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"The country's biggest force, the Metropolitan police, is to lobby the attorney general… because officers believe that large sections of the population have become increasingly politicised"
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Too much to do, not enough time

September 19, 2009 By: fotdmike Category: General

My, what a busy month this has been. So far at least.

Kicks off with an eight-day stay at the English Climate Camp, this year at Blackheath, London. Took loads of pics.

Back home for a few days, then off down to London again for the Disarm DSEi anti-arms trade protests. Loads more pics.

And all those pics had to be sorted through, selections made, then uploaded to wherever. With the constant thought in the back of my mind that (if I were to adhere to my previously-established practise), some sort of write-ups would need to be done.

Well, finally, just over two weeks after Climate Camp packed up and went home, I’ve managed to pen my impressions of the week.

Now on TawNews in four parts: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV.

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Strange experiences in the land of the Peasants’ Revolt

September 05, 2009 By: fotdmike Category: Individual Freedoms, Police State

Just returned (well, not strictly true, returned Wednesday afternoon actually) from a week-long stay at Climate Camp which this year was at Blackheath, London (that’s the Peasants’ Revolt connection by the way).
And in the time I’ve been back I’ve been trying to sift through umpteen photos and do a bit of a write-up of the week that’ll be posted elsewhere.

And in my spare time (yep, all five minutes of it) I’ve been trying to think about the totally bizarre experience of attending protests that haven’t been trashed by the cops.
More specifically, protests that the cops stood by and watched unfold… and didn’t try to disrupt. One could almost be fooled into thinking that they’d actually tried to facilitate them!
And apart from a few minor scuffles most of these protests concluded without any untoward incidents.

Hmm. There’s a moral there somewhere.

As I say, I’ll probably be commenting a bit more on this elsewhere (most likely a TawNews article)

Meanwhile I’m slowly uploading (batch by batch) pics from the week to this set on Flickr.

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You’ve just gotta love those Climate Campers

August 24, 2009 By: fotdmike Category: Police State

A bit more on this here!

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Surely this can’t be real?

March 28, 2009 By: fotdmike Category: Human Rights, Police State, Politics, Rants

This is absolutely bloody unbelievable. In fact, I’m having difficulty believing it actually says what I’m reading! Have I inadvertently stumbled across some spoof site I ask myself.

So what is it I’m reading? An article in the Guardian, “Fears police tactics at G20 protests will lead to violence“, all about, well, the upcoming G20 protests in London.

First there was all that nonsense a few weeks ago with the cops warning of a “Summer of Rage” (see here and here).
There’s little doubt in my mind all that rubbish was a rather clumsy attempt on the part of the Met cops to deter legitimate and peaceful protesters who have no truck with violence from attending the various G20 “events” that have been publicised and, instead, deliberately seek to attract the troublemakers and those who fancy “a bit of a bundle”.

And now, only days after the release of the Human Rights Joint Committee report on the policing of protest, in which the cops are criticised for heavy-handedness, for misusing “anti-terror” laws against protesters, and for failing to engage in dialogue with protesters, we have utterances such as “”up for it, and up to it” dripping from the mouths of the cops following their warnings to protest groups that “the main day of protest, Wednesday, 1 April would be ‘very violent’”.
And just how the hell can they make assertions like that with such assurance unless they’re gonna be the ones starting in with the violence?

Surely it would be more appropriate for the cops to try to defuse potential “trouble” than come out with such provocative comments?

Or perhaps they actually want violence in order to justify the huge budgets they seem to squander on policing protests?

And, again despite that recently-released report recommending against the inappropriate use of “anti-terror” laws in the context of protests, apparently the Met’s Commissioner has “refused to rule out the use of anti-terror legislation”.

And all of that within the first three paragraphs of the Guardian’s article!

Barely had I recovered my composure from reading the foregoing when I start choking over the next load of tripe, in reference to the events being staged by Climate Campers. I quote:

“Last night Scotland Yard denied that it had received any communication from the group and said it had been looking forward to hearing from them.”

What an utter load of bullshit! When will the cops begin to realise that the only thing achieved by coming out with crap like this is to undermine their own credibility even more.
Well, I’m totally confident that the lie will be given to that by the Campers when they reveal the history of their repeated attempts to start a dialogue with the cops.

One has to ask, precisely what agenda is it that the cops are playing to? Seems to me its bugger all to do with “facilitating protest” as the cops so often claim they’re doing.

Clearly just another cop lie.

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More on my previous post about this year’s Climate Camp

September 23, 2008 By: fotdmike Category: Individual Freedoms, Police State, Politics

Further to the totally disproportionate policing of this year’s Camp at Kingsnorth in Camp, the following Press Release has just been issued by the media people at the Climate Camp website…

Police spend £6 million on heavy handed policing of Kingsnorth Climate Camp

23 September 2008
For immediate release

A Freedom of Information request made by the BBC has revealed that the
cost of policing the Camp for Climate Action in Kent in August came to
£5.9 million.

The policing of the camp, including indiscriminate use of stop and search,
frequent use of helicopters and a number of violent incursions on to the
camp over the course of the week, was accused of being “heavy handed” and
“disproportionate” by critics ranging from MEP Caroline Lucas to Labour MP
Colin Challen.

“This has been an outrageous waste of public money,” said camp participant
Kevin Smith. “It’s money that has been spent protecting E.On’s profit
margins, clamping down on people’s civil liberties and trying to prevent a
much needed public debate on coal and climate change from taking place.”

“This £6 million wasn’t just spent on the day of action against
Kingsnorth,” said Janie Shiraz. “It was mostly spent over the course of
the week in stopping and searching every man, woman and child entering the
site, it was spent keeping local residents awake with the helicopter all
night, and it was spent on police running around on site with nothing to
do as people sat in tents trying to talk about climate change.
“Disproportionate response” doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

Wainscott resident Andy Rogers said: “I attended the camp and I feel that
the underhanded and incredibly intimidating use of political policing at
the camp was an out and out infringement of my human rights, including my
freedom of speech and the right under law to attend a peaceful protest.
Surely six million pounds of what is essentially tax payers’ money would
have been better spent introducing a moratorium on coal fired power
stations”.

Camp for Climate Action activists have vowed to target the power station
and its owners E.ON with an ongoing direct action campaign if approval is
given for a new plant.

ENDS

For more information, phone 07772 861 099 or 0793 209 6677, or email
press (at) climatecamp.org.uk

www.climatecamp.org.uk

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