I have written many essays and waxed lyrical to anyone who I can pin down about how our civil liberties have been casually eroded over the last 12 years. On the 10th of September I saw, first hand, the state of affairs we are now in.
Not actually the protest I attended.
I had little to do on a Thursday night and having seen an advert on the Space Hijackers website I thought I would pop along to watch them demonstrate outside the annual arms dealer’s dinner in Park Lane.
By the time I got to the Hilton, Park Lane there were probably about 30 protesters. Some were milling around carrying various placards while some were sitting on the floor outside the front door of the hotel. Also in attendance were probably about 100 police officers. Amusingly, the Space Hijackers were dressed in dinner jackets carrying signs saying: ‘Arms Dealer’ with a large arrow. They then followed people going into the dinner pointing their signs as they went.
The police had obviously had enough of the protesters outside the front door and rightly so. They were obstructing entry and exit and getting in the way of the taxis. At was at this point that my sympathy with the Met ended.
Having also decided that they did not want protesters on the street the senior officer decided to invoke Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986. And for those of you who are in any doubt about what this means:
Section 14 — Imposing conditions on public assemblies
provides police the power to impose conditions on assemblies “to prevent serious public disorder, serious criminal damage or serious disruption to the life of the community”, but the conditions are limited to the specifying of:
the number of people who may take part,
the location of the assembly, and
its maximum duration
An extended line of policemen descended on us and informed everybody that Section 14 had been invoked, as a result if we wanted to protest we would have to make our way to an enclosed pen. The pen happened to be off to one side behind a bush. A few people started telling the 5 – 0 that they didn’t want to be kettled and asked if they would be let out if they wanted to go home. The policeman said that this could not be guaranteed. He also told us we would be arrested if we didn’t move. When asked what for a wouldn’t tell us. I asked him if he thought this was Kafka-esque and received a blank look in reply.
It seems the police had got a little bored of trying to round people up s nobody was keen for a good kettling. We milled around for a bit, I say we but I was off to one side twittering on my phone. A little later the officer in charge had obviously had enough and the line advance once more. By this point I was rather bored and standing next to the bus stop. The line passed me by but the inspector spotted me, pointed and shouted ‘watch that one, he’s been here for half an hour.’ I should probably point out that by this then the only time I had been with the protesters was when I had my short discussion with the copper about Kafka. I was dressed in a suit and standing on Park Lane.
6 policemen circled me and asked what I was doing. I stated that I was waiting for a bus. They asked which bus. I said that bus and pointed at the number 74. The bus pulled up and one of them shouted ‘You’d better get on that bus’ I replied that I would but that the driver hadn’t actually opened the door and this was impeding my journey. Randomly another man in a suit waiting for the bus started yelling ‘You’d better get on that bloody bus, don’t you realise this is east Germany?!’
I was then threatened with arrest. Half of me was inclined to let them arrest me and then have them explain under which piece of legislation I was being held for loitering. I then remembered that I could be arrested for anything and got on the bus. We then had the comedy spectacle of a bus stuck in traffic while 6 policeman stood, staring at a man on the bus through the window.
My thoughts of the day were thus: While we have the right to protest it is on the terms of the people you are generally wanting to protest against. When they’ve decided you’re getting in the way you can be dispersed or kettled at will. The invocation of Section 14 was and is entirely arbitrary, were 30 people holding signs about to commit: “serious public disorder, serious criminal damage or serious disruption to the life of the community” I don’t think so. It seems the Met have 2 gears; soft or hard. At one point I was shoved in the back by a sergeant, if I’d have thought about it on inclined to trouble I could have pulled off a football style dive, I could have taken their shoulder numbers but to what avail?
only one quibble — state of affairs we are now in is the same as it ever was from peterloo, to cnd marches, to the orgreave riot, to stop the city. all governments like less protesting. all police officers like more power than the law gives them. it’s the kind of people they are.
I’m not doubting that but with the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights into English domestic law in the Human Rights Act, 1998 our rights were framed. 3 years later the same government then began a process of implementing ‘anti-terror’ legislation which has not stopped and has seen the over qualification of the HRA rights. To understand the process we can split the periods into pre-9/11 and post 9/11.
Sounds like PC Dimbleby from Spitting Image was in charge. I despair about police sometimes — they just don’t seem to get that they are not paid by taxpayers to behave like latter day Nazis.
I have meet some brilliant coppers.… sensible, thoughtful — who are good natured in the face of drunken nonsense, difficult people. Unfortunately, I too, have come across the shaven headed guys whose eyes are just a little bit too close together.
I need not ask if you got the copper’s shoulder board number… it was probably taped over.
The sad thing is… this type of police response merely serves to imprint irritation with the police in normal sensible people who wish to express their views and doesn’t work… it certainly counters all the PR work the Police do to show they are ‘serving the community’ or whatever horse merde is the strapline under Police on the side of their cars
Ah well.… talking of kettling… I have some prawns that are getting uppity. They will be kettled in chilli and garlic and be eaten… so there will be no prawns outside Downing Street tonight protesting.… I do my best to serve the community, after all
[…] I read Oedipus_Lex’s amusing post about police stupidity and the erosion of civil rights. Lex gives us a first hand report of his experience at the hands of the guys whose eyes are just that […]
if you are only concerned with this government’s record, yes. if you want any kind of historical perspective, no.
and it’s not as if the government has managed all of its anti-terror efforts. control orders for instance have been shown the door, though they may take a while getting their coats. so even this hasn’t been one way traffic. what would have been really amusing would have been watching dave try to repeal the hra. i imagine someone has had a quiet word as we hear less about this these days. i suppose every silver lining has a cloud.
Simply Wondered: You’re right, we’ve heard little from Disco Dave and his British Bill of Rights. This, quite frankly, scares the bejesus out of me. If he’s right does this mean that rights are not universal? they are not human but nation specific. If this is the case then we end up with at best an underclass of people who are ‘sans papiers’ and at worst Agamben’s Homo Sacer — someone who may be killed by anyone but not sacrificed.
I agree with your sentiments in that the law t’was ever thus. But in a historical context mostof us wouldn’t have the right to vote let alone protest. The point is that as a society we are supposed to be evolving, we should have put the dark days of repression behind us. This government did some great things in their first few years, things they were rightly proud of. Sadly they are reverting, post 9/11, to the theory that the law is nought but orders backd by threats (Austin I think).
As a retired Met and Provincial Force Copper all I can say is, that after the disgrace of the late WPC Yvonne Fletcher and the realese of the Pan Am bomber, you are lucky to have a Police Force at all. Oh and try it on in France or any other “civilised” country.
And as a retired soldier with more than my fair share of service in Northern Ireland I would say that maybe the Met need some lessons from the RUC/PSNI. I have been in riots where we were petrol bombed, pipe bombed and opened up on with automatic weapons yet we managed not to kill anyone. While the murder of Yvonne Fletcher was truly awful, at least she had an idea of the occupational risks of her job; Ian Tomlinson and Jean Charles de Menezes didn’t.
I don’t think the French gendarmerie have ever been accused of being civilised. The current closure of the ‘Jungle’ is proof of this. They are virtually a paramilitary organisation who live in barracks and have a flaming grenade as their cap-badge!
I have little sympathy with Menezes; he refused to stop, presumably because he was an illegal immigrant; a fact unknown to the officers “on the ground”. His flight served only to confirm the information that they had received.
The errors in the information have been well documented and like the demise of poor Mr. Tomlinson, none of this reflects well upon the Met who seem to be following their political masters in both stupidity and lack of accountability.
I left the Police Service in the early 80’s when it started to become politicised and have seen the Police at work in the USA and in Canada where I now live. By transatlantic standards I do feel that you have can have little complaint over the behaviour of the Met officers outside the Hilton.
Stu: Actually I have a lot of sympathy for the policemen who were at the sharp end of that bungled op. I question whether they needed to pump quite so many rounds into him but that was there call and I imagine after they had shot him once in the head everything after that was academic. However, having been a part of seemingly more complicated surveillance ops I still cannot believe that they allowed it to get so far. We could probably argue all day about this though.
I agree with the politicisation of the police and this is of concern not just ethically but constitutionally too. However, just because the States, Canada and France are worse does not mean that an arbitrary invocation of an all encompassing law is right.