Olly Zanetti: Should protesters trust the police?
On the eve of Climate Camp, this is a question on many people's lips.
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Applying the lessons of classical conditioning, made famous by Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov over one hundred years ago, the short answer is most probably 'no'. A recent study by Christian Aid showed that around half of UK adults think the policing of protest is too heavy handed. And that's no surprise, given the inexcusable savage brutality we've witnessed from these, supposedly, public servants, in recent times.
So, when Britain's Metropolitan Police force announced their softly, softly approach for this year's Climate Camp, more than a few people breathed a collective sigh of relief. (Which in itself is a worrying sign. The fact that, because you gather to protest against failing government policy, you should expect a battering from agents of the state unless they explicitly tell you they won't be handing one out sets a concerning precedent with regard to our 'democracy.' Anyway...)
With different commanders at the highest levels, including several women for the first time, this year's Climate Camp attendees should, I would imagine, be in for a far easier ride. So unlike last year, there might well be no unlawful use of stop and search perhaps; or maybe campers will be assured of consistently good nights of sleep, uninterrupted by deliberate noise pollution or swarms of cops in riot gear.
I think the UK's police forces, and London's Met in particular, are genuinely concerned about the knocks they've received to their public image. In fact, they've even commissioned 6Consulting - a firm of "social media monitoring and engagement specialists" - to keep tabs on the public mood through Facebook, Twitter and the like.
But it's all worked out a bit too conveniently for the police. Unlike previous years, this summer's Climate Camp will not culminate in a day of direct action, so it is already less of a threat for them. Instead, the focus will be on knowledge sharing and community building. There will be direct action, but this won't be until the October 17-18, at a location to be decided by online poll.
The true test of the police's friendly face will be then. Of course, if protesters do decide to break into the direct action's host venue, I'm not expecting police to give them their blessing and wave them gaily on their way. However, it would be nice to feel sure that anyone going to peaceful rallies on the site, such as families, and the elderly and disabled, will not be threatened by announcements from a helicopter warning attack from mounted police with truncheons, and police with dogs, if they do not disperse immediately. This, incidentally, happened last year.
I'm not convinced by this softly, softly policing - in fact, I smell a PR stunt. The public are so used to reports of bad police behaviour, that if Climate Camp comes off without a hitch, the police will likely be congratulated for their restraint. This is madness. If I'm out researching an article, for example, I don't expect a pat on the back for returning to my desk without having smacked an interviewee around the face. The police's job is always to work with the public - campaigners included - to protect us, not assault us.
I honestly do want to trust the police. But having seen what I've seen and read what I've read, it'll take more than a week of plods grimacing smiles in my general direction for that trust to be earned.
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Should protesters trust the police? (text) by Olly Zanetti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (1)
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Anything that goes against these interests sees the strong arm of the law taking a keen interest, usually with the business end of a riot baton.
It's clear that the status quo is eating up our planet. We need to change things but to tackle the problem, we need to confront these powrful interests who make the most out of rampant consumption. The police are clearly an obstacle to this as shown by the G20 boys in blue.
So no, I, for one, don't trust them.