April 12, 2009

Fear and loathing in the City

I am still shocked at the events that happened on April 1st in London @ Bank, around the protests surrounding the G20 Summit. It can be claimed that some people have been violent, and indeed during Wednesday protests, a group of anarchists has broken into Royal Bank of Scotland and smashed windows, phones and computers. So what? That was it really, but Police have been charging on horsebacks people who were quietly doing a sit-in @ Climate Camp.

The Met has also used batons and cracked heads on unarmed people.

'Subsequently, at least 10 protesters sitting down in the street close to the Bank of England were left with bloody head wounds after being charged by officers with batons at around 4.30pm. One woman, said to be an Italian student, was carried off unconscious.' The Guardian, 01.04.2009

When the English go for a riot they do it seriously.

Moreover, London Police has used a controversial technique, called 'kettling' to pen the protest when it started getting nasty. This meant that thousands of peaceful demonstrators were left unable to leave the area from at least 5 hours. The riots were pacific but they turned nasty at some point.

What to remember from this event? Well...

  1. Met police use controversial methods and don't hesitate to charge pacific protesters. It's as if they wanted to provoke a peaceful crowd and generate disorders.

Even better, Police love charging those who just wander around. Attack them with batons, see them collapse without helping them, and then wait for them to die – unfortunately this is not a scam, but the sad and true story of Ian Tomlinson, the man who died inside a police cordon.

  1. The media were probably overrepresented at this event – when the RBS branch was stormed (below), there were more photographers than protesters, which makes me wonder if this wasn't 'staged' and organised?

  2. The G20 protests undoubtedly marked the rise of alternative media – Twitter, independent photographers, Indymedia etc...

  3. 'WE MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO GO TOO FAR, FOR SUCCESS LIES JUST BEYOND' (Proust).




Image Credits: John Stead 2009, guardian.co.uk

2 comments:

  1. Well... There was a time when the British police forces were praised for being unarmed and non-violent. Either it was the outcome of a succesful PR campaign whilst reality happened to be different, or this perception was the result of a comparison to other cops around Europe - needless to mention French ones and their overwhelming records in "bavures", eg October '61. As far as I am concerned, I have no illusions since I heard of Special Branch guys in Northern Ireland. Anyway: cops are cops, ie civil servants who basically obey orders from their government. In that very case of the G20, one has to assume that authorities in London were presented a detailed "security plan", which they approved prior to execution. Now, the question is: do they feel like "Oops" or don't they give a shit?

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  2. Indeed Riwal, Met Police had been telling everywhere before G20 that they were expecting trouble, and had a security plan at the ready. After the death, they initially spread the rumour that protesters had been barring the action of medics. Since the video accusing them has been released by the press, they haven't even said 'sorry' nor acknowledged that something went wrong. Let alone dismissed the concerned police officer. It is now in the hands of the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission). Future will tell...
    but everybody has in mind Jean Charles De Menezes, shot dead by London Police in 2005, mistaken for one of the July 7th bombers. The inquiry has concluded that the man was not lawfully killed, but Crown Prosecution Service decided in Feb. 2009 not to prosecute. So, no wonder policemen feel they have all the rights...

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