Well. That’s it then. No more denying it. The Police are vicious bastards.
I’ve probably knew it all along but been able to block it or excuse it. But now, fuck ’em.
What’s changed? When previous instances have happened there have been circumstances that, well…
A bloke and his mate are looking in a Jewelry shop window and get handcuffed and accused of attempted robbery.
Well, maybe the bloke got lippy, didn’t comply with resonable requests by the officers to, I don’t know, turn out his pockets or something, so the officer has to take charge of the situation and bring things to a head in a way so the officer comes out on top, and not the other way round.
Then there’s the house raid that goes a little wrong and one of the occupants, who is innocent as it happens, ends up getting shot.
Well, the information the coppers had meant that firearms were appropriate for the raid, and when a raid gets started there is lot of noise and confusion, everyone is hyped up and it’s usually dark as they are carried out in the early hours of the morning. It’s quite scary, even for the officers. I know, I’ve seen them on telly.
It’s surprising, really, that more people hurt. All it needs is the suspect to not put there hands up, or make a wrong move and, well…
Or there’s the suicide bomber that wasn’t. Armed officers, in a stressful situation, the tube full of people. OK, so there were errors made. Would you have done any better?
The thing is, with all those examples, we weren’t there. It doesn’t matter what witnesses say, you’re own mind can add little caveats, little excuses, that still leave the rozzers The Good Guys.
What happened at the G20 shattered that completely.
The assault was unprovoked, cowardly and on film.
As you can see, Ian is strolling along with his hands in his pockets, the fuzz come up behind him, a dog sniffing him, and then he gets a whack on the back of the legs and an almighty shove to the ground.
Why? What purpose did it serve? Ian wasn’t giving them abuse, the coppers could see his hands were in his pockets, so he wasn’t gonna be able to do anything before they could get to him, and he wasn’t giving them abuse. It was just malicious.
The police are supposed to protect us. It’s one thing getting the baton out when you have a crowd of angry soap-dodgers pushing against you and spitting in your face…Fuck it! I’m doing it again!
The game has changed. Why the hell else are coppers leaving off a letter or number from their lapels? ‘If you’ve got nothing to hide…’ applies to them too. Why else were the police telling people in the Climate Camp to delete photos of plod or have their cameras seized? Was the Climate Camp full of terrorists, was it?
This isn’t about the big things, like 42 days detention or the UK governments complicity in torture, this is about the little things that the police feel they can get away with.
The institutional bias in favour of the police when things go wrong, even when the investigation has only just begun…
A lie can be delivered by innuendo. The so-called “Independent Police Complaints Commission” – whose investigations in this case are being conducted by the City of London Police – had put out a statement saying that “it appeared that Mr Tomlinson had contact with the Police.” If we had not seen the video, what image does that conjure up in your mind?
The justification for tactics…
John O’Connor, a former Flying Squad commander, defended kettling in extraordinarily totalitarian terms, saying that
…using these tactics in a non-selective way does cause inconvenience to persons who are legally trying to make their point, but it is effective in controlling the troublemakers.
The same could be said of subjecting the entire population to house arrest or amputating the limbs of anyone not in the police. Certainly, what he says is a clear admission that kettling does not ‘facilitate peaceful protest’.
Do I need to spell out what message is that sending to the ordinary plod on the beat? The modern policeman already wears a quasi-military uniform, with their stab vest and utility belt. They do work under some tremendous pressures, and you can excuse them with that and the adrenaline and all sorts of other reasons, but that is what training is for. If a copper goes loses it, makes an error of judgement or gets power crazy and attacks an innocent person, he either needs to be fired or retrained. As well as prosecuted.
The example needs to be set from the top and that is what is missing. Last word goes to Craig Murray…
We have reached the stage in the UK where we need a revolutionary change. We have to sweep out the old order of corrupt politicians whose one guiding principle is to keep their own snouts in the trough: of City bankers who are multi-millionaires from their bubble scams and whose lifestyles and jobs the ordinary people are now supporting by a massive tax and debt burden, while nobody guarantees the jobs of those ordinary people who fund it all.
We have to realise that the end of the centuries old prohibition of torture by agents of the state is of a piece with the freedom of the police to maintain the system of power by fatal force, in both cases without consequence. You cannot separate this brutalisation of power from the illegal war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and thousands of our own soldiers, on the basis of a lie but really to secure oil.
The whole system stinks from the head like a fish. And people are starting at last to understand where the smell comes from.
More links here.
What happened was indeed wrong and I hope the person is question is punished but dismissing the entire police force as vicious bastards is wrong.
It’s a tough job.
If any fool wanted to dismiss all Muslims as murdering bastards because of the atrocities carried out by some of them we’d leap on them, rightly so, as bigots.
The difference is, all muslims are not i) tools of the state ii) under the control of a single authority (I know there are different police authorities but they all come under the home secretary).
I am not singling out police officers for criticism, but the commissioners and the people that control the police. It is those people that enoble the force to be able to behave how it does, from removing lapel numbers to arbitrary use of anti-terror legislation and powers that encroach on civil liberties to the tactics used in these situations.
Fair enough, how about social workers then? They are ‘tools of the state, under the control of a single authority and you, rightly so, along with many others, defended the broadbrush stroke treatment of the entire profession in many terrible tabloid newspapers.
As it should be and all I’m suggesting is that the same caution should be given to the police and the awful errors of a few officers.
Social services can do some awful things.
For instance, when a child is taken from its’ natural family and adopted into another. If it turns out that the original family were blameless, that adoption is non-reversable. The natural parents have lost a child.
But. The powers of social services (at the moment) aren’t used for political purposes, on behalf of the ruling classes.
Coppers now regularly use anti-terror legslation to frighten people. Most might not realise they are doing it, but it is happening.
I think the coppers, like social workers, teacher, tyouth workers and medical staff as well as firemen are used ofr political purposes, they all follow and agenda set by the party of power.
I worked for Connexions for many years and the way I had to deal with young people was seriously constrained by government policy, it is the same thing, in the sense that, yes the police are acting on government’s rubbish and harmful ideas but they are, to one degree or another, the puppets, not the puppet masters.
I’m reading plenty of very good blogs, like this one, who are jumping all over the police, just as right wing blogs jumped all over Social Services.
As always, a middle ground is best, acknowledging that the man in question was wrong and deserves punishment, investigating police practice and government legislation by all means but tarring a whole number of good people, putting their lives at risk every day for the public good is not the best way forward in my opinion.
Peace.
Wise words, Daniel. Wise words indeed.
Take care.
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The Police, The English Police Force Anyway Like Every Westminster Political Party, Need To Be Destroyed Utterly. There Is No Other Option, You Have To Find The Living Centre Of The Police Force And Cut/Curve Them Down With The Instruments Of The Physical World. No Mercy, No Humanity, No Remorse, Only What Is Neccesary And What Is Satisfying. I Promise You My Solution Is Coming Soon