A woman protester at the Climate Camp, which was part of the G20 protests, may have suffered a miscarriage after experiencing police violence.
She said: “I was being struck very violently with shields and pushed very violently … I was being shouted at and screamed at continuously to get back. I remember thinking ‘oh God, this is how people die in crowds, you get crushed’.
I have seen the video footage on Youtube of appalling and shocking levels of police brutality at the Climate Camp. And I tried to get to Bishopsgate on the 1st April after work but it was all blocked off by cops. What I witnessed around the Bank of England was unrelenting frenzied violent attacks by the cops. They were a law unto themselves, and out of control, which culminated in the death of a man. The policing of the G20 protests instilled fear, lack of control, distress and overall was a traumatic experience for the protesters (I am still amazed I got out safely!) who were later vilified by the right-wing populist press.
What sent shivers down my spine and chills me still when reading her powerful testimony is this :
The woman said she saw people with “their heads split” and “their noses broken” during the violence.
“One of the most traumatic visual moments for me was that a female police officer in front of me had blood spattered on the outside of her visor.
“I was so lost in fear and shock by this point that I said ‘do you know you have blood on your visor?’.
“That really upset her and I really got laid into and I got knocked on to the floor and all the people trying to help me … were also being hit.
Will the cops take heed of the recommendations, will they re-think their tactics? Well, from experience I won’t hold my breath. Here’s two to mull over in the police canteen, ban kettling! Disband the TSG!
Lessons will be learnt, apparently, but little else. Though the cops let themselves off the hook when they state we note that the medical opinion was that there was a low probability of the complainant being pregnant. So the cops minimise the experience of this woman, the fact that this shocking level of violence was used doesn’t compute with them instead they spin into action by defending the indefensible.
No responsibility, or accountability taken for this obscene violence instead excuses and distractions used by the cops.
How familiar…..
NB: See BBC website for the interview here. The right to protest, along with civil liberties in general, is being eroded and which reflects the social authoritarianism of NL….
Oh, and just seen the interview with the woman on Newsnight. Reporter asked whether she had witnessed protesters provoking the cops in any way. Her response was an emphatic no!
