Policing of the G20 protests report: yada ..inadequate policing…yada yada

There should be a national overhaul of the policing of protests that reasserts the state’s obligation to allow lawful demonstrations, a scathing report into how the Metropolitan police handled the G20 protests recommended today.

Advocating major reforms in the way such marches are handled, Denis O’Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, said national tactics for policing protest were “inadequate” and belonged to a “different era”.

“What the review [of policing protest] identifies is that the world is changing and the police need to think about changing their approach to protest,” O’Connor said.

So says Denis O’connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, in his report on the policing of the G20 protests.

Furthermore: Commanders appeared not to properly understand basic human rights laws or the legal requirements surrounding the use of kettling, the report said. However, O’Connor said this was the case for only some senior officers, and refused to identify those at fault.

Human rights? Legal requirements? I bet this is causing tensions and punch-ups within the elite of the police force.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/07/police-protests-g20-review

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 11:37 am and is filed under Civil liberties, Cop brutality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Policing of the G20 protests report: yada ..inadequate policing…yada yada”

  1. BristleKRS Says:
    July 7, 2009 at 6:00 pm | Reply

    House of Commons Home Affairs Committee report on policing of the London G20 protests, 29th June 2009 (p25):

    …we feel that an element of luck must be attributed to the success of the operation. It is troubling that the policing operation relied so heavily on untrained, inexperienced officers.

    Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary independent review on policing of the London G20 protests, 7th July 2009 (p37):

    Operation Glencoe was one of the largest policing operations to have taken place anywhere in the United Kingdom. It was placed under the control of a single overarching Gold commander [Commander Bob Broadhurst] supported by a single Silver commander [Chief Superintendent Ian Thomas]. Both Gold and Silver commanders were senior MPS officers with considerable experience of public order policing operations at this level of command. There are only a very small number of senior police officers nationally who are experienced to such a high level.

    Fancy that!

  2. BristleKRS Says:
    July 7, 2009 at 6:25 pm | Reply

    Lest we forget, on 3rd April the City of London Police put out a press release extolling the policing of G20 as “a success” which had been “praised by leading city figures”.

    No mention was made of the death of Ian Tomlinson, nor any reason given for “several hundred protestors congregating at the Royal Exchange” the next day.

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