had that constructive dialogue, I ask them to break the cycle and come and talk to us."

The Select Committee report itself similarly proposes that it is lack of communication - and not police violence - which was most problematic during the G20 protest. However, the report goes further, explaining why non-hierarchical social movements in particular are targetted by the police: "It is no coincidence that those protests which lacked a clear hierarchical structure and did not fully communicate their intentions to the police beforehand were those which experienced the greatest use of force by police."

This is a second Judicial Review being brought by the Climate Camp. The blanket use of section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act to search everyone attending last Summer's Climate Camp at Kingsnorth, Kent is being challenged by Dave Morris (a former McLibel litigant) and T and E (11 year old twins who attended the Camp) and is expected to conclude later this year.

____________

http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmic/

http://cms.met.police.uk/news/met_comment/met_statement_re_g20_report

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmhaff/418/41802.htm

FutureDateline: “Independent” Police Complaints Commission Headquarters, 90 High Holborn, London, UK, 16:00-18:00, Fri 10 Jul 09 – After 100 days since the death of Ian Tomlinson, the United Campaign against Police Violence intend to ‘Put the “Independent“ Police Complaints Commission on Trial!’ for its innumerable failings in allowing murdering coppers to remain at liberty.

Dateline: London & Brighton pub, Peckham, London, UK, 22:00 Fri 05 Jun 09 – On the day of Gordon Brown’s forced emergency cabinet reshuffle, Mr Mayhem, Teenage Man, Saddam & the Look-Alikes, Bloco de Louco and other left field luminaries were celebrating “The Death and Astonishing Resurrection of THE Labour Party” in a superb squatted pub in Peckham. For twelve long years, the war criminals, torturers, financial fools, and expenses cheats of “New” Labour have been fraudulently stealing working peoples’ votes for their own nefarious ends, so NOW is the time – as the logo of THE Labour Party has it – for a sea change in political engagement: “LABOUR – TAKE THE POWER”!

London & Brighton pub, 139 Queens Road, Peckham, London SE15 2ND
• Location & Public Transport Map: http://tinyurl.com/TLP-rising-map
• Facebook Event Page: http://tinyurl.com/TLP-rising
• Event Flyer: http://tinyurl.com/TLP-rising-flyer

Video interview with Chomsky including a transcript, see here.  Subjects include a lot of US-related stuff but also quite a bit on our good friends, the G20.

Movie of Defend The Right To Protest: Kettle Scotland Yard

Several hundred people protested at New Scotland Yard on Saturday afternoon under the 'against police violence' banner. They didn't manage to quite encircle the building, but held a powerful and empowering event which is part of a growing fight back against police state Britain.

Reports: video | photos | more photos | photos & vids

Background: Ricky Bishop | Injustice Film

Previous coverage: Ian Tomlinson | callout  Campaigns: FITWatch | UCaPV

March via Downing street to New Scotland Yard in protest against police violence. 

Keep in the loop and get with the latest D*I show!!

LONDON, UK - 20.05.09: A vigil was held at New Scotland yard this evening for those who have died in police custody. Campaigners and some members of families of those who have died laid flowers and lit candles in remembrance. The vigil was organised by the United Campaign Against Police Violence.

Watch the trailer, and order a copy!

featuring the amazing victory won by ex-Ford workers at Visteon! After factory occupations and the threat to picket out workers at Ford's state of the art plant at Bridgend, Visteon and Ford were forced back to the negotiating table - where they conceded a redundancy package better than the Fords package the workers were demanding. This will make it the biggest redundancy package ever paid out by Fords anywhere!

Parliament Square.

Trafgalar Square, London.

LONDON, ENGLAND - 01.05.09: Anti-capitalists demonstrate at the Bank of England, London on 1st May 2009. The May Day street party was organised by the Space Hijackers where over 300 people gathered in a "celebration of the police state".

Copyright © ENIGMA IMAGES All Rights Reserved www.enigmaimages.net