Green Party Human Rights spokesperson and Oxford East PPC Peter Tatchell is to be forever celebrated and remembered by having a Southwark Blue Plaque erected in his name.
Full details are below.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/DiscoverSouthwark/heritageandhistory/BluePlaquesSection/blueplaquewinners0809.html
WELL DESERVED!!!
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
*Mayor of London cancels multicultural music festival Rise
Green Party London Assembly Member, Darren Johnson made the following statement.
"The Rise festival brought Londoners together in a celebration of multiculturalism.
Rise embodied the two underlying features that makes the capital such a great place to live; its diversity and its tolerance.
When the Mayor removed the festival's anti-racist message last year sponsorship was always going to be harder to find, but I am extremely disappointed that one of London's most entertaining and important cultural events will no longer be going ahead."
Ken Livingstone said:
'Boris Johnson's cancellation of London’s anti-racist music festival, Rise, is a blow to good community relations in the city. Rise was the biggest anti-racist festival in Europe and on that basis attracted significant sponsorship. It lost much of this when Boris Johnson dropped the central anti-racist message last year. It is no surprise that Johnson is now cancelling the festival altogether. But it is misleading for his administration to try to blame this on trade unions withdrawing sponsorship, when sponsors had signed up to an anti-racist festival and obviously saw no reason to fund an event with no coherent message. There is now a clear pattern of Boris Johnson cutting funding to events celebrating the contributions of different communities to London and promoting good community relations. And, as with the still-birth of the Mayor’s Fund and the loss of most sponsorship for the St Patrick’s Day festival, his claims that he will save tax payers’ money by bringing in outside sponsors have been shown to be just so much hot air.’
"The Rise festival brought Londoners together in a celebration of multiculturalism.
Rise embodied the two underlying features that makes the capital such a great place to live; its diversity and its tolerance.
When the Mayor removed the festival's anti-racist message last year sponsorship was always going to be harder to find, but I am extremely disappointed that one of London's most entertaining and important cultural events will no longer be going ahead."
Ken Livingstone said:
'Boris Johnson's cancellation of London’s anti-racist music festival, Rise, is a blow to good community relations in the city. Rise was the biggest anti-racist festival in Europe and on that basis attracted significant sponsorship. It lost much of this when Boris Johnson dropped the central anti-racist message last year. It is no surprise that Johnson is now cancelling the festival altogether. But it is misleading for his administration to try to blame this on trade unions withdrawing sponsorship, when sponsors had signed up to an anti-racist festival and obviously saw no reason to fund an event with no coherent message. There is now a clear pattern of Boris Johnson cutting funding to events celebrating the contributions of different communities to London and promoting good community relations. And, as with the still-birth of the Mayor’s Fund and the loss of most sponsorship for the St Patrick’s Day festival, his claims that he will save tax payers’ money by bringing in outside sponsors have been shown to be just so much hot air.’
Sunday, 5 April 2009
+ MONSANTO SCIENTIST HELPED AUTHOR GM GUIDE
The pro-GM lobby group Sense About Science (SAS) has been caught with its pants down by Private Eye.
The famous satirical magazine has obtained a confidential draft copy of SAS's recently published GM guide which shows it had a "ghost writer" that SAS failed to declare – Monsanto former employee Andrew Cockburn.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/61-Monsanto-scientist-helped-author-GM-guide.html
The famous satirical magazine has obtained a confidential draft copy of SAS's recently published GM guide which shows it had a "ghost writer" that SAS failed to declare – Monsanto former employee Andrew Cockburn.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/61-Monsanto-scientist-helped-author-GM-guide.html
*Johann Hari: Crime problem? Just lock 'em in the lavatory
I have just come across this excellent article by Johann Hari. By coincidence, I have just finished reading 'The Prison Diaries of Jeffrey Archer' - Johann's old boss. JA makes some excellent recommendations not too dissimilar from Johann.
Noel
Previously published in The Independent
Johann Hari: Crime problem? Just lock 'em in the lavatory
And so the story of the moral implosion of the British prison system comes to this: we are imprisoning people in toilets. Doncaster prison – run by the private firm Serco – was designed to hold 800 people, but it now pens in more than a thousand. So the governors have put beds in the toilets, and detained people there for more than 18 hours a day, week after week. In toilets. In Britain. Today.
There are now two prison systems in this country. There is Her Majesty's Prison Service, where mad and broken people are warehoused alongside the genuinely violent in cramped and fetid cells. Then there is the Fantasy Prison System, implanted by the press in the public imagination, where pampered prisoners are given foot massages while watching flat-screen TVs.
No matter how many prisons I visit, from Wormwood Scrubs to Feltham Young Offenders Institute, I cannot find the holiday camps. Instead, I find prisons that clunkingly conform to every "tough" demand of the right – and are therefore placing you and your family in greater danger.
Allow me to explain. When our prisons contained 40,000 people, back in 1993, they managed to make 47 per cent of the inmates go straight. But today – after cramming twice as many people into almost the same space – that rate has dramatically plummeted to just 25 per cent. The rest graduate to the same or worse crimes.
We know what makes criminals less likely to reoffend. We have known for years, from study after study after study – but drunk on rhetoric, we are speeding in the opposite direction. So let's go through the recipe that really turns prisoners into law-abiding citizens, abandoned in the mid-1990s when Michael Howard got Britain smoking the crack-down crack.
Ingredient One: Transfer the mentally ill into secure hospitals. The first thing that strikes you in any prison is how many of the people there are insane. One 60-year-old man diagnosed with serious brain damage staggered up to me in the bowels of Wormwood Scrubs thinking I was his father. The Government admits 13 per cent of our prisoners have schizophrenia and 70 per cent have one or more diagnosable mental disorder. I could fill this newspaper with descriptions of prisoners who stab their own necks with knives or set fire to themselves at Her Majesty's Pleasure.
There is another way. The state of Pennsylvania was facing the same prison problem as Britain – so they decided that if the police arrest a mentally ill person, he should no longer go into the normal courts system. When, say, Sally Judson – a diagnosed schizophrenic who developed a heroin habit – was picked up for disorderly conduct recently, she was taken to a mental health "court". Instead of jailing her, they drew up an action plan with her. They found her a doctor, a therapist and a waitressing job. If she relapses on heroin, there is a rehab place waiting for her. This system works: mentally ill people have a 55 per cent reoffending rate in the normal courts, but in the mental health courts it is just 10 per cent.
Ingredient Two: Make sure prisoners stay in touch with their families. You can hear the Gaunt-groans and the Littlejohn-lies now: who cares if some criminal bastard can't speak to his baby-mother? But the evidence shows this is the single biggest factor in keeping a criminal from reoffending. If you manage to keep your partner, you are 20 per cent more likely to stay out of jail. But our prisons actually militate against this. Because of the severe overcrowding, some 37,000 prisoners are being held more than three hours' journey from home, and 5,000 are being held more than six hours away. Their mostly broke families can't afford the long journey. Telephone? BT charges up to seven times more to call home from prison than it would cost from a normal phone box. Far away and expensive to phone, nearly half of male prisoners currently lose touch with their families.
Ingredient Three: Make sure prisoners aren't illiterate and homeless when they walk out the prison gates. When they arrive, a third of prisoners can't read or write a word. They almost invariably leave as they came. The Adult Learning Inspectorate found fewer than 8 per cent of prisoners are taught to read and then given meaningful work that could lead to a job on the outside. Worse, one-third of prisoners are released to "No Fixed Abode" – a friend's couch, if they're lucky.
In Liverpool prison, I saw a brilliant scheme where prisoners are taught construction skills – and then use them to do up an abandoned council house to live in when they leave. It's a crime-busting double whammy: work skills, and a house nobody else wanted. Why isn't this being done in every prison in Britain?
Ingredient Four: Medicalise prisoners' drug addictions. Some 12 per cent of prisoners are heroin addicts, imprisoned either for possessing the drug or committing property crimes to feed their ravaging need. Wouldn't it be better to spend the £40,000 of jail money to put them in rehab? True, heroin addiction is so powerful that the even the best rehab in the world fails with 80 per cent of addicts. But for them, we can prescribe a clean, legal supply for £4,000 a year. Then they can lead healthy lives: Arthur Conan Doyle and the father of modern surgery, William Halsted, did. When the Swiss did this, burglary fell by 70 per cent.
Ingredient Five: Make sure prison is only for violent and sexual offenders. There are about 16,000 vaguely sane people in our jails who have committed violent or sexual offences. They need to be banged up while they are rehabilitated, for however long it takes. But if they are crammed in with 64,000 others – the shoplifters and cannabis dealers – nobody gets any treatment and nobody gets any better.
Indeed, the evidence shows the opposite happens. Professor Carol Hedderman has calculated that the growth in the prison population is due to a huge rise in short sentences of six months or less. They are all for crimes that used to be dealt with by community service – like the two teenage boys in Deerbolt who have just been sentenced to 15 months in an adult jail for graffiti. That's long enough to put in place all the factors that drive up crime – they lose their job, their house and their girlfriend, and their debts spiral – but not long enough to teach them anything, even if we tried. This is the reason for the surge in reoffending.
Yet still the Government builds more mega-prisons, while the Tories yelp for them to go even further and faster. Why? Every politician wants to be seen as the Toughest Daddy, cheered on by a press that raves against a prison system that doesn't exist. But the "tough" approach – shove 'em in the toilets, teach 'em nothing – produces more crime. The macho swagger hides glass testicles. No: we need to show this isn't about soft vs. tough, but about smart, crime-busting policies vs. dumb, crime-boosting policies.
But for today, reason and evidence remain locked away in the prison toilets. Isn't it time we let them out?
j.hari@independent.co.uk
Noel
Previously published in The Independent
Johann Hari: Crime problem? Just lock 'em in the lavatory
And so the story of the moral implosion of the British prison system comes to this: we are imprisoning people in toilets. Doncaster prison – run by the private firm Serco – was designed to hold 800 people, but it now pens in more than a thousand. So the governors have put beds in the toilets, and detained people there for more than 18 hours a day, week after week. In toilets. In Britain. Today.
There are now two prison systems in this country. There is Her Majesty's Prison Service, where mad and broken people are warehoused alongside the genuinely violent in cramped and fetid cells. Then there is the Fantasy Prison System, implanted by the press in the public imagination, where pampered prisoners are given foot massages while watching flat-screen TVs.
No matter how many prisons I visit, from Wormwood Scrubs to Feltham Young Offenders Institute, I cannot find the holiday camps. Instead, I find prisons that clunkingly conform to every "tough" demand of the right – and are therefore placing you and your family in greater danger.
Allow me to explain. When our prisons contained 40,000 people, back in 1993, they managed to make 47 per cent of the inmates go straight. But today – after cramming twice as many people into almost the same space – that rate has dramatically plummeted to just 25 per cent. The rest graduate to the same or worse crimes.
We know what makes criminals less likely to reoffend. We have known for years, from study after study after study – but drunk on rhetoric, we are speeding in the opposite direction. So let's go through the recipe that really turns prisoners into law-abiding citizens, abandoned in the mid-1990s when Michael Howard got Britain smoking the crack-down crack.
Ingredient One: Transfer the mentally ill into secure hospitals. The first thing that strikes you in any prison is how many of the people there are insane. One 60-year-old man diagnosed with serious brain damage staggered up to me in the bowels of Wormwood Scrubs thinking I was his father. The Government admits 13 per cent of our prisoners have schizophrenia and 70 per cent have one or more diagnosable mental disorder. I could fill this newspaper with descriptions of prisoners who stab their own necks with knives or set fire to themselves at Her Majesty's Pleasure.
There is another way. The state of Pennsylvania was facing the same prison problem as Britain – so they decided that if the police arrest a mentally ill person, he should no longer go into the normal courts system. When, say, Sally Judson – a diagnosed schizophrenic who developed a heroin habit – was picked up for disorderly conduct recently, she was taken to a mental health "court". Instead of jailing her, they drew up an action plan with her. They found her a doctor, a therapist and a waitressing job. If she relapses on heroin, there is a rehab place waiting for her. This system works: mentally ill people have a 55 per cent reoffending rate in the normal courts, but in the mental health courts it is just 10 per cent.
Ingredient Two: Make sure prisoners stay in touch with their families. You can hear the Gaunt-groans and the Littlejohn-lies now: who cares if some criminal bastard can't speak to his baby-mother? But the evidence shows this is the single biggest factor in keeping a criminal from reoffending. If you manage to keep your partner, you are 20 per cent more likely to stay out of jail. But our prisons actually militate against this. Because of the severe overcrowding, some 37,000 prisoners are being held more than three hours' journey from home, and 5,000 are being held more than six hours away. Their mostly broke families can't afford the long journey. Telephone? BT charges up to seven times more to call home from prison than it would cost from a normal phone box. Far away and expensive to phone, nearly half of male prisoners currently lose touch with their families.
Ingredient Three: Make sure prisoners aren't illiterate and homeless when they walk out the prison gates. When they arrive, a third of prisoners can't read or write a word. They almost invariably leave as they came. The Adult Learning Inspectorate found fewer than 8 per cent of prisoners are taught to read and then given meaningful work that could lead to a job on the outside. Worse, one-third of prisoners are released to "No Fixed Abode" – a friend's couch, if they're lucky.
In Liverpool prison, I saw a brilliant scheme where prisoners are taught construction skills – and then use them to do up an abandoned council house to live in when they leave. It's a crime-busting double whammy: work skills, and a house nobody else wanted. Why isn't this being done in every prison in Britain?
Ingredient Four: Medicalise prisoners' drug addictions. Some 12 per cent of prisoners are heroin addicts, imprisoned either for possessing the drug or committing property crimes to feed their ravaging need. Wouldn't it be better to spend the £40,000 of jail money to put them in rehab? True, heroin addiction is so powerful that the even the best rehab in the world fails with 80 per cent of addicts. But for them, we can prescribe a clean, legal supply for £4,000 a year. Then they can lead healthy lives: Arthur Conan Doyle and the father of modern surgery, William Halsted, did. When the Swiss did this, burglary fell by 70 per cent.
Ingredient Five: Make sure prison is only for violent and sexual offenders. There are about 16,000 vaguely sane people in our jails who have committed violent or sexual offences. They need to be banged up while they are rehabilitated, for however long it takes. But if they are crammed in with 64,000 others – the shoplifters and cannabis dealers – nobody gets any treatment and nobody gets any better.
Indeed, the evidence shows the opposite happens. Professor Carol Hedderman has calculated that the growth in the prison population is due to a huge rise in short sentences of six months or less. They are all for crimes that used to be dealt with by community service – like the two teenage boys in Deerbolt who have just been sentenced to 15 months in an adult jail for graffiti. That's long enough to put in place all the factors that drive up crime – they lose their job, their house and their girlfriend, and their debts spiral – but not long enough to teach them anything, even if we tried. This is the reason for the surge in reoffending.
Yet still the Government builds more mega-prisons, while the Tories yelp for them to go even further and faster. Why? Every politician wants to be seen as the Toughest Daddy, cheered on by a press that raves against a prison system that doesn't exist. But the "tough" approach – shove 'em in the toilets, teach 'em nothing – produces more crime. The macho swagger hides glass testicles. No: we need to show this isn't about soft vs. tough, but about smart, crime-busting policies vs. dumb, crime-boosting policies.
But for today, reason and evidence remain locked away in the prison toilets. Isn't it time we let them out?
j.hari@independent.co.uk
*Shell faces Saro-Wiwa death claim
By Matthew Green in Lagos and Michael Peel in London
Published: April 4 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 4 2009 03:00
The death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian activist, will return to haunt Royal Dutch Shell next month when a potentially groundbreaking court case opens in the US alleging the company was complicit in his execution.
Lawyers are hoping to hold Shell to account for sponsoring what they describe as a campaign of terror by Nigeria's security forces in Ogoni in the Niger Delta that culminated in Saro-Wiwa's hanging in 1995. The case is a key test of whether multinationals based in the US or operating there can be successfully sued for damages over their operations abroad. Proceedings are due to open at a New York court on May 26.
The claim filed by plaintiffs including Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, the late activist's eldest son, accuse Shell of complicity in human rights violations committed by the former military government.
Shell is also accused of collaborating with the authorities that arranged Saro-Wiwa's detention and eventual execution along with eight other Ogoni activists on trumped-up murder charges. The suit says the company tried to bribe two men to testify against Saro-Wiwa at his trial before a special tribunal.
"Almost daily you get a reminder that your father was hanged for a crime he didn't commit," Mr Saro-Wiwa Jr told the Financial Times. "We've always maintained that Shell was complicit in the conspiracy to silence my father and thousands of other Ogonis."
Shell says the allegations contained in the case are false and that the company appealed for clemency for Saro-Wiwa. "We in no way encouraged or advocated any acts of violence against Ken Saro-Wiwa or the other Ogonis," said Rainer Winzenried, a Shell spokesman. "We believe that the evidence will show clearly that Shell was not responsible for these tragic events."
Saro-Wiwa mobilised hundreds of thousands of Ogoni people to launch peaceful protests against environmental damage caused by oil companies in the Delta. His hanging provoked a global outcry and precipitated a backlash by human rights groups against Shell.
To many in the Niger Delta, the deaths of Saro-Wiwa and the other activists was the turning point that pushed the region into the rampant violence that persists today.
The suit is being brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a law that has been used in a number of cases since the mid-1990s to target companies over their actions in nations from Liberia to Indonesia.
Published: April 4 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 4 2009 03:00
The death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian activist, will return to haunt Royal Dutch Shell next month when a potentially groundbreaking court case opens in the US alleging the company was complicit in his execution.
Lawyers are hoping to hold Shell to account for sponsoring what they describe as a campaign of terror by Nigeria's security forces in Ogoni in the Niger Delta that culminated in Saro-Wiwa's hanging in 1995. The case is a key test of whether multinationals based in the US or operating there can be successfully sued for damages over their operations abroad. Proceedings are due to open at a New York court on May 26.
The claim filed by plaintiffs including Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, the late activist's eldest son, accuse Shell of complicity in human rights violations committed by the former military government.
Shell is also accused of collaborating with the authorities that arranged Saro-Wiwa's detention and eventual execution along with eight other Ogoni activists on trumped-up murder charges. The suit says the company tried to bribe two men to testify against Saro-Wiwa at his trial before a special tribunal.
"Almost daily you get a reminder that your father was hanged for a crime he didn't commit," Mr Saro-Wiwa Jr told the Financial Times. "We've always maintained that Shell was complicit in the conspiracy to silence my father and thousands of other Ogonis."
Shell says the allegations contained in the case are false and that the company appealed for clemency for Saro-Wiwa. "We in no way encouraged or advocated any acts of violence against Ken Saro-Wiwa or the other Ogonis," said Rainer Winzenried, a Shell spokesman. "We believe that the evidence will show clearly that Shell was not responsible for these tragic events."
Saro-Wiwa mobilised hundreds of thousands of Ogoni people to launch peaceful protests against environmental damage caused by oil companies in the Delta. His hanging provoked a global outcry and precipitated a backlash by human rights groups against Shell.
To many in the Niger Delta, the deaths of Saro-Wiwa and the other activists was the turning point that pushed the region into the rampant violence that persists today.
The suit is being brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a law that has been used in a number of cases since the mid-1990s to target companies over their actions in nations from Liberia to Indonesia.
Saturday, 4 April 2009
*They just don't get it!!!
Today's Guardian has a half page advert for TESCO. It is headed 'Turn lights into flights'.
It shows a low energy light bulb and says that if you buy it you can get a clubcard voucher that you can turn into 60 Airmiles.
So that's save a small amount of energy by buying a low energy light bulb and then consume a large amount of energy by flying an extra 60 miles. Doh!
(Thanks to Alan F for this)
It shows a low energy light bulb and says that if you buy it you can get a clubcard voucher that you can turn into 60 Airmiles.
So that's save a small amount of energy by buying a low energy light bulb and then consume a large amount of energy by flying an extra 60 miles. Doh!
(Thanks to Alan F for this)
*Wordie Ice Shelf has disappeared: scientists
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One Antarctic ice shelf has quickly vanished, another is disappearing and glaciers are melting faster than anyone thought due to climate change, U.S. and British government researchers reported on Friday.
They said the Wordie Ice Shelf, which had been disintegrating since the 1960s, is gone and the northern part of the Larsen Ice Shelf no longer exists. More than 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) have broken off from the Larsen shelf since 1986.
Climate change is to blame, according to the report from the U.S. Geological Survey and the British Antarctic Survey, available at pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2600/B.
"The rapid retreat of glaciers there demonstrates once again the profound effects our planet is already experiencing -- more rapidly than previously known -- as a consequence of climate change," U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.
"This continued and often significant glacier retreat is a wakeup call that change is happening ... and we need to be prepared," USGS glaciologist Jane Ferrigno, who led the Antarctica study, said in a statement.
"Antarctica is of special interest because it holds an estimated 91 percent of the Earth's glacier volume, and change anywhere in the ice sheet poses significant hazards to society," she said.
In another report published in the journal Geophysical Letters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that ice is melting much more rapidly than expected in the Arctic as well, based on new computer analyses and recent ice measurements.
The U.N. Climate Panel projects that world atmospheric temperature will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius because of emissions of greenhouse gases that could bring floods, droughts, heat waves and more powerful storms.
As glaciers and ice sheets melt, they can raise overall ocean levels and swamp low-lying areas.
They said the Wordie Ice Shelf, which had been disintegrating since the 1960s, is gone and the northern part of the Larsen Ice Shelf no longer exists. More than 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) have broken off from the Larsen shelf since 1986.
Climate change is to blame, according to the report from the U.S. Geological Survey and the British Antarctic Survey, available at pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2600/B.
"The rapid retreat of glaciers there demonstrates once again the profound effects our planet is already experiencing -- more rapidly than previously known -- as a consequence of climate change," U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.
"This continued and often significant glacier retreat is a wakeup call that change is happening ... and we need to be prepared," USGS glaciologist Jane Ferrigno, who led the Antarctica study, said in a statement.
"Antarctica is of special interest because it holds an estimated 91 percent of the Earth's glacier volume, and change anywhere in the ice sheet poses significant hazards to society," she said.
In another report published in the journal Geophysical Letters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that ice is melting much more rapidly than expected in the Arctic as well, based on new computer analyses and recent ice measurements.
The U.N. Climate Panel projects that world atmospheric temperature will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius because of emissions of greenhouse gases that could bring floods, droughts, heat waves and more powerful storms.
As glaciers and ice sheets melt, they can raise overall ocean levels and swamp low-lying areas.
Friday, 3 April 2009
* Operation Glencoe.
IT'S POSSIBLY ILLUSTRATIVE THAT THE POLICE OPERATION WAS CALLED 'Operation Glencoe'
From: BBC News online
Concern over G20 police tactics
Britain may have entered a new era of overt violent policing that could deter people from protesting in future, the Green Party's Jenny Jones has said.
She says protesters' stories of police brutality at the G20 demonstrations and the police's story of complete professionalism "just don't stack up".
Ms Jones, a Metropolitan Police Authority member, has written to the Met Commissioner about her concerns.
The Met have said their tactics were "proportionate and worked".
Police made 122 arrests during the protests in London on Wednesday and Thursday.
Some 5,000 people took part in the demonstrations that were mainly peaceful and good-humoured but marked by sporadic violence.
Ms Jones said she was particularly concerned about the treatment of protesters outside the Bank of England, many of whom were kept inside a police cordon for several hours.
“ They were trying to agitate and hijack that protest - we believe our tactics were proportionate and worked ”
Commander Simon O'Brien
"If the police were hitting people who were sitting down with their hands up, we have entered a new era of overt violent policing in Britain that will deter people from protesting and cut back our civil liberties," she said.
She went on to say that people at the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate reported that they were given no warning they were about to be contained by police.
The Metropolitan Police have defended the strategies used in Operation Glencoe, the name given to the the police plan.
Speaking on Thursday, Commander Simon O'Brien said only a small proportion of the protesters outside the Bank of England took part in the violence.
"They were trying to agitate and hijack that protest. We believe our tactics were proportionate and worked. The lawful protesters were the victims of them, not the Metropolitan Police," he said.
The police estimate the number of hardcore trouble-makers stands at between 300 and 500.
Ms Jones said she had been assured that Metropolitan Police Authority members would be able to ask questions about the police operation at its next meeting on 13 April.
From: BBC News online
Concern over G20 police tactics
Britain may have entered a new era of overt violent policing that could deter people from protesting in future, the Green Party's Jenny Jones has said.
She says protesters' stories of police brutality at the G20 demonstrations and the police's story of complete professionalism "just don't stack up".
Ms Jones, a Metropolitan Police Authority member, has written to the Met Commissioner about her concerns.
The Met have said their tactics were "proportionate and worked".
Police made 122 arrests during the protests in London on Wednesday and Thursday.
Some 5,000 people took part in the demonstrations that were mainly peaceful and good-humoured but marked by sporadic violence.
Ms Jones said she was particularly concerned about the treatment of protesters outside the Bank of England, many of whom were kept inside a police cordon for several hours.
“ They were trying to agitate and hijack that protest - we believe our tactics were proportionate and worked ”
Commander Simon O'Brien
"If the police were hitting people who were sitting down with their hands up, we have entered a new era of overt violent policing in Britain that will deter people from protesting and cut back our civil liberties," she said.
She went on to say that people at the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate reported that they were given no warning they were about to be contained by police.
The Metropolitan Police have defended the strategies used in Operation Glencoe, the name given to the the police plan.
Speaking on Thursday, Commander Simon O'Brien said only a small proportion of the protesters outside the Bank of England took part in the violence.
"They were trying to agitate and hijack that protest. We believe our tactics were proportionate and worked. The lawful protesters were the victims of them, not the Metropolitan Police," he said.
The police estimate the number of hardcore trouble-makers stands at between 300 and 500.
Ms Jones said she had been assured that Metropolitan Police Authority members would be able to ask questions about the police operation at its next meeting on 13 April.
*FREEDOM?
A REPORT FROM ANDY HEWETT:
Comrades
After spending about an hour and a half at Excel, where there was a small STW demo, but not much sign of further protest, I joined the solidarity vigil outside Bank at 1pm this afternoon in memory of the fallen comrade who lost his life last night.
The vigil was quite an emotional occasion. I met up with some comrades who had been at climate camp last night and had witnessed first hand the events as they unfolded. Their stories I hope will be told, as they underline our worst fears about the oppressive and provocative tactics of the police. I salute the bravery and resolution of the climate campers, their courage should be an inspiration for us all. I heard emotional accounts of what really happened leading up to the tragic death last night. The story not told by the press or the police was that the protester was being chased by police dogs, fell and cracked his head. My thoughts are with his family and friends, and also with those who had witnessed the tragedy.
The vigil was well attended with a good few hundred people paying their respects, and placing personal messages on the boarding placed around a piece of architecture(?) outside the Bank. There was also a bit of a feeding frenzy of press and photographers, obviously looking for another bloody story and maybe some more confrontation between protesters and police. Eventually it appeared that the police might be looking for the same - their response was, like the previous day and in particular in the context of why we had gathered there today, wholly inappropriate.
A minutes silence was held, well observed by all who sat down, downed flags and removed hats to remember the fallen comrade; during the 'silence' the air was punctuated by the sound of police sirens and a helicopter hovering overhead. This was a sign of things to come.
Soon we were kettled in as police encircled the gathering. Police cossacks appeared in a show of force, but left after a while. Some mourners were becoming agitated, and there were chants of 'shame on you' aimed at the police. But there was no violence. However, eventually the police dogs were brought out as an intimidatory tactic, walked around the kettle for a bit then vanned off again. I could later hear them further up the road so I can only assume that other protesters were being harassed elsewhere.
Eventually some protesters decided to leave, but were being searched by the police as they left. The police closed in the kettle as people left and a few of us were left in a small space as the majority succumbed to the search in order to leave. 20 of us remained and sat down refusing to have to be searched. We calmly and peacefully discussed what we would all want to happen, a consensus was reached that we would all refuse to leave if we were to be searched and that we would be prepared to ba arrested. By this time we were just encircled by City of London Police, whose 'superior officer' was invited into the circle to address us. He informed us that a section 60 was in force in the City until 6am. After further discussion we decided that we would all be prepared to stay there until 6am. Further negotiation was attempted to allow us water and toilet facilities, but the request was refused.
By this time a small crowd was beginning to form around us and some people lobbed in some food for us, which was gratefully passed around. It was approaching half past five by now, and more people were gathering outside us, and a few pictures were being taken - the press vultures were still circling (apologies if anyone finds that description speciesist). Bemused city workers leaving work were curiously looking in, and taking a few of their own snaps for the family album. Then, all of a sudden the head copper came and told us that the police were going to let us go without being searched. Just like that. The police dispersed. We cheered and hugged one another as we realised that we had won. We gathered for a group photo and a wall of cameras recorded our joy for posterity. My fear is that this story of peaceful demonstration will be less than a footnote to the last couple of days as the press don't seem to want anything other than bloody anarchy and violence to scream out from their headlines.
But we will not forget. As we will not forget the fallen comrade to whom we dedicate this small victory for the right to peaceful protest without intimidation and fear of reprisal, violence and infringement of civil liberties. In what some still call a democracy. The tactics of the police seem to be increasingly aggressive and antagonistic and must be challenged. And let us not forget that the struggle goes on, the neoliberal overlords whom the police are defending are still making imperialistic decisions which affect all of our lives, for the worse, and that the mortal threat of climate change hangs heavy over us all. We should all take heart and courage and build momentum, to carry on the struggle, in memory of he who gave his life last night defending the right to protest, for a better future, and for all the countless forgotten victims across the globe who suffer and perish at the hands of capitalism each and every day.
Hasta la victoria siempre
Andy
Andy is a member of the Green Party Regional Council.
Comrades
After spending about an hour and a half at Excel, where there was a small STW demo, but not much sign of further protest, I joined the solidarity vigil outside Bank at 1pm this afternoon in memory of the fallen comrade who lost his life last night.
The vigil was quite an emotional occasion. I met up with some comrades who had been at climate camp last night and had witnessed first hand the events as they unfolded. Their stories I hope will be told, as they underline our worst fears about the oppressive and provocative tactics of the police. I salute the bravery and resolution of the climate campers, their courage should be an inspiration for us all. I heard emotional accounts of what really happened leading up to the tragic death last night. The story not told by the press or the police was that the protester was being chased by police dogs, fell and cracked his head. My thoughts are with his family and friends, and also with those who had witnessed the tragedy.
The vigil was well attended with a good few hundred people paying their respects, and placing personal messages on the boarding placed around a piece of architecture(?) outside the Bank. There was also a bit of a feeding frenzy of press and photographers, obviously looking for another bloody story and maybe some more confrontation between protesters and police. Eventually it appeared that the police might be looking for the same - their response was, like the previous day and in particular in the context of why we had gathered there today, wholly inappropriate.
A minutes silence was held, well observed by all who sat down, downed flags and removed hats to remember the fallen comrade; during the 'silence' the air was punctuated by the sound of police sirens and a helicopter hovering overhead. This was a sign of things to come.
Soon we were kettled in as police encircled the gathering. Police cossacks appeared in a show of force, but left after a while. Some mourners were becoming agitated, and there were chants of 'shame on you' aimed at the police. But there was no violence. However, eventually the police dogs were brought out as an intimidatory tactic, walked around the kettle for a bit then vanned off again. I could later hear them further up the road so I can only assume that other protesters were being harassed elsewhere.
Eventually some protesters decided to leave, but were being searched by the police as they left. The police closed in the kettle as people left and a few of us were left in a small space as the majority succumbed to the search in order to leave. 20 of us remained and sat down refusing to have to be searched. We calmly and peacefully discussed what we would all want to happen, a consensus was reached that we would all refuse to leave if we were to be searched and that we would be prepared to ba arrested. By this time we were just encircled by City of London Police, whose 'superior officer' was invited into the circle to address us. He informed us that a section 60 was in force in the City until 6am. After further discussion we decided that we would all be prepared to stay there until 6am. Further negotiation was attempted to allow us water and toilet facilities, but the request was refused.
By this time a small crowd was beginning to form around us and some people lobbed in some food for us, which was gratefully passed around. It was approaching half past five by now, and more people were gathering outside us, and a few pictures were being taken - the press vultures were still circling (apologies if anyone finds that description speciesist). Bemused city workers leaving work were curiously looking in, and taking a few of their own snaps for the family album. Then, all of a sudden the head copper came and told us that the police were going to let us go without being searched. Just like that. The police dispersed. We cheered and hugged one another as we realised that we had won. We gathered for a group photo and a wall of cameras recorded our joy for posterity. My fear is that this story of peaceful demonstration will be less than a footnote to the last couple of days as the press don't seem to want anything other than bloody anarchy and violence to scream out from their headlines.
But we will not forget. As we will not forget the fallen comrade to whom we dedicate this small victory for the right to peaceful protest without intimidation and fear of reprisal, violence and infringement of civil liberties. In what some still call a democracy. The tactics of the police seem to be increasingly aggressive and antagonistic and must be challenged. And let us not forget that the struggle goes on, the neoliberal overlords whom the police are defending are still making imperialistic decisions which affect all of our lives, for the worse, and that the mortal threat of climate change hangs heavy over us all. We should all take heart and courage and build momentum, to carry on the struggle, in memory of he who gave his life last night defending the right to protest, for a better future, and for all the countless forgotten victims across the globe who suffer and perish at the hands of capitalism each and every day.
Hasta la victoria siempre
Andy
Andy is a member of the Green Party Regional Council.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
*G20 protest - policing tactics
REPORT FROM CLLR. ROMAYNE PHOENIX:
In 31 years of active participation in peaceful street demonstrations I have NEVER before been close to the threat of being 'kettled' in / trapped by police. This tactic has more often been used at stages much later in the day after the majority of protesters have left, and when small groups seem determined to continue with their actions, and possibly a few of these who could have plans to develop their actions beyond the lines supported by the demonstrators of the day.
Planning to leave the area of the Bank of England, with a few friends, having made our peaceful protests for about an hour, we headed down Queen Victoria ST only to be met at a fork in the road by a solid line of police. Beyond them was a space and we could see two further roads where police lines were 'containing' other crowds of people, just as determined as us to leave . It was very warm, bright and sunny and it was lunchtime. As we became further 'herded' together the police seemed to sip from their water bottles in a very provocative and sensual manner. Someone was heard saying that the police had declared that hey were paid to work through the night in reply to her question as to when they / we might be allowed to leave.
We were told that our detention was due to their anticipation of a breach of the peace. Legal advice sought while we stood held against our will, confirmed that such a threat of breach of the peace was a valid power that the police could use. Supposedly, as soon as such a threat has passed then people should be released. In our 'pen' the mood was fairly stoical / calm and we kept ourselves amused as best we could. As time pressed on I made several challenges to the police about our civil liberties/ about methods they could use to plan an orderly exit using the helicopter views and their ground forces / about the lack of any actual breach of the peace in view / earshot of any of the hundreds of people so trapped in this particular road.
On one occasion a senior officer was contacted to answer my concerns but as he came towards the line he simply 'whispered' to an officer and retreated. We were then told that we were to be held. Told that we would be held until they said so.
If anyone had been arrested they would have been entitled to water , food and the use of a toilet. After being detained for (?) a couple of hours, having arrived an hour or so before that, with no estimate as to the duration of our further detainment, this treatment of very peaceful people certainly seemed to be a provocative police action and not an 'intelligent' use of police or an acceptable set of tactics. Added to this, at various intervals we could see riot police, in full kit, rushing out of their vans , causing some panic and consternation in the hitherto still and mostly silent crowds. Just as suddenly the riot police seemed to retreat back to their vehicles. Was the agitation of the crowds the essential factor in justifying the fears of 'breach of the peace' ?
Being at the front of the crowd I did on a few occasions make calls for our civil liberties, , listing some of the important responsibilities that these individual people had the need and the right to carry out ( child care , jobs, care of relatives, simply choosing where to spend their time, or preparing and heading for AGM of local council........). These seemed to go down well and at least broke some of the boredom factor of the situation.
On two occasions I saw an individual attempting to demand their freedom by walking 'through' the police line. This action resulted in a very aggressive response each time with four or five police officers to tackle the individual to the ground.
Eventually, when a group of people pushed forward together they broke the line of police in front of us. There was a sudden movement of bodies that could have resulted n a crush, but people were mindful of each other and no-one fell under foot.
The impetus was however 'forward', and as I made my way to the edge of the crowd I could see that the police line had collapsed and individual officers were standing alone looking lost and without a plan. Continuing to walk on, the crowds dispersed. Peacefully.
I returned to find friends as we had become separated in the surge. As we prepared to leave we could see others still being trapped in at the far end of the road. We decided to turn down a side street. Calmly we walked to the tube station. Free once more. For now.
Is this a taste of things to come ?
We need to challenge these counter-productive and unacceptable police tactics now.
In 31 years of active participation in peaceful street demonstrations I have NEVER before been close to the threat of being 'kettled' in / trapped by police. This tactic has more often been used at stages much later in the day after the majority of protesters have left, and when small groups seem determined to continue with their actions, and possibly a few of these who could have plans to develop their actions beyond the lines supported by the demonstrators of the day.
Planning to leave the area of the Bank of England, with a few friends, having made our peaceful protests for about an hour, we headed down Queen Victoria ST only to be met at a fork in the road by a solid line of police. Beyond them was a space and we could see two further roads where police lines were 'containing' other crowds of people, just as determined as us to leave . It was very warm, bright and sunny and it was lunchtime. As we became further 'herded' together the police seemed to sip from their water bottles in a very provocative and sensual manner. Someone was heard saying that the police had declared that hey were paid to work through the night in reply to her question as to when they / we might be allowed to leave.
We were told that our detention was due to their anticipation of a breach of the peace. Legal advice sought while we stood held against our will, confirmed that such a threat of breach of the peace was a valid power that the police could use. Supposedly, as soon as such a threat has passed then people should be released. In our 'pen' the mood was fairly stoical / calm and we kept ourselves amused as best we could. As time pressed on I made several challenges to the police about our civil liberties/ about methods they could use to plan an orderly exit using the helicopter views and their ground forces / about the lack of any actual breach of the peace in view / earshot of any of the hundreds of people so trapped in this particular road.
On one occasion a senior officer was contacted to answer my concerns but as he came towards the line he simply 'whispered' to an officer and retreated. We were then told that we were to be held. Told that we would be held until they said so.
If anyone had been arrested they would have been entitled to water , food and the use of a toilet. After being detained for (?) a couple of hours, having arrived an hour or so before that, with no estimate as to the duration of our further detainment, this treatment of very peaceful people certainly seemed to be a provocative police action and not an 'intelligent' use of police or an acceptable set of tactics. Added to this, at various intervals we could see riot police, in full kit, rushing out of their vans , causing some panic and consternation in the hitherto still and mostly silent crowds. Just as suddenly the riot police seemed to retreat back to their vehicles. Was the agitation of the crowds the essential factor in justifying the fears of 'breach of the peace' ?
Being at the front of the crowd I did on a few occasions make calls for our civil liberties, , listing some of the important responsibilities that these individual people had the need and the right to carry out ( child care , jobs, care of relatives, simply choosing where to spend their time, or preparing and heading for AGM of local council........). These seemed to go down well and at least broke some of the boredom factor of the situation.
On two occasions I saw an individual attempting to demand their freedom by walking 'through' the police line. This action resulted in a very aggressive response each time with four or five police officers to tackle the individual to the ground.
Eventually, when a group of people pushed forward together they broke the line of police in front of us. There was a sudden movement of bodies that could have resulted n a crush, but people were mindful of each other and no-one fell under foot.
The impetus was however 'forward', and as I made my way to the edge of the crowd I could see that the police line had collapsed and individual officers were standing alone looking lost and without a plan. Continuing to walk on, the crowds dispersed. Peacefully.
I returned to find friends as we had become separated in the surge. As we prepared to leave we could see others still being trapped in at the far end of the road. We decided to turn down a side street. Calmly we walked to the tube station. Free once more. For now.
Is this a taste of things to come ?
We need to challenge these counter-productive and unacceptable police tactics now.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
*Police tactics at today's demo.
REPORT FROM ANNA BRAGGA:
I've just returned shaken and appalled at the policing tactics employed at the G20 protests in the City.
It is only thanks to my NUJ press pass that I managed to (eventually) escape the terrifying crush imposed by aggressive police. By that point I had spent at least two hours rammed in with other peaceful protesters, bursting for the loo and battling against a resurgence of a phobia of being trapped in tight crowds.
Before the police cordon around the roads leading to the Bank of England was implemented, I (along with another Haringey Green) had already decided not to proceed any further into the protest as it was becoming clear that the police had one thing in mind - to pen everyone in. However, when we tried to retrace our steps and move away from the crowds, we were prevented from doing so by a row of officers who ordered us to 'move on', aggressively pushing my colleague in the process. From then onwards we were condemned to a terrifying ordeal of being trapped in a confined space – a section of Princes Street - with an increasingly frustrated and angry group of protesters.
When police in riot gear appeared and one protester was arrested, bottles started to fly over our heads, so we edged away from our corner of Princes Street to try and find a safer spot. By now, a lot of people desperately wanted to be let out of the cordon and the atmosphere was becoming increasingly volatile. Luckily my NUJ pass gave me access out of the mob around about this time - just as my crowd phobia was escalating to a terrifying level!
I really hope that the Green Party will use its powers at GLA, Euro and National Party level to hold the Met Police to account for the heavy handedness of their actions against peaceful protestors. There must surely be a law against holding law abiding citizens against their will when they are at risk of harm..... As a seasoned activist, I can honestly say that I have never experienced such bullying tactics by our own police, and it makes me very sad.
What do others who were there think?
Anna Bragga
Haringey Green Party
I've just returned shaken and appalled at the policing tactics employed at the G20 protests in the City.
It is only thanks to my NUJ press pass that I managed to (eventually) escape the terrifying crush imposed by aggressive police. By that point I had spent at least two hours rammed in with other peaceful protesters, bursting for the loo and battling against a resurgence of a phobia of being trapped in tight crowds.
Before the police cordon around the roads leading to the Bank of England was implemented, I (along with another Haringey Green) had already decided not to proceed any further into the protest as it was becoming clear that the police had one thing in mind - to pen everyone in. However, when we tried to retrace our steps and move away from the crowds, we were prevented from doing so by a row of officers who ordered us to 'move on', aggressively pushing my colleague in the process. From then onwards we were condemned to a terrifying ordeal of being trapped in a confined space – a section of Princes Street - with an increasingly frustrated and angry group of protesters.
When police in riot gear appeared and one protester was arrested, bottles started to fly over our heads, so we edged away from our corner of Princes Street to try and find a safer spot. By now, a lot of people desperately wanted to be let out of the cordon and the atmosphere was becoming increasingly volatile. Luckily my NUJ pass gave me access out of the mob around about this time - just as my crowd phobia was escalating to a terrifying level!
I really hope that the Green Party will use its powers at GLA, Euro and National Party level to hold the Met Police to account for the heavy handedness of their actions against peaceful protestors. There must surely be a law against holding law abiding citizens against their will when they are at risk of harm..... As a seasoned activist, I can honestly say that I have never experienced such bullying tactics by our own police, and it makes me very sad.
What do others who were there think?
Anna Bragga
Haringey Green Party
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