A woman is thrown to the ground, people on the floor grabbing her, eventually she is hauled onto her feet, the same people using various restraint techniques on her. They also grab her neck, she complains. She is dragged off.
Their crime…? Asking police for their numbers as they were not visible and then attempting to photograph them. The two women are also involved with FIT Watch and possibly targeted because of that.
Val Swain, 43, and Emily Apple, 33, both mothers with young children, believe they were deliberately targeted for arrest at last year’s climate camp demonstration in Kent because they campaign for Fit Watch, a protest group that opposes police surveillance at demonstrations.
This is a further demonstration of abusive and brutal tactics deployed by the cops. They asked about the concealed numbers, their right to do so. But the cops reacted in their usual disproportionate way. Brutal, and violent.
Is this a message from the cops regarding protesters watching them? The message being; Don’t question our tactics or else?
Oh, and the IPCC are investigating…. They must have a heavy workload at the moment.
The increased anti-terror legislation that is eroding our civil liberties and the right to protest. And facing trumped up charges of assault and obstruction charges, even though the charges were dropped they were held for 4 days and released only after the demo at Kingsnorth had finished. Surely that’s an attack on their human rights?
The cops are a law unto themselves. The aggressiveness and level of brutality reminds me of the political policing at the height of Thatcherism. But under the social authoritarianism of NL, the cops have a hellva lot more legislation to choose from when it comes to suppressing our dissent!
Our right to protest is being criminalised.
How unlike the police…
[...] Sense of Security (Force) 22 June, 2009 — RickB Another incident of police criminal assault is caught on camera and the IPCC is caused to become involved…but, are we not now at the [...]
[...] by the agents of state. The abuse of police powers and use of violence against protesters at Kingsnorth was utterly evident along with the orgy of violence shown at the G20 protests. And of course the [...]