ceedee’s posterous

An MP who was involved in last month's G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.

Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.

Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament's joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.

"When I was in the middle of the crowd, two people came over to me and said, 'There are people over there who we believe are policemen and who have been encouraging the crowd to throw things at the police,'" Brake said. But when the crowd became suspicious of the men and accused them of being police officers, the pair approached the police line and passed through after showing some form of identification.

Brake has produced a draft report of his experiences for the human rights committee, having received written statements from people in the crowd. These include Tony Amos, a photographer who was standing with protesters in the Royal Exchange between 5pm and 6pm. "He [one of the alleged officers] was egging protesters on. It was very noticeable," Amos said. "Then suddenly a protester seemed to identify him as a policeman and turned on him. He ­legged it towards the police line, flashed some ID and they just let him through, no questions asked."

Amos added: "He was pretty much inciting the crowd. He could not be called an observer. I don't believe in conspiracy theories but this really struck me. Hopefully, a review of video evidence will clear this up."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has received 256 complaints relating to the G20 protests. Of these, 121 have been made about the use of force by police officers, while 75 relate to police tactics. The IPCC said it had no record of complaints involving the use of police agents provocateurs. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We would never deploy officers in this way or condone such behaviour."

The use of plain-clothes officers in crowd situations is considered a vital tactic for gathering evidence. It has been used effectively to combat football hooliganism in the UK and was employed during the May Day protests in 2001.

Brake said he intends to raise the allegations with the Met's commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, when he next appears before the home affairs select committee. "There is a logic having plain-clothes officers in the crowd, but no logic if the officers are actively encouraging violence, which would be a source of great concern," Brake said.

The MP said that given only a few people were allowed out of the corralled crowd for the five hours he was held inside it, there should be no problem in investigating the allegation by examining video footage.

Scotland Yard was accused of misleading its own watchdog last night after an official report on the policing of the G20 London protests was said to contain "false claims" and "gross inaccuracies".

The document, submitted to a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority yesterday, set out the police version of events during the demonstrations last month, and included claims protesters and independent observers said were misleading.

The Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, David Howarth, said the report was "full of serious inaccuracies" and questioned its claim that protesters were free to leave police cordons on the streets.

The controversial use of cordons to "kettle", or corral, people at the rally is under review by Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary.

The report stated that "whenever possible, people were allowed to leave the cordon" around the Bank of England and the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate. But accounts from hundreds of people caught inside the pens for hours indicated police refused people permission to leave.

The author of the report, assistant commissioner Chris Allison, defended the tactics of containment, telling the MPA that penning protesters, rather than dispersing them, was effective in reducing violence. But the MPA unanimously agreed to examine kettling and other public-order police tactics, in its civil liberties panel.

Other alleged inaccuracies in the Met's report included the claim that the Bishopsgate Climate Camp had blocked a "four-lane highway", and that police had supplied water to penned people.

The report also said Climate Camp protesters had "refused to divulge their plans" at a meeting with senior officers on the eve of the rally. Howarth, who mediated the meeting, said protesters had been constructive in attempts to liaise with the police. "It is time for the spinning to stop and for senior officers to ... take responsibility," Howarth said.

The report also said the Met was cooperating with the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating a complaint relating to an alleged assault of a 22-year-old woman on 1 April. The IPCC has received 256 complaints relating to G20 demonstrations.

In a statement last night, the Met said: "Wherever operationally possible people were allowed out of the containment." It conceded that the Climate Camp had been set-up in a two-lane road, but said traffic had been impacted further south.

Regarding water supplies, the Met said: "Officers gave people water but kept the bottles so they could not be thrown ... Six toilets were deployed by the local authority at the request of police; these contained drinkable running water."

RIOT squad cops will refuse to enforce the law at a Budget day demo in London today.

Police in the Met’s Territorial Support Group, stung by criticism over the G20 demo, will take a “softly, softly” stance.
Thousands of Tamils will flood Parliament Square to protest against the conflict in Sri Lanka.
Cops won’t intervene to stop troublemakers who don’t obey police orders.

Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has this week been visiting TSG bases to speak to cops seething at suspensions.
A PC was quizzed on suspicion of manslaughter after Ian Tomlinson, 47, died in the protests.
Another was suspended for hitting a woman.
Pockets of public order teams across London are threatening to withdraw from policing demos.

And did the sky fall?

Did violent revolutionaries storm Parliament and overthrow democracy?

I guess it's valuable to recognise that at least some police officers will contemplate refusing lawful orders if they're not allowed to behave like thugs.

Daniel Finkelstein honourably retracts his previous comments regarding police tactics, LibDem observers and the right to protest.

But down in the comments, I spotted this contribution and thought it worth recording:

I was there. I'm no trouble maker, I'm not violent, this was my first protest for over 30 years, I'm capitalist through and through, no "scrounger" but a middle class professional.

I went to protest because I am outraged at my government's handling of the economy and our society and the G20's lack of intelligence and ability.

I was "kettled": for FOUR HOURS I had my liberty to move around my capital city and get home totally taken away from me. I had done nothing to provoke such a violation of my freedom. Being held for four hours, not allowed to sit down, not even being allowed to go to a toilet or get any water, was in effect a type of police-sanctioned torture. I was detained like a criminal yet I had done nothing criminal or anything remotely violent or a danger to anybody.

Every now and again the massive crowd that I was being "kettled" in were suddenly charged at by the police with batons. Let me make this very clear: those at the very front of the crowd were asking to be released from our detention, they did not move forward, there was no space for anybody to move forward, yet suddenly the police would charge into them, often shoulders first to cause maximum pain (you've seen some of the photos) forcing them to crush those of us directly behind them, sending people flying.

When we remonstrated and asked them to stop, or asked why on earth they did that, the police shouted comments such as "You want more do you?" and the provocative "Oh yeah?" beckoning with their gloved hands come on, come on ....

After recovering to their feet, or disentangling themselves from those behind them, those at the front shouted for the police to stop assaulting them and pushing us into an ever increasing small space. The response of the police to these verbal requests was to charge them again with all their force or to get their batons out and hit them.

I have never seen anything like it in my life. I stood in a state of disbelief that I was in Great Britain and this was my police force.

To all those elsewhere on the messageboards saying the woman who is shown being hit "asked for it", and "we shouldn't have been there": she didn't ask for it, she was protesting and speaking out at the police hitting another protester who was not threatening them in any way. And we should have been there, it was my right to protest. I am still bruised from my battery at the hands of the police that day.

Is it any wonder this government is behaving the way it does, our society is crumbling the way it is, when there are so many pathetic sheep out there who can't even distinguish between correct policing and thugs in uniforms, no better than the scum they pretend to protect us from.

Posted by: Henry G. | 15 Apr 2009 18:12:11

The Metropolitan Police has been ordered to review the crowd-control tactic known as the “kettle”, which was used to pen in 5,000 people protesting over the G20 summit in London last week.

The Times has learnt that senior Scotland Yard officers who led Operation Glencoe, the plan to protect the summit and prevent disorder, have been summoned to explain their tactics to members of the force’s watchdog body.

Commander Bob Broadhurst and his team will also be questioned at a closed meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) about the death of Ian Tomlinson, who was hit by a riot police officer minutes before he died from a heart attack. Mr Broadhurst, who gave stark warnings of violence before the protests, will also face questions about whether the language he and fellow commanders used served to stoke up confrontation.

The MPA meeting will take place on April 23, amid mounting public concern and complaints about an aggressive police approach to the demonstrations. The officers will also have to appear at a public session of the police authority the following week.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating the circumstances of Mr Tomlinson’s death, said yesterday that it had received 120 complaints about the policing of the G20 protests in the City of London. Many complainants were responding to the footage of the apparent assault on Mr Tomlinson, but a significant number were people who were trapped inside the “kettle” — the police cordon thrown around the Bank of England — for several hours and not allowed to leave.

Kit Malthouse, deputy chairman of the police authority, said: “We have asked the Met for a thorough briefing session. We want to review and understand why they employed those tactics.” Mr Malthouse, who is also Deputy Mayor with responsibility for policing, said that members would require a full explanation of the intelligence material that convinced the police that anarchist groups were planning violence in the City. “We need to understand the intelligence picture and decide whether the police response on the day was proportionate,” he said.