A Tale Of Two Hijacks

A tale of two hijacks Originally published by TawNews 11 April 2009

Just over a week now and I'm still trying to construct an accurate overview in my mind of the recent events in London. Arrived there last week (last Tuesday to be precise, 31st March) as part of the Radical Images[1] photographers' collective to document the series of events protesting London's hosting of the G20 summit. We were particularly interested in the plan to establish a "flash climate camp" on Bishopsgate, outside the European Climate Exchange, announced some weeks previously by the same folk[2] that had set up Climate Camps at Drax in Yorkshire (2006), Heathrow (2007), and Kingsnorth in Kent last year. Setting up a full-fledged campsite on the streets in the heart of London? An entirely delightful notion, and one that I really didn't believe could possibly happen until I actually saw it taking shape with my own eyes. A masterpiece of planning and networking, totally magnificent and totally impressive. There were four of us representing our collective (with one "guest") and, split into two teams, we thought we'd be well set up to get good coverage not just of the camp but also of some of the other events occurring... the G20 Meltdown[3] for example. Though our principal focus was always, and remained, the climate camp with its message that "Nature doesn't do bailouts"... Stopping carbon markets Because nature doesn't do bailouts First the city traders speculated with our homes, jobs and money – with disastrous results. Now they are speculating with our climate and the very future of life on earth – and once again our governments are cheering them on. By creating a brain-bending system of carbon pollution licenses, fossil fuel companies and trading firms have found a way to keep on churning out global warming gases and to reap huge windfall profits at the same time. Meanwhile, the UK government is justifying a third runway at Heathrow and a coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth by saying that these new “carbon trading” schemes will magically make all their emissions vanish. They are handing control of our climate over to the same people and systems that caused the financial collapse. All the workable and fair alternatives aren't getting a look-in. We need to stop this foolishness. On April 1st the G20 leaders arrive in London. At a time of climate crisis their response to the market meltdown is emergency loans to car manufacturers, increased spending to encourage consumption, and bailouts for the very people who got us into this mess - just the thing that will make the climate crisis worse. Don’t let them get away with it: join our camp in the Square Mile! Bring a pop-up tent if you've got one, sleeping bag, wind turbine, mobile cinema, action plans and ideas...let’s imagine another world. (from the Climate Camp website) However, things didn't work out quite as smoothly as planned (on the other hand, when do they ever?). As mentioned, I arrived in London on Tuesday morning and, after having spent a large part of the day trying to hook up with the others in our collective, and then wandering around the city looking at various sites that were designated as "locations for action" for the following day, we eventually ended up at the place we'd chosen as our "base" whilst in the city. The really curious thing that struck me whilst wandering around London on Tuesday was the marked absence of police! I was expecting the place to be infested with them (particularly given that the G20 protests had actually started on Saturday of the previous week with the Put People First[4] march etc). I was expecting to be stopped, questioned, searched, numerous times. And it just didn't happen... not on the Tuesday anyway. No doubt the streets were being closely monitored by the ubiquitous CCTV though. Up with the lark Wednesday morning then, prompted by the notion of it being a good idea to have a wander around Bishopsgate (location of the European Climate Exchange[5], professing itself to be "the leading marketplace for

trading carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Europe and internationally") to see what reception was being prepared for the arrival of the campers, announced for half-past-noon exactly. Dwelling upon which, it occurred to me that getting a whole bunch of people to "swoop in" on a particular location from all points of the compass at exactly the same time would be quite a miracle in its own right! And our first "stop & search"! Well, more of a "stop and talking to" really, once the van-full of City of London cops had satisfied themselves that we actually were photojournalists, just as we represented ourselves. A few police and vans outside the Climate Exchange there, but nothing like the heavy presence I was expecting. Perhaps, like me, they were anticipating that the location of the campsite would be changed at the very last moment. And just as we were thinking that it all seemed pretty quiet along comes a whole bunch of Critical Mass type cyclists!

Bit more of a mooch around then head for Liverpool Street Station where one of the Meltdown marches was supposed to assemble at 11.00am. Four Meltdown marches had been planned, each starting at a different location and intended to converge on the Bank of England at midday. Each of the marches was to be led by one of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (truly poetic imagery), the one we'd opted for being led by the Green Horse against Climate Chaos. Seemed the most appropriate for us (given our interest in the Climate Camp) plus its route would take us very near the Climate Exchange, putting us in the right place (albeit a bit early) to witness the "swoop".

Which is pretty much how things worked out, with us finding ourselves milling fairly aimlessly around Bishopsgate again waiting to see what would happen. And me still not entirely convinced that anything would happen there at all, repeatedly checking my mobile phone in anticipation of the SMS that would announce a last-minute change of venue. Although admittedly there did seem to be a helluva lot more people also aimlessly wandering around there now. Very curious. When suddenly, plonk! And the first tent (at least, I think it was the first tent) goes down... fairly rapidly jumped upon by a nearby bunch of assembled cops. Bit of a scuffle, attempts to drag the tent (with accompanying campers) off to the side, and a few more cops piling in.

But all, ultimately, to no avail. For quite suddenly tents were appearing everywhere and it dawned on me that this was really happening. We were actually witnessing the setting up of a campsite right in the heart of the city of London! Wow! And remarkably, apart from one or two little scuffles, the cops were incredibly restrained. Not what I was expecting at all. So our little collective separated once more into our pre-arranged teams and off we go, hoping to capture the spirit of what this was all about. Before too long there's all the facilities of a typical Climate Camp site right there in the street, if somewhat miniaturised. There's a kitchen, toilets, a medics tent, workshops, even live music. In fact, an almost festival-like atmosphere begins to pervade the place. And it seems that even the cops are getting affected by the spirit, with a couple wandering leisurely around like typical "bobbies on the beat", no-one really taking much notice of them at all. The whole scene was totally bizarre and wonderfully inspiring, and it seemed that everyone was infused with an optimism that perhaps, this time, the real message of the campers might actually get out. An optimism not entirely unfounded given the armies of media types floating around. And I don't mean alternative media types like myself, but yer proper mainstream media like.

But it didn't last. Sadly (and predictably, some cynics may say) a sour note began to creep in. Rumours began to reach us of an "incident" at the Royal Bank of Scotland... apparently some protesters (presumably part of the Meltdown protest) had smashed the windows or something. And so began the all-too-familiar tale of the real message of the protests being hijacked... by hyped-up tales of violence and destruction, paving the way for the cops to switch into their getting-to-be-customary "thug mode" so that the story changes from being about the climate and economic crises and instead becomes about the policing of the various events. Whilst there's no doubt that the heavy-handed policing of protests is a story that needs to be told, particularly given its implications for what the future may hold when the worst effects of both climate change and the economic meltdown begin to bite, at this point in time shouldn't attention really be focussed upon the messages these protesters are desperately trying to get out to people? To all the people who, when those "worst effects" do begin to bite, will be demanding "why didn't someone warn us?". And when those same people, in their turn, take to the streets then they'll encounter all the horrors of violent policing that are still, at present, only being tested and perfected. So perhaps, after all, it is the "policing of protests" story that should take precedence. Having done a few circuits of the campsite my "team partner" and I decide to take a stroll along toward the Bank of England to see what all the fuss has been about. Not that we get very far though, shortly encountering a line of helmeted cops holding back what appear to be predominantly media types. So back to the campsite.

And wandering around I noticed someone brandishing a copy of the notoriously biased Evening Standard, with the headline "Violence sweeps City on Obama's big day" blazoned across the front. Patently untrue of course (at that stage at least and, even when the violence did occur, retrospectively it appears to have been largely from the police side), but an indication perhaps of the story the mainstream media were really looking for.

Approaching the end of the afternoon our little collective regroups and, with all seeming to be relatively peaceful again, decide to retire to a venue some 20 minutes walk away that had been set up as a sort of "media base" for climate campers, where we could start sorting through some photos for the camp website etc. Early evening and well into this task word reaches us that things seem to be kicking off back at the campsite, so two of my companions trot off again to start documenting events, leaving us behind to wrap up the techie stuff. My partner and I follow along some quarter of an hour later... and spend practically the rest of the entire evening trying to hook up with our mates. Without success.

Whichever way we turn we're confronted by police lines, no-one being allowed either in or out. Many of those lines seemed to serve no obvious purpose whatsoever... just a line of cops strung loosely across an otherwise empty road.

At other times we saw a crowd of folk (protesters presumably, whether campers or not difficult to tell, for by this time I'd completely lost my bearings) being either pushed back or herded by the cops, with onlookers being held well away from the action. And of course we had to remain constantly mobile ourselves to avoid becoming trapped, a constantly imminent risk. Then suddenly from out of nowhere would appear a squad of riot cops trotting along the otherwise practically empty London streets to some unclear destination. It was all incredibly surreal.

Only in the following days did the stories begin to emerge of what was actually going on during that afternoon and evening. Of the unremitting "kettling"; of the brutality of the riot cops against the non-violent campers; and of the death of what apppears to have been an innocent bystander apparently at the hands of the police.

Yet I and my partner saw none of this. We simply couldn't get anywhere even remotely close despite having circumnavigated that part of the city what seemed like four or five times. And curiously (some might even say suspiciously) it appeared that many of the folk who, like us, were trying unsuccessfully to get near to where things were happening were also, like us, photographers! Not that I'm suggesting the police would deliberately keep the media away of course. What reason could they possibly have for wanting to do that? So its "draw your own conclusions" time. With hindsight I have somewhat mixed feelings about that evening. The photographer in me bemoans the thought of lost opportunities. The media activist in me regrets not having been on hand to help document the excesses of the cops. But the coward in me is rather thankful that somehow I'd missed it all. At one point we hooked up with a couple of legal observers who, like us, were trying to rejoin the protesters, and hung around with them for a while in case they needed photographers for anything. At another point we stop and chat to a couple of guys who'd somehow managed to get away from the campsite; I do an impromptu roadside interview in which they relate to us how the girlfriend of one of them was still kettled with a load of other protesters. And how they'd witnessed the appearance of some sort of armoured vehicles. It was this last that had really caused me to perk up, prompting me to do a sort of formal recorded interview for it was the first time I'd heard mention of such things and I thought it worth noting. Old news now of course, since their appearance the following day, paraded before all the assembled mainstream media. Having at least managed to maintain intermittent mobile phone contact with the rest of our crew, a brief conference with them leads to the concensus that us two aren't really achieving anything very useful at all just wandering around like a couple of lost sheep. So we find ourselves, getting on toward midnight, back at Liverpool Street Station where we manage to grab some much needed refreshment. And then make our way back toward our "home from home". Where another story's beginning to unfold. For this is where we first hear of someone (later identified as Ian Tomlinson) having died during the day's protests. The initial story put out by some of the mainstream media, apparently based on a statement by the police, was that the man had died from natural causes. Though some of the protesters that had made their way back to this "base" were already beginning to dispute that and lively discussion was fluctuating between an as yet unfocussed desire to "do something" and a rather more reasoned desire to get further information. Which, from a brief skim of the newssites, seemed entirely absent. But, resulting from a few incoming phone and text messages, it began to appear that the police may well have been complicit in the man's death. The rest of our crew finally arrive back and we then spend the next few hours until some stupid o'clock in the morning chatting and trying to get some photos onto Indymedia. And planning for the following day. Seems that the others of our little collective had arranged to return homeward about lunchtime Thursday which meant I'd have a few hours on my todd so to speak, my plan being to stay throughout the day and think about making my way home in the early evening. My original intention was to cover the protest at the Excel Centre in the Docklands but, on reflection, it occurred to me that it'd probably be almost impossible to get anywhere handy given the massive security cordon that was almost certainly to be in place. And I'd just about had enough of wandering around unsuccessfully trying to breach police lines. Then there's mention of a "Memorial Demo" being organised for outside the Royal Exchange at about lunchtime to mark the death of Mr Tomlinson (although at that time he still hadn't been identified as such) and call for an independent enquiry into the circumstances. "That'll do me" thinks I. Which gives us all a relatively free morning so we say farewell to our temporary home and head out in quest of breakfast. And get stopped on exiting the building for a rather more thorough "stop & search". Cops were everywhere! Every exit road from the building was blocked by them and, aside from the "stop & search" routine, they were clearly trying to get as much information as possible about what was happening inside. What were we doing there? Who else was in there? How many? Etc etc. Naturally we were all entirely unforthcoming and, possibly due to our Press credentials, they didn't push too hard. But we heard later that some hours after our departure the place was raided, along with another space that had been set up elsewhere. I arrive outside the Royal Exchange a bit before midday and, clearly, something's "going on". For already some sort of protest or demonstration's in progress, but I can't even begin to get close because of all the assembled mainstream media. Doubting that this is actually the Memorial Demo (still a bit too early for that) I completely fail to find out what it is all about and instead wander around the Bank of England opposite and snap a few pics of what I take to be the RBS that had been damaged yesterday. A not unreasonable conclusion given the line of mounted police on guard by a boarded-up window with a glazier's van parked outside.

Returning to the Royal Exchange the assembled crowd had swollen considerably so, although still confused about precisely who was protesting about what, I assume that somewhere in this lot is the Memorial Demo, a view borne out by lots of folk pinning messages of remembrance to some hoarding.

Lots of FIT around too (the notorious police Forward Intelligence Teams), no doubt collecting more info for their nasty little database.

The whole event seemed to be entirely peaceful, though from a distance I did spot one little scuffle. But by the time I'd got to the scene it was all over and done and with no appearance of it having escalated, or likely to. No reason, in other words, for the cops to become overbearing. And yet that's exactly what happened! First indications I got that something was "going down" was observing the cops beginning to form an ever tighter line around the Royal Exchange. Which is generally a good sign to start moving around. Which is what I did. Moving around in fact to, coincidentally, just outside the slowly coalescing police line. It then became fairly apparent that the cops were also forming lines by the corners of nearby streets, thereby preventing more people from joining the demo outside the Exchange (which was now beginning to look increasingly like a "kettle").

More milling around when suddenly, to passionate jeers of "shame on you" what should trundle into view but a convoy of the police armoured vehicles I'd first heard about the previous evening! "What the hell is this" think I, "we're not in a war zone". Obviously its a PR exercise on the part of the cops, laid on specially for the massed mainstream media as a demonstration of who's really in control of the streets. And to what extent was this ploy intended to provoke the demonstrators into (certainly) hostility, and possibly even aggression? Were the cops once again seeking to provoke the crowd into doing something that would justify their next move, following (it seemed) only moments later?

By now I was thoroughly rattled. Not rattled nervous, but rattled angry. Just where the hell do the cops get off thinking that a peaceful demonstration such as I'd been witnessing justifies such an arrogant display of brute force? Not in the actuality of course, but in the implied threat. Were they really that determined to trigger a replay of the Poll Tax Riots? Hats off then to the common sense of the demonstrators who, despite their voluble outburst, managed to largely retain their calm. Well, the next ploy was, moments later, the appearance of mounted police, practically charging into those of us outside the kettle, ostensibly to clear the streets but in fact to create a no-go zone around the Royal Exchange. Or so it seemed.

Narrowly avoiding getting trampled by the shod hooves I, along with a load of other photographer-types, retreated to the nearby pavement just sufficiently far enough away to be unable to get a clear view of what was happening immediately outside the Exchange, that the cops had now well and truly kettled.

It seems to me that this is all disturbingly of a piece with the events of the previous day, the full details of which have only been emerging through eyewitness accounts in the days following the end of this round of G20 protests. Accounts such as... Trapped and beaten by police in Climate Camp[6] Worried about my daughter caught up in Police Violence[7] Police Brutality last Thursday at Bank - G20[8] The press were kept out[9] G20: The police ruined a peaceful protest[10] The siege of Climate Camp[11] a conviction can be a cover-up[12] and I still blame police brutality[13] (Links assembled by Kirk, to whom thanks) Then there are further even more worrying eyewitness accounts on the "What I saw" blog[14]. Having posted a selection of the photos I took over the two days to Flickr[15], one visitor to the set commented... "The fact is, there was only one incident of violence by the police on that day - and you know that is the truth because there would otherwise have been more uproar - which is a stark contrast to the behaviour of the protestors which I also witnessed - criminal damage, possession of an offensive weapon, causing a public obstruction... The police were remarkably tolerant and you know it. Many countries would not tolerate the blocking of a major street, yet I didn't see any police beating them up. They could have, but they didn't. Maybe you should actually look at the events of that day. You were there, yet you don't seem to have opened your eyes." Such a naive, and borderline insulting, view almost didn't merit a response. On the other hand, was it naive, or willfully distorted? Consequently I felt obliged to reply... "I'm not entirely certain that's a totally accurate representation. Not, at least, from the feedback I've been getting. No doubt in the days and weeks to come a more complete picture will begin to emerge." and of course the foregoing referenced accounts bear out my response totally. Now put those incredibly disturbing accounts (though, it has to be said, none of them hold many surprises for folk that had attended, for example, the Climate Camp last year[16] at Kingsnorth in Kent) into context of the remarks by Superintendent David Hartshorn, head of the Met police’s Public Order branch, quoted in The Guardian[17], about a so-called "Summer of Rage", and the amazing "predictions"[18] by the police that "1 April would be 'very violent', and senior commanders have insisted that they are 'up for it, and up to it', should there be any trouble." Clearly then the police were determined that, by fair means or foul, the G20 protests needed to justify their earlier wild utterances and, because the protesters proved to be a fairly peaceful non-violent bunch (as anyone with the least familiarity with the activist community and, more specifically, climate campers, could have far more accurately predicted), well, the cops seemingly had to resort to foul means. The increasingly and unnecessarily violent tactics used by the police in dealing with protests and demonstrations is persuading me that we now have a police force that is virtually out of control, seeing themselves as accountable to noone and above the Law that they are supposed to uphold. As if to underline this point we have, finally, the tragic death of Ian Tomlinson to consider. The full facts have still yet to be established, but on the basis of what we already know from video footage and eyewitness accounts it seems clear that, at the very least, the police were entirely negligent in their "duty of care" to him, miserably and unaccountably failing to promptly identify him as someone in need of medical assistance, despite this repeatedly being drawn to their attention. That such disregard for life and the welfare of the community they're supposed to serve has become entrenched in the police force seems to me to be a cause for the gravest concern. Nor can this be spun as an isolated incident, a single officer getting "carried away" for, although it appears that Mr Tomlinson was either pushed or struck by a single officer, that officer was accompanied by numerous others, all of whom appear to have behaved quite nonchalantly throughout the incident, hence my suspicion that such an attitude has now become entrenched.

Somewhere in all of this the real messages of the G20 protests have become rather lost. The somewhat mixed messages of the Meltdown: "Lost your home? Lost your job? Lost your pension? This party is for you! Capitalism has been heating up our world for years, melting the icecaps, burning up the rainforests, pushing the planet to tipping point. Now we're going to put the heat on them. At the London Summit , the G20 ministers are trying to get away with the biggest April Fools trick of all time. Their tax-dodging, bonus-guzzling, pension-pinching, unregulated free market world's in meltdown, and those fools think we're going to bail them out. They've gotta be joking!" And the rather clearer message of the Climate Campers, that the present system of carbon trading is fundamentally flawed, and our very survival as a species may be at stake unless the governments of the world act together now to effectively reduce carbon emissions. These messages address big issues... big important issues. Yet, once again, they seem to have been hijacked. Hijacked twice in fact. First by the incident at the Royal Bank of Scotland that played to the mainstream media's appetite for a "sensational" story... feeding directly into the spin that had previously been put out by the cops and gained momentum under the melodramatic "Summer of Rage" banner. And secondly, and far more tragically, by the death of Ian Tomlinson that once again thrusts into the spotlight the whole murky issue of the policing of protests. And this so soon after the publication of the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights' seventh Report “Demonstrating respect for rights? A human rights approach to policing protest”![19]

References 1. http://www.radicalimages.org.uk/ 2. http://climatecamp.org.uk/g20 3. http://www.g-20meltdown.org/index.html 4. http://www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk/ 5. http://www.ecx.eu/ 6. http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/ourkingdom/ 2009/04/09/trapped-and-beaten-by-police-in-climate-camp 7. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/04/426083.html?c=on#c220036 8. http://london.indymedia.org.uk/articles/1082 9. http://london.indymedia.org.uk/articles/1082#comment-360 10. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/ 2009/apr/02/g20-protest-climate-camp 11. http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2009/04/02/the-seige-of-climate-camp/ 12. http://bristlingbadger.blogspot.com/2009/04/conviction-can-be-cover-up.html 13. http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2009/04/02/i-still-blame-police-brutality/ 14. http://g20police.wordpress.com/ 15. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotdmike/sets/72157616305953292/ 16. http://news.tiltingatwindmills.org.uk/2008/08/16/reflections-on-climate-camp-2008/ 17. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/23/police-civil-unrest-recession 18. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/27/g20-protest 19. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200809/jtselect/jtrights/47/4702.htm

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