Policing – Page 6

Police violence at Rotterdam May Day demo

Published on May 4, 2010

From a posting on Marxmail, an eyewitness account of police violence against this year’s May Day celebrations in Rotterdam:

Here’s some video I shot of the police attacking the Mayday demo in Rotterdam. I realize that police attack demos somewhere in the world every day, but this was rather significant because this demo has been held traditionally (for 30 years I understand) on mayday starting at the city hall in Rotterdam, but this time the police announced that we wouldn’t be allowed to march (supposedly because the sticks our flags were on could be “weapons”) and then told us we had to clear out of the area completely. After moving in and causing people to retreat and forcing us into smaller groups, they attacked the group still in front of the building with clubs, horses, and a dog, arresting 14. I only realized how close I got to being trampled by a horse after watching my own video!

http://www.xs4all.nl/~meisner/1meiRotterdam2010/CLIP0165.AVI
http://www.xs4all.nl/~meisner/1meiRotterdam2010/CLIP0175.AVI

Why the police attacked this time (again, for a traditional demo with a permit) isn’t clear, but might reflect a strategic shift against protest in context of the economic crisis. Or it might just be that they thought they could get away with it, partly since the demo was a lot smaller (about 500) than the usual 1-2000 (due to poorer organizing this year, I think). But this is held every year more or less without incident, so no one expected it. And I understand that the police also arrested people at the Mayday demo in Nijmegen, so this might signal a crackdown on the left and protesting in NL.

I’ve seen the excuse about sticks/flagpoles as “dangerous weapons” used before when police needed some reason to harass a demo, both here and in the UK. It’s absurd, but can be sold to the newspapers. The original poster overthinks the reasons for this police aggression; I doubt that the police has explicitely gotten orders to crack down on political protests. If I had to guess I’d think that it’s a side effect to the Rotterdam police overreacting to what happened at the Hoek van Holland beach party of August last year — where inept policing and rioting football hooligans led to the police accidently shooting and killing an innocent man. Since then the Rotterdam police has become a lot harsher in dealing with potentially dangerous situations and since leftist demonstrations of this kind have always been seen as worrisome by them, it’s no surprise that this happened. Wrong, but not surprising.

(Crossposted from Wis[s]e Words.)

Tick, Tick, No Boom

Published on May 2, 20102 Comments

A bomb in Times Square could’ve been very nasty indeed, whether rabid teapartiers, Islamic or Xtian fundies were responsible:

NEW YORK â€”

Police found an “amateurish” but potentially powerful bomb in a smoking sport utility vehicle in Times Square, then cleared the streets of thousands of tourists milling through the landmark district so they could dismantle it, authorities said Sunday.

“We avoided what we could have been a very deadly event,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact.”

Investigators removed three propane tanks, consumer-grade fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference early Sunday. A black metal box resembling a gun locker was also recovered.

“I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire,” Kelly said.

Bloomberg called the explosive device “amateurish” but potentially deadly, noting: “We are very lucky.”

A white robotic police arm broke windows of the black Nissan Pathfinder to remove any explosive materials after a T-shirt vendor alerted police to the smoking vehicle at about 6:30 p.m. Heavily armed police and emergency vehicles shut down the city’s busiest streets, teeming with taxis and theatergoers on one of the first summer-like days of the year.

A Connecticut license plate on the vehicle did not match up, according to authorities, who did not know a motive. Police interviewed the Connecticut car owner, who told police he had sent the plates to a nearby junkyard, Bloomberg said. Police are reviewing surveillance video and looking for more.

After the vendor noticed smoke coming from the SUV, police cleared buildings and streets at the so-called “Crossroads of the World”; the area remained closed hours later. Officers were deployed around the area with heavy weapons on empty streets in the heart of busy midtown Manhattan. More…

Given the reported amateurism of the bomb’s manufacture, my money’s on the wingnuts.

Criminalising protest

Published on April 2, 2010

BBC Newsnigft has finally taken notice of the way in which the police and criminal prosecution system are attempting to criminalise protest, in particular the protests against the Israeli invasion of Gaza last year:

It turns out a large proportion of the people being arrested were Muslims under anti-terrorism laws, rather than under say less stringent public nuisance laws, were tricked into pleadin guilty on the pretence that this would get them lighter sentences when in fact the judges in their cases had already decided to set examples and were not allowed to share evidence with each other, each case being treated seperately. Though several of these cases were later thrown out, this still has a chilling effect on the freedom to demonstrate, to know that you could be sentenced under terrorism law and hence could face jail time for “crimes” that in a non-political context would not be crimes at all or at worst punishable with community service.

Disgusted by British justice, again

Published on March 31, 2010

Delroy Smellie (and his fat beer belly) cleared of assault:

District Judge Daphne Wickham found no evidence had been provided to show use of the baton was not measured or correct.

She said: “It was for the prosecution to prove this defendant was not acting in lawful self-defence.

“The prosecution has failed in this respect and the defendant has raised the issue of lawful self-defence and as such is entitled to be acquitted.”

The judge said Sgt Smellie had a “mere seven seconds” to act when Ms Fisher ran in front of him hurling abuse at a vigil held on 2 April to mark the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at a previous demonstration.

Judge for yourself:

Yep, that really looks like a guy worried for his own safety with little time to decide whether this oh so dangerous woman almost half his size was holding weapons…

Met thugs forced to pay damages for wrongful arrests

Published on March 24, 2010

The wheels of justice grind slowly, redux. Metropolitian Police have to pay 6,000 pounds in damage for wrongful arrests during the G20 protests:

At the time, protesters complained they were treated harshly because it had been a peaceful meeting. Some of the activists chanted “shame on you” at the officers during the raid which was subsequently posted on YouTube.

Ms McClure, of Leeds, and Mr Rubens, a Glasgow student, complained that they had been unlawfully arrested and held without reasonable suspicion.

They said they were made to stand in the street as officers compared the group with images of protesters that been gathered by intelligence teams.

Mr Rubens said in a witness statement to the court that he had been “very shaken up”.

In a statement, the force said: “The Metropolitan Police Service can confirm that it has settled a claim made by two people present at an address in Earl Street on 2nd April.

“We have accepted that they should not have been arrested and have agreed to pay them compensation. Any further claims will be looked at on a case-by-case basis.”