I’m grateful to my learned friend BRISTLEKRS for this demolition of the Home Affairs Committee’s findings that ‘untrained officers’ was the problem at G20:
“….we may return to the issue of “specialist” officers such as the TSG and FIT at a later time.”
From an email received from the Home Affairs Committee after it was suggested that the ‘untrained & inexperienced’ excuse was rather thin considering:
1. Bronze Commander Chief Superintendent Alex Robertson was on Cornhill in contact with Gold Commander (Commander Bob Broadhurst) during the deadly assault on Ian Tomlinson at the Cornhill end of Royal Exchange Buildings.
2. Highly trained CoL Police dog handlers were using dogs as weapons against non-violent protesters (despite guidelines on their use) on Threadneedle Street and against Ian Tomlinson during the deadly assault.
3. The ’Activist experts’ of the FIT (at least 5, including PCs Alan Palfrey and Steve Discombe) were present at the deadly assault on Ian Tomlinson, yet did not intervene to prevent the assault (despite knowing IT was not a ’face’), and did not make a statement about being witnesses until AFTER the official line (heart attack, no contact with police) had been demolished.*
4. The public order specialists of the TSG were in the thick of it – the IT hitter was TSG, the Climate Camp was TSG, the ‘FIsher hitter’ was a TSG sergeant, etc; in fact once things got fruity, only the full time riot cops of the TSG (Level 1s) and the well-trained volunteer riot reservists (Level 2s) were on the frontline – yer standard untrained, really-rather-not-be-there cops-given-a-helmet-and-shield (Level 3s) were pulled back.
So it will be interesting to see if the HAC really does investigate the bullshit or not - and especially whether it intends to pursue the matter of command and doctrinal responsibility.
* Note also that the ‘Fisher hitter’ TSG sergeant, suspended whilst being investigated for 2 assaults including Nicola Fisher is ex-FIT, and had been on FIT duties on 1st April
6 Comments
July 3, 2009 at 11:45 am
could you explain the jargon?
July 3, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Sorry for any confusion, it’s entirely my fault. I didn’t make it clear in my original email to Ian that the numbered notes were just quickly scrawled background points.
The point of interest is in the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee (whose report on the policing of the G20 protests was published this Monday just gone) indicating that it will return to the issue of so-called specialist units such as the Territorial Support Group (riot cops) and Forward Intelligence Teams (activist stalkers).
Such an admission – however cautious – suggests that the Committee might have taken with a pinch of salt some of the evidence given by police witnesses before it.
===
Regarding the numbered notes, the gist is this:
The headlines prompted by the report’s publication have largely focused on police officers’ supposed lack of training and experience in large scale public order situations such as the G20 protests.
However, the unwillingness of the Committee to prejudice any possible court proceedings regarding the death of Ian Tomlinson, the assault of Nicola Fisher, etc – has meant that the report wilfully overlooks that the death of Ian Tomlinson, the assault of Nicola Fisher etc involved senior officers (and some of them very senior), as well as members of very well-trained and experienced officers of specialist units.
The jargon used (as I say, they were quickly dashed off notes more than anything) includes:
CoL = City of London Police
FIT = Forward Intelligence Team(s)
HAC = Home Affairs Committee in the House of Commons (chaired by Keith Vaz MP)
TSG = Territorial Support Group (full time public order/riot police for London)
Gold Commander = Senior police officer with full responsibility for a big public order operation etc (in this case Commander Bob Broadhurst)
Bronze Commander = Senior police officer on the ground, with full operational command, reporting back to/taking orders from Silver and Gold commanders (at Cornhill this was Chief Superintendent Alex Robertson)
Level 1/2/3 – Name given to three levels of public order training. Level 1s are the TSG and equivalents around the country; Level 2s are regular police with extra training who assist in public order situations; Level 3s are all other police officers, who receive instruction in basic public order tactics during their initial training.
July 4, 2009 at 10:33 am
It utterly beggars belief that even MPs could believe this shower of shit. Even in its own terms it doesn’t stand up, when you consider the comments senior officers made afterwards about not seeing anything that hadn’t been taught in training. And it’s not as though Level 2 officers never use their training – as can be seen on Friday and Saturday nights in town centres across London.
It seems to me there are a number of practical ways to respond to this nonsense, from merely acquainting oneself with basic knowledge about the police and law to taking up Fitwatching (see the link on this site to the Fitwatch blog) to volunteering with the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group as a legal observer for demonstrations.
Following the 1990 Poll Tax Riot, the Trafalgar Square Defendants Campaign was established to help those nicked on the day. However, it also put together useful documents about policing, including a chronology of events on 20 Oct 1990, when there was a police riot against that day’s anti-poll tax march in South London. This is something which should, I feel, be done for every contentious demonstration, to provide help for people nicked as well as information for future use on police tactics and units observed.
But one of the most important things people could do for themselves and others is to stop being so bloody predictable! Time and again over at least the past 25 years the police have kettled people, it’s no new tactic – it was used against people on demonstrations during the Miners Strike, for fuck’s sake! The signs were there for all to see on 1/4, when each of the four demonstrations to Bank was followed by a unit of TSG who then formed lines – at first permeable but rapidly closed – across the roads.
Demonstrators have two advantages – mobility and surprise, and the two are interlinked. Surrender the one and you lose the other. If people had continued moving on the first of April, rather than halting at Bank, the police plan would have been thrown into chaos. There would have been no kettle. There would have been no death. But this isn’t something people should leave up to the organisers of events, it’s something everyone has to take a portion of responsibility for. After all, it’s in your interest to keep moving, to make it impossible (or at least harder) for the police to do nasty things to you.
So, next time there’s a contentious demonstration which ‘invades’ an area in London it’s wiser to ensure that there is no static crowd for the police to do with as they will, to create instead of a pool of people a mist of smaller groups with which the police will have far greater difficulty dealing.
July 4, 2009 at 6:57 pm
I haven’t been on a national demo since the ‘Miners’ March’ of February 1985 in London…unless you include the Wapping demos. Aside from that, even I could see that the ‘Four Apocalyptic Marches to the Bank’ for G20 were inviting a kettle (from my dormant perspective). As for the Miners’ March, I’ve fond memories of the Cockney ‘grannie’ in Whitehall shouting for people to ‘Get in the road!’ when the mounted police were marshalling to push us away.
July 4, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Keeping on the move was the main reason that Smash EDO in may was a success.
We were handed information sheets on potential targets with a map and told to go where we liked.
As a result, there was always a back up plan and we ran rings around the cops while they were waiting for thier orders.
July 8, 2009 at 8:47 am
cheers, bris
It was strange to hear the name of poor fucking Blair Peach being dragged up again in regard to the SPG, committees of enquiry.
I was in Southall that day and there were a lot of army about – I suppose their modern eqivalent are getting the shit blown out of them in Afganistan.