Sophie Heawood: Our police should behave better than we do
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Independent Minds
Another week, another revelation about police brutality. A second postmortem has shown it was internal bleeding, not a heart attack, that killed Ian Tomlinson after he was attacked by police at the G20 demo in London, and now there's footage of Nicola Fisher being struck by police at a vigil for him.
Of course, attacks on police happen too, and theirs is not a job I envy. I don't imagine that people sign up to the force with the lofty ambition of being a thug. But I have been going on demos all my life and the unpalatable truth is that these assaults are commonplace. The police used to film demonstrators, to identify the trouble-makers later. Now that it is so easy to own a videocamera, the demonstrators are filming them – and for exactly the same reason.
I was five when my parents first took me on a CND rally. I had never seen so many people all together in one place – it blew my tiny mind. There was something wonderful about being part of a group of people like this, walking down a street filled not with beeping cars but with cheering, happy humans.
Later I would march about the miners, the poll tax, the criminal justice Act, the Liverpool dockers, the Iraq war – all causes I believed in, but also a wonderful excuse to go outdoors with other humans and celebrate being alive.
Alas, it always turns. Perhaps it starts with a stupid protester throwing a bottle at a police horse, or shouting in an officer's face that he's a filthy pig, or worse. The police move in on you, and the danse macabre begins, as they form a human pen so you're left in no doubt that it's you, the protesters, who are the pigs. You are squashed against each other, unable to leave, even if you're desperate for a pee or a drink of water. A policeman starts shoving you, you beg him to stop, ask him for his number. He tells you to fuck off.
You see somebody on the floor bleeding from the head and an officer still seems to be kicking him and you don't know what's going on and you're jostled and powerless to stop it.
Earlier this year, on a London march for Gaza, the police routed marchers on Piccadilly into the dark car tunnel underneath Hyde Park Corner. Surprised by what we saw happening ahead, my friends and I jumped over the railings into the park to avoid it. We were the lucky ones – most couldn't escape and were forced down into the darkness in their thousands. They were then held down there for some time – I will never forget hearing the screaming.
When they finally emerged at the other side, teenagers came running over to me, asking if I was a journalist, could I help them, the police had held them down there and then let rip with their truncheons, they said. It was chaos and I felt useless.
And so I didn't join the G20 demo where Ian Tomlinson died, even though it was on my doorstep and I wanted to protest about the banks. I was too frightened of what the police would do, and of feeling too vulnerable to intervene. Sadly, my fears were warranted. And if a journalist – who has a better chance than most of raising a dissenting voice – is scared of the police, then what hope has anybody else got?
It is a grave error to believe that for a police force to be successful, it must be terrifying. It is not good enough to say that after a day of provocation, those officers had had enough. They need to be beyond reproach. They need to be better than us.
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Comments
I do not support the actions of some officers but I certainly understand their frustration and the need the meet force with force.
Hopefully the various videos being studied will also identify those demonstrators who have over stepped the mark and will lead to their prosecution.
How would you like to be herded into a tunnel and then beaten up?
Or forced to stay in the same place for hours with no food or water and forced to urinate in front of everyone else?
No one was rioting, there was one carefully staged episode (media opportunity) outside the RBS, if you look closely at all the photos, there are more cameramen than "rioters". Many at the G20 were office workers trapped after going out to get their lunch for heaven's sakes, not that that should make any difference.
Ian Tomlinson was just on his way home, and met a thug.
Yeah, maybe one day, Ian Tomlinson will be YOUR son or daughter. You will understand then. But it will be too late.
I hope so, it's people like you that need to be taught the lesson of history, since you are clearly wifully blind as to what is going on.
I remember when just before starting my final year of an honours degree I was taken aside by the guy who was the head of the electrical distribution systems in a small city, and he said I was a mug to carry on with engineering. I asked him why and he told me a story of a guy he had been to university with and who had scraped a third class degree and who then decided to join the police force as he couldn't cut it as an engineer. He rose to the top and was in charge in that same small city within 15 years and was earning twice what the engineering manager was getting as he was a genius amongst complete morons.
So I'll give the same advice, if you are in any way intelligent join the police and you'll be in charge within very short order. Ordinary people are kept out of the police force because they are repulsed by what they see going on, mindless thuggery, verbal abuse, things disappearing into the back of the police car at robberies, etc etc etc. Stalin used to put a communist representative along with every group of cops and maybe, sadly, it is time we did the same with our cops because you have seen what they get up to in reality as have I and every other normal person and they understand only one thing, being sacked with no pension rights. We should also bring back height restrictions and bring in intelligence restrictions, no short thickos need apply.
When I learned that the special branch of the London police, who seem to have caused most of the brutal behaviour, are most likely to be employed elsewhere as Bouncers at the clubs, well what else can we expect. I understand from a reliable source they are called by 'ordinary' every day coppers, as finger draggers, or words to that effect-- in other words, gorillas, if it wasnt so insulting to the animal! High on muscle, low on the brain area!
Yes, I know there will be exceptions, yet not too many I imagine.
Corral people - exercising their right to protest - into a penned off area, then wade in with batons and shields.
Fuck them, the violent pricks, and fuck the commanders who order this pointless and aggressive action, is really is of little help to a peaceful society to have it's police force rioting at predominately peaceful demonstrations.
It bears repeating - fuck these violent pricks.
Perhaps it doesn't. Perhaps it's completely unprovoked, as at Bishopsgate, or in the case of the assault on Mr Tomlinson.
When the system loses the trust of the vast majority of law-abiding individuals as it has lost mine, then it is in trouble. I believe the vast majority will accept the threat of climate change long before the state will be willing to implement significant change and therefore I believe we are heading for a rather unpleasant clash and the effects will ripple out further than just protests.
Imo, we need to get the police force and the criminal justice system back under control before it is too late, which means replacing this paranoid, obsessive and over-controlling govt for a start.
Clearly you did not read the article very well, or study any of the footage from G20, or study the Miner's Strike, or witness the police stealing the flags of some Sri Lankan protestors outside Parliament - the Police allow themselves to be used as a political weapon, a capitalist pawn if you like, when they suppress poeple's freedom of expression, the freedom to object, the freedom to speak what you believe! It is NOT that you may agree or not, it is NOT that we have to understand their message or their tactics - That IS the Essence of FREEDOM.
You may not realise that any officer that pushed, shoved, kicked, punched, or struck a person that was not acting violently towards them and was of no imminent threat BROKE THE LAW!
The Police (Conduct) Regulations 2008 - Statutory Instruments has 13 codes that a police officer must legally obey and at the G20 they broke 10 of ten of them. Here they are... read and be amazed...
Honesty and Integrity
Police officers are honest, act with integrity and do not compromise or abuse their position.
Authority, Respect and Courtesy
Police officers act with self-control and tolerance, treating members of the public and colleagues with respect and courtesy.
Police officers do not abuse their powers or authority and respect the rights of all individuals.
Equality and Diversity
Police officers act with fairness and impartiality. They do not discriminate unlawfully or unfairly.
Use of Force
Police officers only use force to the extent that it is necessary, proportionate and reasonable in all the circumstances.
Orders and Instructions
Police officers only give and carry out lawful orders and instructions.
Police officers abide by police regulations, force policies and lawful orders.
Duties and Responsibilities
Police officers are diligent in the exercise of their duties and responsibilities.
Confidentiality
Police officers treat information with respect and access or disclose it only in the proper course of police duties.
Fitness for Duty
Police officers when on duty or presenting themselves for duty are fit to carry out their responsibilities.
Discreditable Conduct
Police officers behave in a manner which does not discredit the police service or undermine public confidence in it, whether on or off duty.
Police officers report any action taken against them for a criminal offence, any conditions imposed on them by a court or the receipt of any penalty notice.
Challenging and Reporting Improper Conduct
Police officers report, challenge or take action against the conduct of colleagues which has fallen below the Standards of Professional Behaviour.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
People are equally free to riot, to cause criminal damage and to be arrested and pay for their crime!
That is the job for the police, to obtain the evidence and catch the offender.
It is not the job of the police to assault, intimidate, push, shove or hit anybody just because they are exercising their freedom. This Government said that even though they could not find any "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq, they were still correct to go to war because the people deserved to live in a free democracy - the outright hypocrasy is now apparent, the Iraqi people deserve to be 'more free' than us it seems!
If this is not stopped soon our police officers will wear black shirts and just shoot anyone they do not like the look of.
A demonstration needs to be allowed to disperse. It should happen naturally. If not, some assistance in dividing groups and diverting them away from the centre makes far more sense.
While the practice of kettling continues there will be more and more confrontation. It was never intended to be used in the way it is, it can only succeed when those confined are then subsequently removed, such as in prison riots
I've seen within this debate plenty of stuff which alarms me, which may yet be subject to legal proceedings. Let it takes its course, before people start arguing about 'fair trials' and prejudicial media coverage.