Maya Oppenheim: I was hit on the head with a baton, then kicked
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Independent Minds
For most of the day the atmosphere at Bishopsgate had been peaceful. The police had been standing around in riot gear but most were approachable. I remember chatting to one of them about the England football score.
But something changed later that night. It was as if an order had come from above. Lines of police in riot gear started building and drawing forward aggressively in big lines. People were frantically telling those behind to sit down. But it was as if they were intent on clearing the Climate Camp using any means.
By 11.45pm something had snapped. The police charged forward and started whacking people with their batons. I'm not against the police and was shocked to see them using such powerful weapons on people so complacently. I didn't want to leave on principle.
But then I saw police drawing forward towards me. As I turned, one of them knocked me on the back of the head with a baton. It just touched me but the force of a heavy, steel cylinder shocked me. But what was far more painful was being kicked in the shins – which I have seen police do to people at other protests.
While all this was going I heard them talking to colleagues and into their walkie-talkies, asking if they should use "level two, three or four". There were lots of similar skirmishes with police swatting at protesters. Many just fled in fear. People barely had time to grab their things – one woman had to leave her bag and pram and just run. By 1am I just grabbed my stuff and got the bus home.
Looking back now it feels as if the police changed strategy after the Royal Bank of Scotland building's windows were broken and they encountered trouble among a tiny proportion of anarchists. But the Climate Camp was totally peaceful and obedient, which makes me even more shocked and angry about the police's behaviour.
The next day, my head hurt from the baton and my shins were throbbing. Considering the police's brutal and heavy-handed techniques, I am amazed that just one person died. There could have been many more.
The author is an A-level student who was a member of the Climate Camp
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Comments
And of course the news crews had left, word will get out but the immediacy of it would be dampened..
They usually move in before sunset in the hope that they won't loose control of the situation in the dark, so leaving it till nearly midnight before batoning and kicking you in the shins is actually an admission that you're no threat at all and couldn't feasibly be portrayed as one (which they haven't tried to do), just a peaceful citizen exercising your rights.
Not nice is it?
good rule of life: never argue with the man or they'll nick you for assault PC or some daft public order offence
If police cannot discriminate between violent and peaceful protesters such that they assault young females like Maya and men walking away with their hands in their pockets they are doing their jobs completely wrong. Maya had a right to protest and she was assaulted by a bully protected by his uniform. How about a bit of sympathy?
Secondly, the "vicious street battles" you refer to were started and maintained by the police and culminated in the death of one innocent man and the assaults on countless other innocent protesters.
You are the only person being naive. Perhaps you should watch some of the video on the net of the police tactics Maya decribes. They are just as brutal and cowardly as they sound in her description.
a) The RBS was known to be a major target at the demonstration beforehand, or should have been known by any intelligence service, It has been at the centre of the news because of its risk taking with our money for weeks.
b) The windows at RBS were not boarded up, yet all surrounding buildings had their windows boarded up. For some reason it was thought that the RBS would not be a target, unthinkable under the circumstances I would have thought.
c) When the damage occured at the RBS no police were present, being occupied elsewhere. Yet by looking at the number of journalists who took pictures of the RBS attack they somehow had knowledge that the windows were going to be smashed, you can see many journalists in the pictures showing the smashing of the windows. Why can the journalists find out that an event like this is going on, but the police were unable to?
d) It has been noted by many who were there that the police started to get more aggressive after the RBS event. Until then it has been reported that there was apparently an almost "party like" atmosphere.
e) The thugs who broke into the RBS might not have been those who the police say they were and who were reported to be anarchists. After all if police need to wear masks and also remove their identity flashes or numbers, and then go about hitting people with batons, kicking them and shoving them, when their duty is to protect them, then this to me is anarchy and I can no longer distinguish between the police and the anarchists. If the police are to go around masked and unidentifiable then anyone can dress up in a yellow jacket and a mask and put on a crash helmet and who is tell the difference?
f) Perhaps there was no difference, perhaps they were the same.
Maya states that the police were communicating on their radios "asking if they should use "level two, three or four"." - this implies stages in an escalating process or plan.
Maybe the first stage was the attack on the RBS - how do we know they were not police? There have been other recorded instances of "agent provocateurs" at demonstrations so we know it is a possibility.
The purpose - to create an environment that would cause trouble, discredit the demonstrators and open the possibility of further laws to enforce control.
Not saying this is what happened, but the evidence, along with the fact we have been lied to by the police so many times certainly looks that this scenario could be a probable possibility.
I hope that any enquiry would cover the whole events of that day in as broad a manner as possible.
I don't think that the death of Mr Tomlinson can be looked on in isolation from all the other events of that day. Questions need to be asked as to why the police are either stupid, in not foreseeing the likely attack on the RBS, and guarding it properly instead of "kettling", or if in fact they were accomplices tyo the RBS breakin for political reasons. Either way they were not doing their primary job in protecting people and property. They seemed to behave in a manner that led to an escalation from a peaceful protest into an environment of violence, and possibly murder, in at least 3 planned stages.
In other words, an intentional provocation, no doubt accelerated by police agents provocateurs in the crowd, designed to create the impression of "a riot", justifying everything that then happened.
In the 2008 Downing Street Demos's an agent provacateur was identified by the journalist Yasman Whittacker-Khan.
The policeman was named and accused in a letter which was sent to the home secretary by George Galloway.
The article was originally published in the Daily Mail, I can't find it now but here is a copy of it, along with the letter sent, and further updates.
http://thejournal.parker-joseph.co.uk/b
What living in a parliamentary democracy has to do with using the words 'Agent Provocateur' is beyond me. No matter what form of government it is always possible to subvert the system and set up clandestine, secret organisations within legal ones. Unless there are strict constraints and barriers setup to prevent such organisation.
Perhaps I am misguided, but I do not think so. I just think you are naive.
Because I do not agree with you, I do not think we live in an accountable parliamentary democracy.
If we did many politicians and police would be on trial now, but they are not.
This is not to say that we won't have a true democracy soon.
But to obtain it we have to find a way to bring the criminals and their supporters to trial.
No matter where they are, in government, police, or civilian society.
For without law then until all of mankind becomes a fully devloped, evolved, enlightened species, then there will only be chaos.
Even with law things are bad enough, and if you cannot see how people operate outside of it, then I pity you.
I like to read you very much when you get straight to the point!
On second reading your reasoning seems very sound to me.
But your irony was lost on me the first time, probably this says more about me than you.
Irony I find is sometimes difficult to detect from printed word alone.
Thanks for taking the time to clear up any confusion I may have had.
I am sure they are annoyed that pictures of their violence has got into the public realm, as I am also sure if they could have, they would have confiscated cameras.
I have become, over the last 25 to 30 years, increasingly dissalusioned with the police, & no longer believe that a fair trial, fair treatment, & assumption of inncocence is likley.
We are now all thugs, terrorists, & guilty in their eyes.
Is this because the police are changing, or because of Government policy!
Has it occurred to people banging on about the riotous minority outside the bank of England that these people were provoked?????
I hadnt planned on going to the protest but got stuck along with thousands of people. What I saw was unprovoked attacks by the police on people trapped like me. The police trapped people before any 'violence' kicked off. Shameful. Is this now a police state?
Has it occurred to people banging on about the riotous minority outside the bank of England that these people were provoked?????I heard the police making disgusting rascist, sexist and abusive commentas
I hadnt planned on going to the protest but got stuck along with thousands of people. What I saw was unprovoked attacks by the police on people trapped like me. The police trapped people before any 'violence' kicked off. Shameful. Is this now a police state?
I was at work that day which overlooked the climate change protest. I witnessed everything that took place from early morning to 8pm.
I was really shocked by the heavy handed nature of the police. From about 11am protesters started to set-up camp by pitching tents on bishopsgate, it was all very organised and performed very quickly. What was unbelievable was how unecessarily physical the police were trying to remove those at the early stages of pitching the tents. The protesters that were at the recieving end of being thrown violently to the ground and aggressively dragged with skin exposed across the road, reacted completely passively. I was very impressed with the protestors professionalism, it was as if they expected such heavy handedness and were prepared not to be provoked. I really don't think I could have reacted in the same way but of course if they tried to defend themselves from being hurt they would have been branded anarchists.
All through the day the protest was very peaceful and festive. In fact many people from work wanted to go and join in. However security for our building locked the exits for several hours, through the usual paranoia. Later in the evening, around 6-7pm, many hours after the Bank incident, it was clear the police decided to escalate the situation on Bishopsgate and closed in on the protesters using the 'kettling' technique of closing off the streets not allowing anyone in our out. Again they were extremely heavy handed by for example very agressively pushing people to the ground who had their backs to police and were not doing anything. Similiar to what was catched on video by the US Fund Manager of the assult on Tomlinson.
From the window of our building the special branch were watching and communicating with the police on the ground. In general they were very professional but when I challenged them about the heavy handedness of the police they just shrugged and weren't interested. There was absolutely no acknowledgment that there behaviour was unecessary and only escalated a peaceful protest.
I have dealt with the police in many different situations while I've lived in london over the past 12 years and my dealings have always fortunately always been good, some tell me it's because I live in the right postcode which I sadly think is a factor. Due to my positive encounters I've always being a supporter of the police but after what I witnessed that day I have reaccessed my view and it's galvanised my support of the climate change group.
How many countless other people have not been kicked in the shins by a riot policeman in a hightened (dramatic) situation? I got the same kick in the shins because I was peacefully watching the Poll Tax riot from the terraced steps of St. Martin in the Field church in Trafalgar Square in 1990 - without warning, a riot policeman was in my face, and - shouted ''MOVE'' and a whack with the shield (to which I said something like ''their's no need for that mate'') after which he booted me painfully in the shin.
The hundred or so people who had been standing on the St Martin-in-the Field church steps had been entirely peacefull for (as I remember) over half an hour. They were assaulted by the riot cops.
And maybe for good reason. Perhaps (for the greater good) nasty ugly violence has to be meted out by the police.
We may suffer a painful kick in the shins (or a fractured skull as some pro hunting guy suffered a couple of years ago outside Parliamen)t - but maybe (just maybe)
- that's what these protesting types deserve?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/148
You see this is the VERY reason that i decided to recount the police's dramatic over-reaction to Climate Camp. This type of brutality is far too normal and seems to be overlooked by mnay. One must always remember that it is in no way justifiable to whack someone over the head with a baton and boot them in the shins, even if this is 'what these protesting types deserve'.
Furthermore, i don't think people quite understand the sheer diplomacy of climate camp's response; it still amazes me that everyone managed to remain so calm when confronted with such rage. Not once did the incessent chants of 'This is NOT a riot' waver, even whilst the police bulldozed forwards with their shields at the ready.
My story by no means the worst incident which occured on April 1st, it was just one of many. Nevertheless, it does fulfil it function - it documents the harsh reality of what happened to climate camp after the cameras decided to go home.
The real question we need to ask is why erroneous information about Ian Tomlinson's death was allowed to linger in the media for as long as it did. I guess it reminds the public why we can't always trust the media's depiction of events, as official as they may seem. The police's behaviour last Wednesday demonstrated that there needs to be a total rethink of how police deal with protesters. The police have gotten away with assaulting innocent citizens (protesters and non-protesters alike) for far too long and it is not something which people should take so lightly. Police brutality should never be seen as inevitable or inescapable. It should be tackled head on and when i say head on, I don't mean yet another flimsy, inadequate investigation which never ammounts to anything; I mean a drastic review of police tactics for future protests. Call me controversial but do these outdated methods of confinement even help matters, in my experience 'kettling' appears to do more bad than good.
Ahhh, rant over!
On another level., Who said that anarchists were violent? That's a gross distortion; any category of people can be violent. there are peaceful and violent people in any category. Although the police were clearly the most violent on April 1st towards people ( rather than property). It's also curious that the RBS windows weren't' boarded up?? and who's to say that the window breakers weren't planted?
I was told to go down the street the opposite way to which I was going and when I explained that I wasn't a demonstrator and was trying to get to work the policeman wearing a helmet said 'yeah right commy'. I was asked for ID which I explained I did not carry my passport and I dont drive, also there is no law in the UK requiring any person to carry ID. He said 'shut the fuck up smart-arse' followed by 'take of your sunglasses'. These sunglasses I wear are firstly prescription and secondly there is no law against wearing sunglasses. He said over and over 'take them off stop trying to hide your face commy' and then punched me in the face. My sunglasses broke and as I picked them up he said 'I will stamp on your f****ing face commy so why don't you just F*** off now' When I asked for his number which should be displayed on his shoulders but he was too tall to see them he punched me in the side of my head causing me to bleed. Other officers stood there laughing and I had to walk away to the opposite direction to which I was intending to. This is fascist and police brutality. This assault on me is illegal brutal and unjustified. I have head injuries and damage to my eye. My glasses cannot be repaired. The only people who helped me were two women passing by to help me get some water and sit down.
The police are totally out of control - this is the fact about british justice. It's no where to be found. I wasn't even protesting but even if I was I have human/civil rights. Despite the hundreds of CCTV cameras when I called the police to complain I was told flippantly 'get the officers number'. Yeah right. I couldn't see them and he refused to give it. After being punched twice and bleeding I don't think further attempts to get his number were going to work. Apparently they won't release any CCTV to me even though I know the exact location because of 'date protection'. Another white wash and attempt by the police to be obstructive and prevent any complaint going ahead. I don't trust the police now whatsoever and will never be a witness to any crime or co operate with them in anyway.
I have taken a week off work and lost my holiday leave. This supposedly 'democratic' country were we are being assaulted, even for NOT protesting let alone trying to is a a joke. I understand these protesters and I understand the police's job but they are supposed to be professional and take every situation on it's merits not brand us all 'protestors' or 'commies' as I was. How dare they. I am furious at the events and angry that my attempts to complain are obstructed. Funny how no 'official' CCTV is ever captured when it shows the police in a bad light only mobile phone footage taken by the public ever come to light. The man who had a 'heart attack' would have never been exposed had it not been for the public. The police's attempts to cover up his unprovoked and vicious attack/death backfired.