Police

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) have upheld Mani Hamid's complaint – “the police had wrongfully arrested him, assaulted him and violated his human right to protest.” (please see back history below (1)). He is currently pursuing prosecution of the police for misconduct and solicitors for negligence. Mani is teaching himself about Human Rights law and is determined to take these cases up to the International Human Rights courts.

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On 17 September, the Metropolitan police finally fired the police officer who hit passerby Ian Tomlinson with a baton and pushed him to the ground during protests against the G20 in London in April 2009.

Despite the fact that a inquest jury found in May 2011 that Ian Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood was…

On 3 September, a London magistrate refused to grant a compensation claim of £300 demanded by the ministry of defence (MoD) from Catholic peace activists Ray Towey, 68, Henrietta Cullinan, 50, and Katrina Alton, 44.

Earlier, the three had been joined by 25 supporters for a time of prayer outside Hammersmith magistrates’ court before a three-hour trial.

The three activists offered clear and moving accounts of their peace actions at the MoD during Holy Week when they marked the…

The police march in London on 10 May was ‘supported’ by some radical protesters, holding sardonic signs: ‘Without us, democracy would triumph’, ‘Kettling: a transitional demand’, and ‘Not all cops are bastards’. People joked that the police might be less conservative than usual in their estimates of how many marched (in the event, Scotland Yard refused to give a figure).

The protest was against plans to cut police numbers by 16,000 over four years, as part of a 20% cut to the policing…

Police constable Simon Harwood has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests on 1 April 2009. Harwood will be put on trial at Southwark crown court from 13 June next year. Video footage shows Ian Tomlinson walking away from a police line, with his hands in his pockets, when a police officer strikes his legs with a baton and then pushes him violently to the ground – from behind. He was helped to his feet by demonstrators, walked a short…

In comparison to rape, perpetrating mass murder, or other terrible things, street demonstration is rel-atively less traumatic. However trauma is very much an individual thing and people can be severely effected by imprisonment, gassing, beatings by police, betrayal, or even unexpected behaviour by comrades or the state.

We can mourn little things as well as big things and it's healthy and we should. Spending time in the “sad space” intentionally allows us to delve deeper into the…

Good police news. Only 27 police officers (out of 13,157 tested) were positive for drugs in the past two years. Drugs detected included cocaine, cannabis and amphetamines. Surprise, surprise: the force with the largest number of detected drug users was the Metropolitan police.
Bad police news. Over the last two years, police officers in just two areas (Staffordshire and Cheshire) have caused more than £100,000 worth of accidents and car crashes – in their own car parks.
A report to…

The British national public order intelligence unit (NPOIU) was set up in 1999 under the control of the association of chief police officers to meet the perceived threat from “domestic extremism” and “protest”. After the recent unwelcome “outing” of undercover officers including PC Mark Kennedy (see PN 2530), on 28 January, the NPOIU was put under the control of John Yates, assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police – Britain’s most senior officer in charge of counter-terrorism.…

On Monday 24 January, 35 women and men blockaded the metropolitan police’s headquarters at New Scotland Yard, London in response to revelations of infiltration of activist movements by undercover police officers. The 8am demonstration was in support of women who have been exploited by undercover officers after it was revealed that some of these officers had had long-term sexual relationships with activists they were investigating.

Participants held placards with messages to those…

Careful investigation by environmental activists has uncovered the identities of three long-term police infiltrators, one of whom advocated violence. Police constable (PC) Mark Kennedy, known in Nottingham activist circles as “Mark Stone” was publicly exposed on the Indymedia activists’ news website in late October, a fact recorded in PN 2528. (The first report in a British print publication.) Kennedy had been undercover in the environmentalist movement from 2004. In late 2009 he resigned…

Police shut down the website of Fitwatch – a group that resists police harassment and surveillance of activists – after it published advice for student protestors worried about being arrested following the trashing of the Tories’ Millbank HQ.

On 15 November the site’s US-based host received an email from British police alleging that it was being used for “criminal activity”. The site was removed and Fitwatch prevented from accessing its files.

The advice was instantly…

On 21 October, a statement was posted on Indymedia announcing that a long-time Nottingham activist known as Mark Stone had been confronted with overwhelming evidence, and had confessed to having been an undercover police officer from 2000 to at least the end of 2009.
According to the statement, Mark Stone’s real name is Mark Kennedy. He is said to have been one of the 114 climate activists arrested in Nottingham in April on the eve of an action at the power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar…

Fourteen US anti-war activists who had their homes raided by the FBI in September have had subpoenas to testify before grand juries dropped following protests in over 60 cities, a national call-in day, and a joint letter from those raided refusing to testify.
Armed members of the FBI took computers, mobile phones, documents, newspapers, framed photos and children’s art work in the 24 September raids in Chicago and Minneapolis, on the grounds that they were searching for evidence “…

On 8 July, home secretary Teresa May announced the suspension of “stop and search” powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Section 44 allows police to stop and search anyone in a designated area without needing reasonable suspicion of their being engaged in illegal, let alone terrorist, activity.

According to ministry of justice statistics, in 2008 less than 0.1% of those stopped under the section were even arrested for terrorism offences; and black and Asian…

Metropolitan Police sergeant Delroy Smellie was cleared of assaulting Nicola Fisher after striking the unarmed protestor on the leg with his baton during an anti-G20 demonstration in London in April 2009.
Smellie argued he acted in self-defence, believing the juice carton in Fisher’s hand to be a weapon. This claim was accepted on 31 March by district judge Daphne “Whack’em” Wickham at Westminster magistrates court.
You can judge for yourself by watching the video of the event:
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