Police launch attack on climate camp

Published: April 01, 2009 18:46 by Darth Columbo

Is anyone videoing any of this?

Published: April 01, 2009 18:58 by John Doe

Crazy! Was there earlier, it was peaceful.

Published: April 01, 2009 19:26 by robin

that's why they're known as the FILTH. revolting. the summer of rage will intensify more now due to their actions. we've got millions unemployed, homeless, desperate. and now we make a stand and we get beaten by horrific police brutality. remind anyone of thatchers government??? yea. the summer of rage is coming.

Published: April 01, 2009 20:46 by jo

I was at climate camp today with my 5 month old baby and 61 yr old dad. everyone was great atmosphere amazing. Brother currently kettled in but they are having a ceilidh/ barn dance so not broken yet! Fuck the po-lice.

Published: April 01, 2009 23:45 by Anon Trot ;)

There has been a steady increase in police violence in the last 18 months or so. It's now becoming accepted that if you're going on a march, whether stop the war or whatever, there will be trouble.

Wait untill we hit 4M unemployed and the right to work marches start and we'll fight back as a class.

My thoughts are with our brothers and sisters at the climate camp. It's all too similar to the actions of the police in Genoa.

Another world is possible and very much needed!

x

Published: April 02, 2009 00:07 by Love is stronger than Hate

It's true, riot police were beating peaceful protesters with sheilds and battons, despite them chanting "peace not riot" and holding their hands aloft to show their non-violence. I got caught right in the middle of it.

It was the whole line of police doing it, so taking specific numbers would be impossible. The police seemed to WANT to start a riot - how odd...

What they were doing was totally wrong, and they were shamed by the refusal of the campers to react violently - I was very impressed by this.

Dialogue:

Protestor: "Why are you doing this? We're being peaceful."

Police: "You have to move back."

Protestor: "We can't move back. There are tents and structures. You're hurting people. Why do you want us to move back?"

Police: "Because I told you to."

Dialogue 2:

Me (after being shoved in the face with a riot shield): "do you like hitting girls, then?"

Police: "Yep."

I put it down to sexual frustration...

Published: April 02, 2009 01:05 by Huw from the Aardvarkhome

Today, I was prevented from walking down a road by a group of aggressive men, all tooled up with weapons and body armour. I am in my 50s and generally non threatening person.

I was prevent from going about my lawfull business by non other than the metropolitan police. The police were varied between non communicative and abusive. In order to act, the police must have a power in law. I was told that I could not walk down a street by groups of police , two of whom told me that they were acting to prevent a breach of the peace. Nothing in my behaviour could have given them reasonable cause to belive that I would commit a breach of the peace.

I am deeply ashamed to be british today. I have seen behaviour more normally associated with police states that with a democracy ruled by law. When I left the area this evening I saw more police arriving. I would guess there were at most 1000 protesters but considerably more police. The protesters were un armed, yet the police looked ready to fight a mediaeval battle. I understand that a group of quackers, passively resisting an illegal order to move, were truncheoned.
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Published: April 02, 2009 01:38 by Vendetta

I am not sure there is much more to say than what was already said. But I have to say I was shocked by the violent reactions by the police. Or, better saying, could we say the police reacted to the climate camping or provoked the whole confusion, bleeding, dogs, etc etc etc.

I left Climate Camping area in the end of the afternoon and things were absolutely peaceful. When I got home however, I realised things totally started to change. The news were shocking and worse at every update.

Later on I tried to go back to it and couldn't reach it because of the police blocking the roads. At the same time a friend called asking for help, she was brutally hit by the police. The reason? She still doesn't know. Everyone was sitting down, some people giving flowers to the police when they started getting harder and more numerous. Until the moment they started beating up whoever they saw.

This evening leaves us a very bad taste in our mouth. I wonder what will happen next during this Thursday. We should not give up the peace.

Published: April 02, 2009 09:51 by luke weatherill

i was at climate camp on bishopsgate from 3 till 7ish. the atmosphere was amazing, incredibly peaceful, the police were being very friendly, not a sniff of trouble. then around 6 a LOT of riot police started massing, and formed a deep line at the south end of the campsite. without explanation or warning they started stomping into the protesters, first pushing them back with their shields, later bludgeoning them, again with shields.
to their credit, i didnt see a single protester commit a single act of violence - it all came from the police. from a vantage point above the front line all I could see was hundreds of protesters with their hands in the air, shouting "peace not riot" as the police pushed and battered them. i have never seen such unprovoked police brutality - it seemed the police were out to start a fight. very sad.

Published: April 02, 2009 12:34 by Danielle Anderson

I arrived at Bishopsgate at approximately 3pm after finishing a full day at work....not the tax dodger that some people made all us protesters out to be.
The peaceful carnival atmosphere that greeted me as I exited Devonshire Row was a wonder to behold. There was music, laughter and general all round peace, with strangers mingling without the usual London repression and Police Officers joining in the fun.
There was even a kitchen selling freshly cooked food and some compost toilets set up in the middle of the road....this was not an area poised for attack!!
The atmosphere soon changed however when the police began to mass at around 6pm. One of my work colleagues noticed it but I, being 5'1", wasn't able to see over the crowd and hadn't even noticed. At approximately 7pm a cry of "They're here....form a line!!" snapped me out of my happy hippy revelry and brought me crashing down to earth. Being close to Houndsditch, which is where the first attack came from, I was immediately caught up in the rush and ended up next to my colleague on the front line with arms linked. It was at this point that police in full riot gear charged the line that had now formed to protect this peaceful protest. The police used their sheilds to batter those on the front line, irrespective of the fact that we protesters were maintaining thier peaceful stance.
I witnessed a young man with his hands in the air be beaten by four policemen using their sheilds not half a metre from where I stood.
As I retreated back in to the crowd I realised that all the protesters had their hands in the air and were chanting..."Peace not Riots!" This, however, did not stop the police from advancing with force swinging batons and sheilds.
What I witnessed and endured yesterday was nothing more than a blatant case of police brutality. Bishopsgate could not have been more different than Bank, though it would seem that the police took it upon themselves to reassert the authority they had earlier lost at Bank by attacking the one crowd they knew would not fight back.
By the time I managed to extracate myself from the now fraught situation the police had blocked off the site at the north end, thereby preventing the escape of many and, I should imagine, in preparation of another riot charge from that end.
I am still reeling from my experience and feel that I have lost a little of the love that I had for this city and country. I truly thought that this sort of organised police brutality was a thing of the past in England....how wrong I was.

Published: April 02, 2009 19:53 by Romy

I was there up until about 6.30-ish, and when I left the very first of the riot police had just begun to mass at either end of the protest. I spoke with a few people there who were worried about this because the protest was entirely peaceful and no one could see the need for riot poilce to be there at all when no one had done anything wrong.

I was shocked when I saw the news upon arriving home. Not half an hour earlier when I had left I walked freely out of the camp, leaving behind an atmosphere of happiness and calm.

Shame on the police, their heavy-handed brutality is a disgrace. I think it's high time there was an enquiry into how the police are allowed to get away with such actions.

Published: April 03, 2009 01:30 by Steve

I was in the Bank Kettle for nine hours, where the violence was initialised by the police as a response to peaceful requests from the crowds to be let out. It's true that some protesters were willing to fight back but they were very few and the vast majority resisted peacefully. A couple of sit-downs I took part in did work, but there came a time when many were unsure that such a tactic would succeed - I thought that they would probably just wade in and baton whichever head was closest so I choose to stay on my feet after a while, for a quick getaway.
There were never any verbal warnings given, they just beat back peaceful people - with their hands in the air chanting "This is not a riot" and "We are peaceful" - with shields and batons.
The news of their behaviour at the Climate Camp, which was my original goal (along with a couple of other people) is sad and appaling. The police have no excuse for what they did - there was never any threat of violence from anyone other than these thugs in uniform and it was a properly organised and authorised peacful demonstration.
I'd like to see anyone who was a victim of their brutality or with evidence against them - and the ability to do so, sue their fucking arses off, or at least write to your MP, to the Chief Inspector of the Met, to the Home Secretary, to our non-elected Prime Minister, to the papers, the tv news channels, whoever - get the truth out there as much as you can but be sure that you can back it up with evidence.
In my opinion the police have lost the right to be called public servants and have proven themselves to be morally corrupt, brutal, bullies and it's very sad. I also think that this changes so much more than I ever thought could change in what was once a free, democratic society. I love this country, and it takes a lot to get me angry but this makes me very, very angry.
Peace y'all - lets fight this.

Published: April 03, 2009 16:49 by climate camp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t244-zEENSs&feature=channel_page