Police

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-…

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…

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:…

On 22 March, the Metropolitan police confirmed that it had paid two people £3,000 each in out-of-court settlements, after accepting their claims for wrongful arrest.
The claims arose from their arrests during a violent raid on a squat by police in riot gear during the April 2009 G20 global summit.
Another 68 protestors were also arrested during the raid and solicitors say they should also sue for wrongful arrest. If you were one of the 68, find out how to claim from:
…

Armed police patrols on foot, motorbike and by car in London’s gun crime hotspots (see PN 2515) were suspended by the commissioner of the Metropolitan police at the end of October after criticism from local community leaders and the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) about the lack of consultation. Officers from the CO19 firearms unit had previously announced that the patrols were becoming routine.
Sir Paul Stephenson said: “There was a failure to recognise the significance of this…

Last month a London police officer cleared of racially assaulting two teenagers was identified as one of six officers involved in a “serious, gratuitous and prolonged” assault on a Muslim man – for which the Metropolitan police paid £60,000 in damages.
Mark Jones, 42, cleared of the racial assault, was a member of the territorial support group (TSG) unit that arrested terror suspect Babar Ahmad at his home in south-west London in December 2003. Ahmad was punched, kicked, stamped on and…

Sergeant Delroy Smellie, charged with assaulting Nicola Fisher during the G20 protests in London on 2 April (see PN 2515), pleaded not guilty at Westminster magistrates’ court on 16 November. Smellie’s trial is set for 22 March.

In Hungary, the town of Budaörs was left without police protection on 13 October when the entire police force resigned immediately after their syndicate won the national lottery. The 12 officers shared HUF 2.18bn (about £10m).

Sergeant Delroy Smellie of the territorial support group, Metropolitan police, is to be charged with assault for striking Nicola Fisher during the G20 protests in London on 2 April.
A video posted on YouTube shows Smellie hitting the activist in the face with his gloved hand, and on the leg with a baton.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has received 282 complaints against the police relating to the G20 protests; 135 concerned the use of force.
Overall complaints…

Sadly, the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests in London on 1 April was not an isolated case. Over 1000 people have died in police custody in the last 40 years - yet no one has been found responsible. Many families who have lost loved ones in police custody are still campaigning for justice after many years, including the families of Sean Rigg, Brian Douglas, Harry Stanley, Roger Sylvester and Christopher Alder.

The United Campaign Against Police Violence (UCAPV) has been…

PN last interviewed Tilly Giffin following her arrest at Aberdeen Airport during a Plane Stupid action (PN 2508). On 22 March, she was arrested again, outside a derelict building in Glasgow, which her group were considering for use as an exhibition venue. She was charged with “intention to commit theft” and her personal possessions were confiscated.

It was a few days later, when she went to pick up her belongings from Partick police station, that she was persuaded to enter a…

The tragic death of Ian Tomlinson has cast a pall over the public reputation of British policing. As the eyewitness accounts (and photograph) in this issue indicate, and as the legal report compiled by the Climate Camp demonstrates, there was, on 1 April, a systematic pattern of brutal action by the police forces dealing with nonviolent protesters in the City of London.
It is shocking, but nevertheless true, that the mainstream media would not have scrutinised this criminal police…