Police

1 May 2010News in Brief

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:…

1 May 2010News in Brief

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:

1 December 2009News in Brief

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…

1 December 2009News in Brief

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…

1 December 2009News in Brief

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.

1 November 2009News in Brief

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).

1 November 2009News in Brief

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…

3 June 2009Comment

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…

1 June 2009News

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…

3 May 2009Comment

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…

1 May 2009Feature

At around 11pm, despite all the problems with effective decision-making, those of us still at Climate Camp in Bishopsgate orchestrated a controlled retreat. By this point I was right up against the police line on the south end of the camp.
We were walking with our arms linked, being pushed by a line of police using their riot shields. They kept pushing us, but when we got as far as we’d agreed we sat down. Shortly afterwards, they tried pulling people out of the line – they didn’t…

1 May 2009News

Ian Tomlinson, 47, was a newspaper seller on his way home from work on 1 April.

6pm: Eyewitness Ross Hardy sees four riot police drag Mr Tomlinson to the pavement after he does not move out of the way of a police van, standing in the road.

7.15pm: Photographer Anna Branthwaite sees Mr Tomlinson pushed to the ground by a policeman near Threadneedle Street: “he did actually roll…. [he] bounced because of the force of the impact…. The officer hit him twice with a baton when…

1 April 2009News

On every demonstration we are subject to being photographed by the police – presumably to add to the vast database the government holds on us – on a level constituting harassment. But as of 16 February, we may risk 10 years inside if we dare to photograph them!

That was the day when section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 came into effect, under which eliciting, publishing or communicating information on members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers…

1 October 2008News

On 3 September, the last of the four days of the US Republican National Convention (RNC) in St Paul, Minnesota, demonstrators attempting to march on the convention centre after 5pm (when the permit to demonstrate expired) were met by police in riot gear using snow-ploughs, horses and dump trucks to stop the march.
At about midnight, police in riot gear encircled people leaving a Rage Against the Machine gig and made some 150 arrests including four distinctively attired “Peace Team”…

16 April 2008Feature

Police have intervened across the country to prevent screenings of the new campaigning film On the Verge about the Brighton-based anti-arms trade group “Smash EDO”. Police action succeeded in preventing the film's premiere on 17 March. Over the following days, there were reports of police and council intimidation of cafes and community centres in Southampton, Bristol, Bath and Hereford that had planned to show the film.

The film bills itself as “the story of one of the most…