POLICE STOCKTAKING

From Alex Thompsons Snowmail earlier:

POLICE, PUT THE KETTLE OFF?

Is it the end for our cops using their batons against protesters? Possibly so, for two reasons. First, they've been told to lay off the likes of climate change and G20 demonstrators by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O'Connor.

He says in a report that officers risk losing public support if they're seen as aggressive and unfair. Second, the female senior officer put in charge of recent climate demos showed herself to be adept at keeping public order and allowing protests.

She deserves more recognition and we'd like to ask her tonight how she succeeded - but the police won't let her come on.

Curiously the key contentious issue of "kettling" - coralling crowds for hours on end and not letting them disperse until they are utterly bored and exhausted - is not overtly touched upon in this investigation. Odd, because that's the issue which has aroused more debate than probably any other aspect of street disorder policing.

Police methods ‘could erode public support’: http://bit.ly/5qyzOY

INFORMATION

A very interesting account of the G20/Tomlinson affair

..

POLICE DON'T HAVE TO BECOME HIPPIES

But Mr O'Connor is going to have a go...

...speaking at a conference of senior police officers in Manchester, Mr O'Connor said "it is not simple but it is a great British thing".

He added: "It is not that we have all become hippies now and we are all OK with that.

"But it is starting from a different place and having a different mentality."...

...Mr O'Connor admitted many of his recommendations were "not terribly profound"...

...He said: "In the medium term at least it may be worth monitoring the effect of containment on people.

"The object being to win the consent of as wide a group as we possibly can."...

...He said: "I have not heard a lot about crowd dynamics and also about our own group dynamics. It is a great challenge for officers to stand for hours facing a difficult situation."...

Yes. Erm... Tell them to "Chill out"?

..

USE THE FORCE?

END OF CAPITALISM

No protest. For one, I support the Brazialian president in what he says about honkys with blue eyes. I was considering getting the devil mask out again, veteran of a hundred police photographs but I thought fuck it. There you are, kettling works. Good deterent. The bloody photographing doesn't. I don't give a shit about that, but kettling does. Anyway I don't agree that focus on Police tactics does anything to stop Capitalism. I am looking for different tactics.

A friend of mine who went yesterday in a suit with a box on his head actually got attacked by three capitalists in suits. Capitalist fight back! See if the Police stood back and let the hippies fight it out with the city boys things might be interesting!

The Police were banging on the door of some squat in the city all night and in the morning they bust in, smashed everything up and arrested everyone. I think they did the same at Ramparts Social Centre.

There have been mixed feeling amongst my friends about Russell Brand turning up at the protest. Personally I am glad he still comes. I think the guy is genuinely one of the freaks and he speaks about freakdom all the time. I thought it was also a great idea of his to bring bouncers. Why didn't we think of that before? If each protester hired three bouncers we could kettle the Police eh.

New Internationalist here
Metcountymounty (who "cleared the climate camp") here


..

I PWOTEST

I must admit that as much as I like Chris Knight and some of his real world anthropological theories I was pretty offended by the interview he gave Channel 4 News. He just looked like a sixty year old talking like a fucking teenager. I have serious things to protest about CAPITALISM. I am not getting sidetracked into any twatish focus on idiots who happen to turn up in uniform with truncheons. This isn't fucking Greece Chris. It isn't even France or Germany or Italy. As such I have to totally dissasociate myself from what Chris Knight has said here and say that his protest is nothing to do with me.

The Guardian add a bit more colour to the Chris Knight mindset which resides in a bubble apparently-

...Knight told the Guardian last night that he was doing everything possible to make sure there was no violence next week. He said he had set up the protest group with theatrical rather than violent aims.

"I'm doing everything possible to make sure that all the anger of the middle classes doesn't turn into violence. That's why we do all this play-acting. We're being nice to the bankers - we're burning them as effigies. Of course we don't want violence. If there's a huge ruck, the press will photograph it, and our vision about a different planet will not get reported."

He added: "But it's going to be hard. The message to police is 'if you press your nuclear button, I'll press mine'. It sounds like a threat? Well, yeah - don't do it. If you want violence, you'll get it.

"I know I'm in my own bubble. But in my bubble I'm predicting we'll have a velvet revolution in the next week or so ...The police, backed up by the army, will try to hold the ExCel centre. While they hold that, they will lose London. Then I think Gordon Brown will go...

and then what happens in your bubble Chris? Anarchy breaks out? Seriously, there is a journalist in front of you.

UPDATE: Nice to see the Police have someone equally as stupid talking to journalists

... senior commanders have insisted that they are "up for it, and up to it", should there be any trouble...

..