G20 and the Right to Protest

15 May 2009

Hackney Gazette

In the aftermath of the protests around the G20 Summit letters and emails poured into my office. Some constituents were angry at what appeared to be police brutality towards protesters; others were concerned that the right to protest had been curtailed by strict policing of the protests. But many of my constituents were actually at the protests on 1st May and experienced first-hand the heavy-handedness with which protesters were treated.

Amongst these were constituents who had been held up in the “kettle” that police created outside the Bank of England. “Kettling” is a technique used by police which keeps protesters in a pen, cordoned off by riot police on all sides. Once in the “kettle” protesters must stay there until the police allow them out slowly. Letters from constituents have told me that innocent men, women and children were caught up in the “kettle” on the day of the G20 protests. A constituent who wrote in to me to complain about being trapped in the kettle reported that she asked police to let her out because she felt intimidated and scared by being trapped. A police officer refused to let her out and told her she should have stayed at home if she was going to get scared.

Other constituents wrote to me about their treatment at the Climate Camp that set up a peaceful protest camp in Bishopgate. Protesters calling for action on climate change were sitting peacefully, some singing, many simply chatting or informing people of the campaign. According to my constituents, at around 6 o’clock in the evening riot police officers stormed the camp with batons and shields. One constituent reported that the police were hitting people over the arms, legs and on the head despite the fact that no one had been violent. Protesters were then trapped by riot police until 11.30 at night.

I believe that kettling is wrong because it is indiscriminate, coercive and, ultimately, punitive. If we, as a society, defend the right to peaceful protest, why should we punish people by keeping them penned up for hours and hours, as at the G20 protests, when they have committed no crime? That punishment was doled out to a very large group of people on the 1st April without any clear evidence that the majority of that group had any intention of turning violent or disorderly. The use of kettling and the punitive nature of that technique have caused a lot of concern not only among the people who were demonstrating on that day, but among the general public, observers and even some members of the police.

Whilst I can recognise that policing large protests is a difficult and challenging job, I strongly believe that it is up to the police to facilitate protests. Our officers should not be intimidating people or preventing them from protesting peacefully. And they should certainly not be using force against people who are exercising their right to make their voices heard. It is tragic that it took the death of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson (and indeed the video coverage of police officers assaulting him just before his death) for the police to sit up and recognise there is a problem.



back ⇢