[Cc-webedit] Final version of policing thing for blog

[Jonathan Leighton]

Hey Danny,

I've put this up now.

Cheers

On Mon, 2009-08-24 at 14:05 +0100, Danny Chivers wrote:
> Hi Jonathan(s),
> 
> See attached. Note this is different from the Indymedia version coz
> Frances wanted the legal@ email taken off (we're also trying to do this
> retrospectively on the IMC version).
> 
> Not sure if it would really be appropriate to send the whole thing out in
> the newsletter, but perhaps the intro paragraph and a link to the blog?
> 
> After all this, I think I'm ready to take on completely non-cop-related
> roles throughout the entire Camp...
> 
> Dx
> 
> > Wicked. Do you have this as a word doc or similar? (It's just easier to
> > paste in without worrying about all the line breaks...)
> >
> > Cheers x
> >
> > On Mon, 2009-08-24 at 10:56 +0100, Danny Chivers wrote:
> >> Hi Jon - see below. Note that the final paragraph has been removed coz
> >> Frances was worried about people sending unhelpful stuff to the legal@
> >> account...
> >>
> >> Dx
> >>
> >> *********************************************************************
> >>
> >> Strange Adventures In Copland
> >>
> >> Last Thursday, the Camp for Climate Action Police Liaison Team spoke at
> >> a
> >> "briefing afternoon", at the Metropolitan Police's Training Centre in
> >> Gravesend. Why did they do this, and what on Earth could they possibly
> >> say
> >> to the police? Simon Stanley was at the scene...
> >>
> >> Let's be frank. It's a weird task to take on. One day you're doing your
> >> best to avoid the cops as you try to invade a power station / airport /
> >> corporate HQ. The next day, you choose to sit down in a room full of
> >> police. Why?
> >>
> >> This isn't just an idle question – many people within the climate
> >> movement
> >> have suffered terrible treatment at the hands of the police, and are
> >> understandably concerned about meetings between cops and Campers.
> >> Meanwhile, the recent rapid pace of events has made it hard to keep
> >> track
> >> of what meetings are going on with the police, and why. This article is
> >> an
> >> attempt to clear things up a bit, to explain why last week's meeting
> >> happened, and what we think it achieved.
> >>
> >> The main part of the Police Liaison Team's remit is to gather
> >> information
> >> first-hand about likely police tactics, strategy, personnel and
> >> attitude.
> >> However, the group has another important role as well: to give the Camp
> >> credibility in the eyes of the public.
> >>
> >> Those of us who've had a lot of dealings with the police know how little
> >> we can trust them, but many of the public haven't had that experience.
> >> If
> >> we refuse to talk to the police, then a lot of people will (rightly or
> >> wrongly) think we're being unreasonable and so be less likely to get
> >> involved with the Camp.
> >>
> >> Meeting with the cops also gives the Climate Camp a "human face" and
> >> might
> >> make some officers be a tiny bit less brutal towards us (we have no
> >> definite proof of this, though). And of course, each meeting brings us
> >> one
> >> step closer to the day when the underpaid officers at the Camp gates
> >> suddenly decide to lay down their truncheons, take off their riot gear,
> >> stick two fingers up at Gold Command and join us in building a beautiful
> >> eco-anarchist utopia. Possibly.
> >>
> >> The Police Liaison volunteers aren't "representatives" of the Camp –
> >> they
> >> don't negotiate with the police, make any concessions to them, or give
> >> them any information that they wouldn't have found out anyway. In
> >> previous
> >> years, this has been a slightly frustrating, often uncomfortable, but
> >> nonetheless important job.
> >>
> >> This year, however, things have gone a bit weird.
> >>
> >> Thanks to the police getting caught in the act at the G20 protests, and
> >> the serious of vaguely critical official reports that followed, there
> >> has
> >> been unprecedented media interest in any meetings between the Camp and
> >> the
> >> police. The cops are on the back foot and are desperately trying to
> >> repair
> >> their image, and so rather than fobbing us off until the last minute,
> >> they
> >> are falling over themselves to drag us into meetings. It's pretty
> >> bizarre
> >> stuff – and it's not without its dangers.
> >>
> >> From their quotes in this recent Guardian article [link], it seems the
> >> cops are keen to say "look, we're even having meetings with the
> >> protesters, aren't we nice!". There's a real risk that by agreeing to
> >> these meetings, we might be unintentionally helping out the police with
> >> their propaganda – which is why we worked together with the Camp's
> >> media
> >> team on an Open Letter To The Met [link] to make the Camp's position
> >> VERY
> >> clear. While in the short term the idea that the police are going to be
> >> all cuddly this time round may help to get more people to the London
> >> Camp,
> >> in the long term it could be very dangerous. If the public and the media
> >> decide the police have mended their ways, then their interest will soon
> >> wander, leaving the cops free to get the batons out again.
> >>
> >> Meanwhile, we aren't the only ones being harassed by the police. That's
> >> why the Camp's Legal Team have been building connections with other
> >> activist groups including Fitwatch and London Defence and Monitoring, as
> >> well as organisations representing migrant communities, the Campaign
> >> Against Criminalising Communities, the Muslim prisoner support group and
> >> the Newham Monitoring Project. Plans are afoot to get funding for a new
> >> umbrella group to keep monitoring the police and holding them to account
> >> –
> >> wherever and whenever they might operate.
> >>
> >> Let's not forget: the police's job is to enforce laws which defend the
> >> status quo, protect the wealthy and the powerful, and stand in the way
> >> of
> >> social change. This has been their role throughout history, and not just
> >> within the UK. Meanwhile, we're trying to build a movement to create
> >> massive social change by directly confronting the Government and
> >> wealthy,
> >> powerful, polluting corporations. This doesn't make it very likely that
> >> the police are ever going to be our friends.
> >>
> >> However, one thing that CAN change is the tactics available to the cops
> >> –
> >> the exact level of violence and intimidation that they're allowed to get
> >> away with. It would be lovely to believe that we might influence this
> >> just
> >> by having meetings with the police. Sadly, experience shows that the
> >> only
> >> thing that really works is forcing them to change by exposing their
> >> tactics to the world. It's annoying that we have to do this – we'd
> >> much
> >> rather spend the time on climate action – but if we don't, then things
> >> will only get worse.
> >>
> >> We'd like to reassure the rest of the climate movement that the Police
> >> Liaison team fully understand all of this, and that we are also actively
> >> challenging attempts by the police (and the media) to separate our
> >> movement into “good†and “bad†protesters. We've done our best
> >> to explain
> >> this at Gatherings and on email lists, and we're sorry if it hasn't been
> >> totally clear! If you have any concerns or suggestions about the work
> >> we're doing, please get in touch with us – or better yet, come and
> >> join
> >> the Police Liaison team and get involved yourself.
> >>
> >> So it was with all this in mind that I stood up in front of a crowd of
> >> seventy police officers on Thursday afternoon, and explained to them why
> >> the Climate Camp was happening, how non-hierarchical decision-making
> >> worked, and what this year's Camp will probably look like. I then
> >> described what it was like to be charged by a line of riot cops for no
> >> discernible reason, to watch your friends being beaten over the head and
> >> arrested on meaningless charges, to see people in front of you being
> >> pepper-sprayed in the face, and to know you have to stand your ground
> >> anyway with your hands in the air because the alternative is to let a
> >> beautiful Camp be trampled under their steel-toecapped boots. They
> >> listened, in silence. It was one of the weirdest things I've ever done
> >> in
> >> my life. Whether or not it will make any difference, I really couldn't
> >> say; but it felt oddly liberating all the same.
> >>
> >> Next, we got to hear the police's pre-Camp strategy briefings
> >> first-hand.
> >> Then they took us on a tour of the place where they train riot police, a
> >> kind of “Riotland†theme park with a life-sized fake Council estate,
> >> tube
> >> station and sports stadium...but no, that was far too strange to have
> >> really happened. It must have been a bizarre dream.
> >>
> >
> >