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Gaza Demo - a cop opines

Serpico | 12.01.2009 20:46 | Repression | Social Struggles

I've been reading comments on the site for a few days and while you don't expect to find a lot of love for the Metropolitan Police on here the lack of objectivity is starting to border on the myopic. To suggest that the violence on Saturday was in some way planned or instigated by the police is to ignore both the facts and the truth. Quite sad really on a site that proclaims it's honesty and integrity as it's raison d'etra

I was there on Saturday and my colleagues and I were coming under attack for hours before the baton charges and mounted deployments that everyone seems to be solely focusing on. Police did not deploy in "riot" kit but normal everyday beat helmets and jackets. We sustained a constant barrage of shoes, sticks, placards, road cones, coins, the occasional firework and paint for several hours prior to kit being deployed.
Your own pictures posted on the site show this.

Look at the officers at the back of the embassy as they are covered in red paint and can clearly be seen offering non-aggressive open-hand gestures to the crowd, some of whom are masked. None of these officers are in riot gear. George Galloway accepted that items had been thrown at police for much of the day but said that was OK because we were wearing "protective clothing and what have you". Well, no George, it's not and we weren't. I'm not paid enough to have anything thrown at me and just stand there and take it. But for hours on Saturday that's exactly what we did. It's also worth noting that this came from the same George Galloway who was "concussed" having been hit by a rubber stress ball thrown from an office window while campaigning in the mayoral elections and tried to sue the culprit!! Galloway doesn't like things been thrown at him, apparently, but it's OK for us?.... As for the "underpass incident" the week prior the baton charge was the result of a lone female sergeant - in everyday kit - being dragged into the crowd and given a good kicking by a large group.

The fact is - and this may surprise some of you - the majority of us don't like, relish or particularly enjoy public order events be they marches, demos, football, concerts, whatever. The work is dull and laborious and you invariably end up working them on a cancelled rest days. 7 nights stood in a field in Sipson? Out of choice? No thank you very much. In my time in the police i've not met a single person who joined up so they could get involve in riots. They are not something to look forward to and Upthera's assertions about public order officers being "trained to view the people they attack as scum" are so ridiculous they don't warrant a response. But then this is coming from a man who calls himself "Upthera" - presumably a reference to the IRA - and bangs on continually about the Poll Tax Riot, but that's to be expected from the ACAB/ schoolboy nihilist armchair warriors who all too often populate this site. Upthera, the Poll Tax Riot was 18 years ago and the IRA disbanded in 2005. You're obviously an intelligent man. Move on and grow up.

The fact is that - as is all too usual and as has been pointed out by some of the more reasoned contributors on here - these events attract a rabble who are intent on causing trouble and provoking a response from the police from the outset. I've been on demos as a protester and I've policed demos. Police don't live in a vacum. Of course the vast, vast majority simply wanted to protest peacefully and i'm genuinely sorry for any bystanders who were inadvertently caught up in the melee at the tail end on Saturday night but it was clear to see the way things were going to progress from very early on in the day.

Smashed up shops, faces covered fireworks being fired at us. There is only so long that you can tolerate this. And I didn't see and demonstrators being dragged away unconcious having been knocked out cold by some missile or other. I'd like to have seen the reaction on here were this to have happened to a demonstrator. Is violence from you acceptable but violence from us not? The reaction when it came was never going to be pretty but please at least have the courage to admit it wasn't all one-way traffic. Again, look at your own photos. The aggressors in many are the demonstrators.

You might not like it but we had a duty to protect that embassy and we did it. It is untenable that it was allowed to be ransacked. God only knows what would have happened to those inside. What next? Our very own Kritsalnacht? I've no truck with Israel but equally i've no truck with violent morons intent on bringing destruction and fear onto the streets of my city. And I've acted the same were a rabble trying to force their way into the Palestinian "embassy", should one day they have one.

It's nothing to do with "protecting Israel". Half my colleagues couldn't find Israel on a map. If we're the savage morons that so many on here portray us as then why does every demo or football match not descend into chaos? Because, just maybe, at the vast majority of events the crowd don't go looking for it. No one threw anything at me on the Israeli march yesterday, no one got hit with a baton and no one got charged by a horse.

Someone on here once posted the following and it's something I'd like to think is broadly true:

"Cops = working class kids who want to make a difference in society. Turn up at a demo, shout abuse, throw things at them and give them a hard time you get a punch in the face from them.

Explain why you are there, treat them with the same respect any other human deserves and you get in most cases a reasonable conversation with some body who comes from the same background you do."

So, there you have it. Doubtless most of you won't agree but a view from the opposite side never hurt anyone did it?

Serpico

Additions

some comments and questions @serpico

13.01.2009 01:45

Anyway, enough quibbling, my main question is this: the penned area that had been allotted by police & organisers beyond the embassy gates - the stretch of Kensington Road from Kensington Palace Gardens to just past Palace Gate - was around 4500 sq metres, excluding the pavements which were blocked by barriers, which is only enough space to accommodate a safe maximum of 18,000 people - which even by the most conservative estimate (the police's, natch) is less than the number of people on the march, so a slowdown leading to a crush was inevitable.

Do you think the decision to close Kensington Gardens was correct?

And do you think that once the crush developed the police surge at Kensington Court helped to calm the situation?

"Police did not deploy in "riot" kit but normal everyday beat helmets and jackets."

Looked to me like those at the Kensington High Street end had all their PPE on except with ordinary helmets, and the riot helmets stashed nearby.

"We sustained a constant barrage of shoes, sticks, placards, road cones, coins, the occasional firework and paint for several hours prior to kit being deployed."

You don't say where you were, but again on Kensington High Street the riot helmets went on by 1510, the front of the march having arrived there around 1455. Shields were everywhere by 1600.

By 1700 Starbucks was smashed and there were several 'liberated' short shields being paraded through the crowd.

By 1715 the horses were across the street next to Palace Avenue, and by 1800 they'd pushed the East section of the crowd past Palace Gate.

So either you were very unlucky, or you're mistaken to claim you endured that for "several hours".

"And I didn't see and demonstrators being dragged away unconcious having been knocked out cold by some missile or other. I'd like to have seen the reaction on here were this to have happened to a demonstrator."

Maybe you weren't looking hard enough:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/417992.html

corsaro


Comments

Display the following 31 comments

  1. Policing reality — A N Other
  2. you nearly had me — iwasthere
  3. Oi Serpico.... — Bob
  4. Indy is Subjective — ARA
  5. Police again — A N Other
  6. Serpico - not cut out for the job? — ACABs mate
  7. Serpico: Misplaced loyalty — Another who was there
  8. @Serpico - Selective policing — SameRulesApply
  9. The working class hate the fucking police — Class traitor
  10. poor bloody infantry — Jim Matthews
  11. And check this out Serpico — nobovver
  12. everyday kit?? — fed up with being batoned
  13. Do us a favour Serpico.... — @narchist
  14. confiscating cameras — observer
  15. of course.. — troublemaker and proud
  16. With kettling you 1st move in without riotgear,people dont like being caged, — Universal Confederalist,medic team coordinator, done regular stewarding&doorwork
  17. This tired old nag of an argument needs shooting — Sick of psychos both in and out of uniform
  18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpico serpico resigns to go to Switzerland,fair — Universal Confederalist
  19. Universal Confederalist, please stop posting so much shite! — Anti-bollocks
  20. 1 Little question? — Me
  21. Another cop's account of the demo — pinch of salt
  22. rumourmill — iwasthere
  23. Couple of questions for pinch of salt — Individual with known previous history
  24. Police claims — A N Other
  25. Serpico: Acknowledging her/his reason to revolt? — Of no importance
  26. Thanks for engaging - BUT — HadEnough
  27. Dear Serpico..... — qwerty
  28. PS COMMENT — PS COMMENT
  29. Hahahahaha! The irony hurts too much! — The Great Unwashed
  30. Questions for PS COMMENT — Individual with known previous history
  31. Good to read article, shame no reply serpico,anti-bollocks — Universal Confederalist
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