Climate Camp Terrorism?

[free spirit]

** Could it be someone baiting the cops ? "yeah its all going to kick off soon better get down here quick" Chasing shadows is just as much as annoyancefor the cops as it is for the demonstrators *** I probably put it down to cock up rather than a conspricy cops basically want an peaceful camp so upsetting eveyone gets them no where .keeping upeveryone all night long just encourages it too kick off .

to be fair, they could also be trying to avoid a repeat of what happened at stirling for the g8 when several hundred protesters marched off site on mass at around 2am to launch the blocades, with hundreds more having already left to camp out in the hills ready to blocade the roads in random small groups from first light, taking the police by surprise, and overwhelming them numbers wise as they couldn't move their reinforcements around by road and were forced to use army chinooks for most of the day.

IMO this will have been their shift change, and a show of force by the new shift commander to stop anyone getting any ideas about doing anything silly on his watch.

they also love a bit of intimidation, and won't have any qualms about waking the camp up. It'll be a bit of gamesmanship from the coppers really, just showing that they're up and ready and not going to be caught napping so to speak.

it's a dangerous game to be playing though as if pushed too far there's a lot the climate camp mob could do to make the police's lives a fucking nightmare as well... for instance in scotland I knew exactly which firms were supplying the toilets for the police compounds, so had we not been able to finally negotiate access for our toilet cleaning trucks (after 2 days of them being blocked from accessing the site by police) the police may well have found the company servicing their loos suddenly had it's trucks out of commission as well.

 

[durruti02]

dear oh dear ..

Hoo Section 60
A N Other | 07.08.2008 15:34 | Climate Chaos | Repression | London

Local press claims Section 60 in force on Hoo peninsula


According to Kent Online

'Officers can now stop and search anyone without needing to have reasonable grounds to do so.'

'The extended powers – under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act – are now in place across the Hoo peninsula. It means anyone, including visitors to the area, or residents are subject to a stop and search if requested by a police officer.'

The police are obviously delusional and desperate to prop up their own imaginary world in which they are a thin blue line and the campers are troublemakers. Meanwhile in the real world we face the greatest emergency humans have faced in many thousands of years and the police are doing their best to frustrate those who would do something to face this problem.

 

[free spirit]

hmm actually thinking about it, I'd better point out that I'm not condoning the polices actions, and IMO the climate camp people are right to be worried, and raising awareness of what's going on.


the history of the policing of the global protest movement of the last 20 years or so (plus travellers camps etc) fairly graphically demonstrates that the police are entirely capable of launching unprovoked violent attacks on camps / travellers sites / convergence centres / squats / media centres, or instigating actions that are likely to provoke a response that they can then use to justify a full scale incursion.

It also tends to mainly be rogue commanders exceeding their authority who do this, such as at genoa, and I'm guessing that at 2am the overall commanders going to be in bed, so it's quite likely to be some violent met prick with a grudge who's in charge and decides to take his men on a site visit to relieve the boredom of the night shift.

 

[The Black Hand]

Not sure if that counts as, "Psyops and terror" but it's an annoying police tactic.

Cops are twats. Simple as One of my best friends from school is a cop now, and I wouldn't trust him. Such is life.

 

[durruti02]

and more

stopping food delivery vans a mile away from site

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405855.html

and report ..

"The question is, why have Her Majesty’s police force decided to subject a crew of campers to such astonishing levels of harassment? What tactics are involved, and at what level were they authorised?"

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405874.html

 

[durruti02]

and campers defeating intimidation .. ( p.s. this is the incident that the police spun as campers leaving as they did not like the camp!!LOL!!)

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405865.html

 

[durruti02]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7548684.stm

MPs concerned at climate policing

Police have been stopping and searching people in Hoo
An extension of police powers to stop and search anyone near a protest camp in Kent is undermining civil liberties, two MPs and an MEP have said.

South East MEP Caroline Lucas and MPs Norman Baker and Colin Challen have written to the Kent force with concerns about the policing of the protest.

 

[durruti02]

residents protest police actions

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7547557.stm

 

[durruti02]

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406021.html

"Climate Camp: How The Police Radicalized An Entire Generation"

a bold claim i would like to think is true but we'll see ..

 

[durruti02]

and more police violence

 

[The Black Hand]

Cops are twats. Simple as One of my best friends from school is a cop now, and I wouldn't trust him. Such is life.

The above is my view, though I do appreciate this fair comment from Kentonline.co.uk;

"On the whole this week has been a triumph for our mature democracy.

There are few places in the world where hundreds of people could occupy some land and march through the streets in protest without provoking a severe reaction from the state.

Yes, there have been excesses on both sides - a tiny number of protesters declared themselves to be prepared to break the law to achieve their avowed aim of shutting down the power station, and the police officer videoed assaulting a protester with a riot shield clearly used excessive force. In the main, however, protesters, police and local residents have conducted themseleves admirably. We should celebrate the successes of the week, and consign the less savoury incidents to oblivion.

Bernard Lazzari"

 

[The Black Hand]

Obviously Bernard didn't see this cos it wasn't on the BBC or ITV;

 

[The Black Hand]

This has the "clear use of excessive force by the police" according to Bernard in it;