Police Brutality on Bishopsgate
G20 demonstrations: a first-hand account of peaceful protest and unprovoked police violence.
At exactly 12.30pm on 1st April, environmental protestors swooped on Bishopsgate, the main road running through the heart of London’s financial district, to set up a 24-hour climate camp on the eve of the G20 summit.
Within the space of a few surreal minutes, a quarter-mile length of this busy London road had been transformed into something between a tented town and a carnival. It started with a gradual filtering of bodies slowly filling the traffic-free street, then suddenly tents popped up like mushrooms and bunting was strung between lampposts. A kitchen appeared out of nowhere, cycle-powered sound systems started up, and the police – after initially attempting to drag away the first tents that appeared – decided it was best to let it happen.
The action was the brainchild of Climate Camp, who pulled off similarly spectacular feats at Kingsnorth power station in 2008 and Heathrow in 2007. Bishopsgate was chosen because it’s the location of the European Climate Exchange, the largest carbon trading centre in the world (for info about why carbon trading’s bad, see this page at climatecamp.org.uk).
Elsewhere in the City, protests turned rough – a branch of RBS was smashed up, and police ‘kettled’ thousands of demonstrators at Bank – but the camp itself was nothing but peaceful. Office workers mingled with the crowd, there was hot food served, open workshops and discussions, and the police were relaxed and non-confrontational, strolling about, chatting with protesters and being handed bunches of daffodils that matched their fluorescent jackets.
At about 6.45pm – when most of the businessmen and city workers mingling with the crowd had gone home – this changed very abruptly.
Without asking anyone to disperse, or giving any kind of warning whatsoever, police in full riot gear charged the southern boundary of the camp. The attack was unprovoked and unexpected. They trampled tents and used shields and batons to beat back protesters who, until then, had been sitting in small groups eating, talking and listening to music.
People surged forward to stop the police cutting a swathe through the camp, holding their hands up and chanting ‘This is not a riot.’ I found myself in the front line, where I got booted in the leg by a cop whose features, behind the tinted visor of his helmet, were contorted with rage. He screamed ‘Get back, you fuck!’ in my face. I shouted at him that I couldn’t move, I was sandwiched between the police and the crowd. In response to this he kicked me again – leaving a cut and bruise on my shin – and when I held out my palms to show I wasn’t trying to fight, he smacked me in the hand with his baton.
Other people were coming off worse. I saw people grabbed and hurled to the ground. Others were clubbed and punched. A girl was kicked between the legs. It was pretty sickening to witness unarmed young men and women beaten by bulky men with shields and protective clothing. Amazingly, no-one responded with violence (apart from a few plastic bottles being thrown, and even then the people throwing them were condemned by other protesters). People continued to hold their hands up and even attempted dialogue with the police: ‘Can’t you see we’re not fighting you?’ ‘Why are you doing this?’
By sheer force of numbers we held the police lines back. If they’d managed to break through and sweep into the camp itself, a lot more people would have been injured.
It was the second transformation of the day, and it was entirely deliberate. In the same length of time we’d transformed a busy City street into an environmental camp, the police transformed a carnival mood into an atmosphere of fear, suspicion and anger. Having failed to break us up by violence, they now opted to kettle us in for the next six hours. They blocked every exit to the camp, refused to allow access to food, water or toilet facilities, and regularly attempted minor advances which served no conceivable purpose other than to stir up the increasingly frustrated crowd. I eventually got out about midnight; the brave people who stayed on were violently dispersed a couple of hours later.
The rationale for this unnecessary assault can only have been to try to stir up a peaceful crowd into a violent mob. Despite the constant provocations, the protesters never obliged with anger (unless you count the damage to the riot vans the cops unwisely left unattended inside the camp before they attacked; these ended up with a little less air in their tyres than before). It’s to the Climate Camp’s great credit that people didn’t take the bait, and refused to give those thugs the riot they wanted.
Please, watch this video footage from indymedia.org.uk. It’s clear evidence of how the police attacked peaceful protesters without provocation or warning.
(For extra points, see if you can spot a familiar face or two in the crowd.)
I wrote to my MP today for the first time!
Dear Nick Raynsford,
I attended Wednesday’s peaceful ‘Climate Camp’ protest on Bishopsgate in which protestors set up tents in the road, played music and listened to various specialists discussing climate change themes. There were many issues discussed ranging from carbon trading being a threat rather than a solution to environmental problems to polluters themselves being responsible for measuring their own emissions – rather like the economy being ‘fixed’ by the same people who allowed such reckless gambling to cause the problems in the first place.
I believe that climate change is the most urgent issue facing the world today. One of the slogans at the camp was “Nature doesn’t do bail-outs” and it is certainly true that the threat made by changes to the earth’s temperature will not solved by taxpayers money alone.
I was disappointed to see that you voted ‘Strongly For’ the war in Iraq and ‘Strongly Against’ an inquiry into the the war yet only voting ‘Moderately For’ measures to prevent climate change – There is real scientific evidence about how dangerous climate change can be! -unlike the evidence upon which we were taken into the disasterous war in Iraq. A war which has claimed so many lives -the build up to which, even today, remains shrouded in secrecy.
However, that was not the reason I wanted to write to you today. My main reason for writing before I was distracted by your voting record was to express my outrage at the use of brutal police force against peaceful protestors. In the build up to the recent marches and protests there were messages from the police indicating that they would be “very violent”. This is a terrible tactic in itself used to put off moderate and peaceful protestors from coming I believe actually incites violence rather than preventing it. I understand there were some violent clashes near the Bank of England but from that footage it looks as though there are mostly photographers and cameramen focussing on a couple of troublemakers. At the climate camp up the road the atmosphere was very different and I even had a friendly conversation with a police man about the protest. At seven o clock, riot police stormed the camp and began to beat the protestors with their batons and shields. There was no warning or provocation for this use of violence. A friend of mine found himself unable to move in the crush of people and ended up close to police lines. One of the officer’s shouted “get back you f**k” at him before kicking him repeatedly in the legs and smashing him with his shield -despite him having no place to get back to. You can watch some footage of this at http://indymedia.org.uk/media/2009/04//426087.mp4
Is there anything you can do to discourage the police using such violence on peaceful protests? There is such a difference between climate change protestors peaceful tactics and those who use protests to cause violence and destruction.
I live just around the corner from your office -on Chevening Rd so if you’d like to come round for coffee and a chat you’d be most welcome.
Yours sincerely,
Bongo Borango
(some names have been changed)
I think your letter is very clearly worded, Sociable. I have written numerous letters to my MP, Jeremy Corbyn, and he has never replied.
Police ‘assaulted’ bystander who died during G20 protests
http://www.guardian.co.uk...g20-protest-ian-tomlinson
The police initially said that he collapsed from natural causes, and paramedics were pelted with bottles when they tried to help him.
The way this rumour has permeated the media reminds me of how they said Charles de Menezes was wearing a rucksack and fled from officers when they tried to stop him. The police allowed this story to circulate for weeks when they knew full well it wasn’t true. Now we know it was a total lie, a deliberate piece of misinformation.
We don’t know for sure yet how this guy died at the G20 protests, but we should be extremely sceptical of the police version of events. They’ve lied to cover their backs before, and they’ll do it again.
Thankfully the traditional news media has also published news from journalists reporting from the scenes. I was impressed by Paul Lewis from The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/paullewis
He contributed to their live update of the events using Twitter: http://twitter.com/paul__lewis
This footage has now emerged of the real circumstances behind the death of Ian Tomlinson, the man who died of ‘natural causes’ at the G20 protest:
http://www.guardian.co.uk.../video-g20-police-assault
Shocking. Sadly, unsurprising.
Audio clip: Paul Lewis on the evidence concerning the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 summit protest http://www.guardian.co.uk...2009/apr/08/g20-tomlinson (The Guardian)