Policing

One more reason not to visit America

Policing, Race
Published on Leave a comment on One more reason not to visit America



Thin skinned, thick as shit police. From the description of the video:

Here’s the scene:
We were enjoying the nice spring weather from our balcony. A friend was visiting on his bike, and he rode up on the sidewalk from the street to our front door. In NYC this is illegal. You are supposed to stop in the street, get off the bike and walk it on the sidewalk. Although he was merely coming from the street up to our front door, those few second were illegal. NYPD rolls up, and I begin to film as they are issuing him a summons to appear in court.

Meanwhile our neighbor walks by while this scene is unfolding. My neighbor and my friend on the bike exchange some banter. No one is offended. We all laughed. He keeps walking.

From there everything escalates… Seems completely unnecessary to me…

At the end of the day, my neighbor was charged with harassment, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Welcome to an afternoon with the NYPD

There’s the reason why there’s never a cop when you need one. Dude jokes to his friend, didn’t say anything to the police and officer McRacist decides to make a case out of it — in the end three police cars and about a dozen officers are involved. Meanwhile one of the local neighbourhood drug dealers (judging from the commentary from the guys with the video) walks by…

That’s one reason I don’t want to visit the US anytime soon, because I’m not sure I could’ve stayed as calm as this guy did had this happened to me. I’ve been angry and done stupid things before, but nothing that could’ve gotten me tasered and I’m not in a hurry to try that.

Politicised punishment

Activism, Policing
Published on

The Flying Rodent expands on the same Blood & Treasure post I commented on below and argues:

Similarly, judges frown upon people being assaulted in the Houses of Parliament and attacks on policemen, not least because they also frown upon attacks on judges, but also because the H’es of P and the cops are symbols of democracy and good order. For obvious reasons, those who make the law want citizens to think twice before getting into boxing matches with the constabulary.

Now, you might think this is unfair. You might think it’s scandalous and symptomatic of whatever societal ills, but the one thing it isn’t is politicised. Get caught committing these types of offences, and it’s Wormwood Scrubs for you. If anything, half of these folk could’ve been given far worse sentences and they wouldn’t have had many grounds for complaint.

With which I disagree much more than I did with Jamie’s post. Not so much the idea that if you engage in civil disobedience you should be prepared for jail time, but the idea that the laws under which you are convicted are not politicised. If you punish an attack on a cop more than the same attack on a citizen because the former is a symbol of “democracy and good order”, how is that not a political decision? That’s the state arguing that crimes against its representatives are more harmful than crimes against ordinary people so should be punished harsher. Which is a view of the state that’s political, small c conservative.

Furthermore, consider Otis Ferry. Remember him? The twatty son of popular rock star Bryan Ferry, who invaded parliament back in 2004 to intimidate MPs into voting against the hunting ban? He got a 450 pound fine for his offence, but Jonnie Marbles got six weeks. Same offence, well, minus one pie, different punishment.

Police murderer says Ian Tomlinson “almost invited a physical confrontation”

Police Murder, UK politics
Published on



From the Evening Standard:

The policeman who pushed Ian Tomlinson to the ground moments before he died blamed him for provoking the clash, the inquest heard today.

Pc Simon Harwood said that 47-year-old newspaper seller had “almost invited a physical confrontation” during the G20 protest in London .

He went on to claim that his police training entitled him to use his baton against someone who was posing no threat. He also refused to accept that video evidence proved he had pushed Mr Tomlinson in the back.

As the video show Simon Harwood was of course lying, but he says he’s sorry so that’s alright — no trial is needed. What do we call Ian Tomlinson’s death if it had been a civilian who struck him from behind with a baton, then pushed him to the ground? Murder? Manslaughter?

The kids are alright

Activism, creative direct action, Policing
Published on



I don’t know who this kid is, but I do know he’ll be taken the mick out something fierce if this video goes viral. We don’t like young, earnest kids talking politics, especially leftwing politics, it’s all a bit cringeworthy, naive and definately not cool. But the kid is right. His generation, the children of the children of Thatcher, were supposed to be beyond politics, good little consumers only interested in X-Factor and X-Boxes. Yet like their slightly older brothers and sisters seven years ago when they skipped school to go on the anti-war demos and getting villified for it, their own experiences in trying to participate in one of their fundamental rights, the right to protest, are radicalising them. As he says, the police is no longer that nice voice at the other side of the line helping you after a burglary. Their counterparts in the estates already knew the police and media were not their friends, but for “normal”, middle class people nothing can be as radicalising as that first time you end up at the wrong demo and see yourself and your friends be treated as dangerous criminals by the authorities.

Speaking of which, this twelve year old math geek was deemed dangerous enough to be threatened by anti-terrorist police:

Nicky Wishart, a pupil at Bartholomew School, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, organised the event on Facebook to highlight the plight of his youth centre, which is due to close in March next year due to budget cuts.

The protest, which was due to take place today, has attracted over 130 people on Facebook, most of whom are children who use youth centres in Cameron’s constituency, Whitney.

Wishart said that after the school was contacted by anti-terrorist officers, he was taken out of his English class on Tuesday afternoon and interviewed by a Thames Valley officer at the school in the presence of his head of year. During the interview, Wishart says that the officer told him that if any public disorder took place at the event he would be held responsible and arrested.

Speaking to the Guardian, Nicky Wishart said: “In my lesson, [a school secretary] came and said my head of year wanted to talk to me. She was in her office with a police officer who wanted to talk to me about the protest. He said, ‘if a riot breaks out we will arrest people and if anything happens you will get arrested because you are the organiser’.

“He said even if I didn’t turn up I would be arrested and he also said that if David Cameron was in, his armed officers will be there ‘so if anything out of line happens …’ and then he stopped.”

Wishart, who describes himself as a “maths geek” said he was frightened by the encounter. “I was really scared. Normally I’m a confident speaker but I lost all my confidence. My mum was worried, and I was worried and I didn’t know what to do.”

Armed police threatening twelve year olds. Does it not make you proud of Britain?