UK Indymedia | Police attack on London Critical Mass.

Nym. | 01.10.2008 12:20 | Repression | London

While there was a notable absence of police on the September Critical Mass ride in London, we did have one unpleasant encounter with a very aggressive group of officers from the TSG unit.

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Travelling between Victoria Street and Buckingham Palace Road on Friday night, we ran into a van load of police dressed in overalls, fleeces and baseball caps. Their van was an odd silver grey colour and apparently was not equipped with a siren or flashing lights.

To compensate for their lack of adequate apparatus the officers, led by # SX 836, attempted to force their way through the mass by knocking riders to the ground, and dragging others to the side of the road and dumping them on the pavement.

At one point SX 836 encouraged drivers of other vehicles to ram the mass, telling them "Just drive at them, they'll get out of the way!" despite the fact that we were all in the middle of a traffic jam at the time. Another officer involved whose number I managed to note down was QA 232.

Photos::

http://18hz.deid.net/2008/septembermass/vikings03im.jpg

http://18hz.deid.net/2008/septembermass/vikings01im.jpg

Higher resolution versions of my photos can be fund at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29703759@N08/sets/72157607617808713/

Nym.

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

State of Siege

01.10.2008 13:48

Would I be right to say that the Tactical Support Group were Britain's first National Police Force? Their first innovations in political policing are recorded in State of Siege: Policing of the Miners Strike, available at Hausmans bookshop.

AC@B

File a complaint

01.10.2008 14:29

If you witnessed or were on the receiving end of rude, aggressive or violent behaviour by the police, you can make a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) if it relates to the behaviour of one or more specific officers (stating that you don't want the matter dealt with by local resolution); or to the Commissioner of the police force concerned if it relates to police tactics in general. If people don't complain / press charges / sue / seek judicial review against the police, and write to their MP and the papers, then they shouldn't expect things to ever improve. Evil triumphs when good men and women do nothing.

IPCC website:

http://www.ipcc.gov.uk

Paul Hussey

ipcc independent?

01.10.2008 15:06

in a perfect world the ipcc would be independent in reality and not just by name.

from my own previous experience, i have learnt that the ipcc is just a whitewash over police criminality. police investigating police is a joke to say the least and when their offices are on top of Scotland Yard... ummmmmmmmmm......

sorry to say, they are not independent and while it is still good to put their crimes into writing and require them to justify themselves, don't expect any justice...

c xxx

Charity
mail e-mail: charitysweet@hotmail.co.uk

Viking 101 not TSG?

01.10.2008 21:26

It has come to our attention that the officers involved may well have been from the North West Search Team known as 'Viking 101', rather than the Territorial Support Group (TSG)

Nym
Homepage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fitwatch/

Strange Police Action ?

18.10.2008 11:05

A friend (X) had his camera stolen in unusual circumstances on September's London Critical Mass.

In his own words:

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"[my camera was] wrestled off me by two 'rude-boys' after I took their picture for bumping a girl who was holding them back [from driving into the mass] whilst the crowd moved on (I put up a good fight). Cops waded in, one of the guys ran off into the crowd but we held the other from driving off by holding his doors open. A cop pushed his way into the driver's seat, pushed the driver into the pasenger seat, grabbed the keys off him, and drove off at high speed, with my camera in the car !

Spent an hour at Charing Cross police station repeatedly explaining the story, before getting nothing more than a crime number."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

I don't think it fantastical or in the realms of internet conspiracy theories to hypothesise the following:

The police are in the middle of an attempt to have CM closed down or otherwise limited/curtailed.

In the run up to the Law Lord's decision on the legality of the event (as it currently describes itself), the police decide that September's ride will be un-policed in the hope that without their presence there may be a decent chance of friction (or better still conflict/violence) between the cyclists and other road users - which would give their case against CM additional impetus in both the media and in the courts.

So what better way to force the issue than to send a couple of off duty boys (or perhaps a couple of local known 'rude boys') down to drive around in an attempt to push and poke the cyclists into a reaction.

A witness ('Cookie') allegedly overheard one of the policemen say "drive straight through 'em" to the driver, although this is at best ambiguous in meaning.

The problem is someone (my friend (X)) gets a direct snap shot of the 'rude boys' - so these 'rude boys' need to recover the camera - which they do - but then everyone stop's them from driving off by blocking their car's escape route, then the on duty police have little choice but to simply get in the car and take the whole sorry mess out of there.

It seems very odd that a policeman should leave the scene of at least one unambiguous crime (the theft of my friend's camera) - and attempt to drive a suspect's vehicle away from a crime scene with the suspect sat next to him un-handcuffed ?

The fact that when my friend attempted to follow this up and they couldn't find any record of the incident only adds to the strange circumstance.

Of course this is all hypothetical - but I would be interested to see if the police reinstate their policing of this months event ?

Kate
mail e-mail: katiepricePPQ@hotmail.com

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Police attack on London Critical Mass.