Torture Bleeds

As no single source includes the full story I have edited together the following from current reports because all the details are relevant to why this has caught my attention-

Two policemen were jailed for 18 months today for inflicting “deliberate cruelty” on a 19-year-old woman in custody in an incident described by a judge as a “little short of torture”. Pc Jason Hanvey, 37, and Sgt Andrew Kennedy, 51, showed “appalling and inexcusable conduct” at Collyhurst police station in 2008, a jury heard.

The incident began in October 2008 when Miss Keigher and Jamie Lee Hall, also now 19, were arrested -on suspicion of carrying out a racially aggravated assault- following an incident in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre. Both girls was taken to Collyhurst police station and were being booked in when the ordeal began.

Hanvey taunted her that he earned more money than her and that she was on benefits.

When they arrived Miss Hall complained that officers were being so rough they were in danger of breaking her arm. Kennedy responded by saying: “I think you’ve lost, don’t you? Who gives a —-?”

PC Jason Hanvey, 37, attacked 19-year-old Amy Keigher at a police station and threatened to rip her ‘f*****g skull off’. Hanvey grabbed her by the hair and forced her head down on to a desk -which caused her to complain the police were “pathetic”. He then brought the handcuffs over her head from behind while she sobbed in pain, she is searched and the girl can be heard asking him to let go of her. In CCTV pictures taken in the police station, he is seen to hold her in that position for more than a minute. While Keigher sobbed in pain, Kennedy stood nearby showing “complete indifference” and appeared to condone Hanvey’s actions. When she pleaded that Hanvey was hurting her, the custody sergeant retorted: ‘If you misbehave you will be hurt. It is the technique we are trained to do – hurt.’ Before Hanvey orders the traumatised teenager to beg for mercy by saying: ‘Pretty please’.

Kennedy later failed to inform her of her right to both free independent legal advice and to inform someone that she was being held in a police station. When she asked for a phone call he refused, expressing doubt that anyone would be concerned for her and saying he did not want her to wake anyone up at 2am.

The court heard the two suspects later pleaded guilty in court to an offence of common assault and although Miss Keigher did initially make a complaint about her treatment by police which resulted in the investigation into the officers, she later withdrew it.

Detectives passed the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which led an investigation before it referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The police refused to release the CCTV footage of the incident to the media, “to ensure future disciplinary hearings are not compromised”.

The judge told Hanvey: “You could and should have stopped what as happening. That was your job and you allowed Hanvey to act in the way he did. Moreover, you appeared to approve of what he did by going on to deny her er right to a telephone call. That is why I’m giving the same sentence to both of you.” Judge Gee said Hanvey’s actions could be described as “absolute thuggery”. Referring to his conviction in 1998, he went on: “Despite the age of that conviction, I regard it as a relevant fact in your case. Cases of assault by police officers are difficult to detect and are always regarded as serious when they are detected”.

The October 2008 attack at Collyhurst police station came 10 years after Hanvy was convicted for punching a prisoner in the face at the city centre Bootle Street station but was allowed to keep his job. He was convicted of assault by magistrates in Manchester and then faced a disciplinary hearing in February 1999 which was conducted personally by the then chief constable Sir David Wilmot. Sir David concluded the offence was “out of character” and that the suspect had contributed in some part to the incident, Manchester Crown Court heard. The Judge said, “On May 15th 1998 you struck a man, Mark Hewitt, in the face causing injuries. You denied the offence and were convicted for common assault. Somewhat remarkably you were allowed to keep your job.”

In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said: “The offence in question occurred 12 years ago and, following the resulting misconduct hearing before the Chief Constable at the time, he was retained by the force due to his previous good character. Thereafter the officer’s behaviour was monitored for a suitable period of time before, like anyone else, he was deemed suitable for deployment in any operational role.”

Hanvey has now resigned from GMP following his conviction for using unlawful force, while Kennedy, of Atherton, has retired after his conviction for failing to prevent such force.

Judge Gee said to the pair: “During the time we have had together I have detected in neither of you not one hint of remorse or regret for what happened that night. In the witness box you sought to justify what you did in what I regard as an arrogant fashion.”

Members of both officers’ families were in court and one woman gasped “no” as the judge imposed his sentence.

[from:- Manchester Evening News, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Fleetwood Weekly News, BBC]

I do not believe this was an aberration by the officers, neither reacted to the others abuse with shock or telling them to stop it, especially with Hanvey’s record the Sgt didn’t even warn him off so he didn’t get into trouble again (let alone because it was wrong). Also it says she was searched, so did a WPC do that and thus another officer who failed to stop it or did the male officers search her, while she was held in a stress position (so beloved of torturers) and taunted while she begged for the pain to stop, in which case I find it hard not to think some element of sexual sadism (clearly of the non consensual variety) may be involved. In concert with the power taunting over relative wealth and status. Also please note the current police rigid handcuffs made by Hiatt (who also supply Gitmo) –

Amnesty International has also criticised Hiatt, claiming that implements made by it have been used by despotic regimes around the world in the torture and incarceration of prisoners. Hiatt refused to say how many pairs of handcuffs it makes for police forces in Britain but confirmed it was by far the biggest supplier.

British police prefer rigid handcuffs or speedcuffs, which are hinged in the middle and said in the Hiatt catalogue to offer “greater subject control”. The more traditional chain-linked handcuffs have been supplied by Hiatt to law enforcement agencies in other parts of the world.

They are an innovation that along with the removal of our right to silence signalled the slow drift into a more oppressive security force role of the police. The refusal to allow a phone call and get a brief are predictable in these thuggish abuses of power. As is her later dropping the complaint which suggests to me there might have been intimidation. But for them it was too late, the detectives kept the case going, so good for them and amazingly the IPCC managed to get a prosecution with the video evidence (something they apparently can’t manage with the Met). There is just no way this behaviour came out of nowhere and as the previous conviction shows there is form, Hanvey and Kennedy’s attitude did not magically appear that night, this is an expression of how they relate to people of less power, they taunt and abuse them, there is also a misogynist undercurrent. Certainly it is shocking for the families of the officers, the one woman gasping ‘no’ suggests support for them but I would venture to suggest there will be some quiet sighs of relief among people who have had to live with these men’s behaviour.

Torture is not new or rare in police settings, the development of torture is in part because democracies enact state violence on its citizens but the cultural and political climate demands this is done in such ways as to leave little evidence or permanent -physical- damage. However the war-on-terror era has normalised torture, has damaged work towards better human rights, in this case it creates more room for people like these officers to operate in, it is more permissive of pain compliance (hello Taser Inc!), more unquestioning of authoritarian memes. It is intriguing the Judge saw fit to say ‘Cases of assault by police officers are difficult to detect‘. However there is hope in the actions of the detectives, who did not cover up for their colleagues, who were rightly disgusted with these thugs and kept the case moving forward, of course we should not expect anything less, the attack and torture was on CCTV and for once the camera did not mysteriously *malfunction that night* or some other scam. Maybe it was just they were took stupid & overconfident and ran out of friends in the force. Despotic regimes will staff their security forces with bullies and sociopaths, they are both useful for controlling the populace and in failing to be good enough at police work to catch the serious criminals who make up the regime and it’s cronies. Ridding the police of bullies like this is a small step to avoid that future, even if our elections suggest otherwise.

PS. I would add treatment like this goes on in our migrant detention camps and the govt with a nod and a wink approves it.

European Court of Human Rights Protects UK Citizens From Their Own Police

Thank you Euro chums & Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton & Liberty who have persevered and achieved this victory-

Police stop and search powers under UK terrorism laws have been declared illegal by human rights judges after two Londoners questioned their legality. The right to question people without grounds for suspicion – granted by the Terrorism Act of 2000 – violates the Human Rights Convention, said the European Court of Human Rights.

The ruling came in a case brought by two Londoners who were stopped and questioned by police near an arms fair in the city in 2003. Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton were both searched on the same day in the area of the Defence Systems and Equipment International Exhibition at the Excel Centre in Docklands, where there had already been protests and demonstrations. Nothing incriminating was found on either of them and they went to court questioning the legality of stop and search powers. The High Court and the Court of Appeal said the powers were legitimate given the risk of terrorism in London. But the human rights court disagreed.

The Home Office called it ‘disappointing‘ and I would guess the fuzz will keep stopping and searching as most people have neither the time, money or determination to challenge each stop and the plod will come up with some arcane justification for their illegal activity, y’know, as usual.

Section 44 is supposed to give the police the powers to search for “articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism” in a designated area renewable every 28 days. But since it came into force in 2001 it has been widely used against anti-war and anti-globalisation protesters, photographers and even Japanese tourists. More than 117,000 searches took place under the powers in 2008 and the European judges drew special attention to the statistics showing black and Asian people were at least four times more likely to be stopped.

Bullshit!

So City of London Police say they are right to stop photography because they caught some terrorists who were doing it, except…none were ever charged or convicted of terrorism-

The police said the CPS had decided there was sufficient evidence to bring terrorism charges, but it was not in the public interest because they would have received the same sentence as for fraud.

Bullshit! They really do think we are stupid, so the government would pass up a chance to convict on terrorism charges and defend its authoritarian police force and justify its Prevent spying program and its wars of aggression. The rest of the articles about this are full of smears and accusations against the gang none of which is substantiated and all tied up with a bow of- so there, terrorists are everywhere and stopping photography is how we catch them. Just look at the hard evidence they release to the media-

• one man was caught filming and acting suspiciously at Liverpool Street…City of London Police, who led the investigation, said the filming was an example of “hostile reconnaissance”. {So that’s it folks we are not taking pictures or making photographs we are engaging in hostile reconnaissance, what a lovely military term, good old 4th gen warfare, no civilians we are all potential ‘enemy combatants’ now}
• It showed him examining Oxford Circus, Mornington Crescent and Camden Town Tube stations. He had filmed underground maps and lifts, CCTV cameras, entrances and exits of stations. {er you mean he filmed the station?}
• During the video, the man gave a muttered running commentary in an obscure North African dialect. A translator said the man said at one point: “There are cameras there, there are cameras everywhere.” {Well case closed Inspector, he didn’t speaky The English, and the phrase ‘There are cameras there, there are cameras everywhere‘ is now evidence of terrorism? God help Jessops staff talking to customers}
• Police discovered the gang also visited shopping centres in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Bluewater in Kent, and Bridgend, south Wales. Two men were subsequently convicted of a huge mobile phone and luxury goods fraud scam and deported after serving prison sentences. {Gosh petty crooks went to shopping centres, um and that’s terrorism not say part of their fraud activities or y’kno…shopping? Also bear in mind that real terrorist cells tend to avoid overt criminal activity because they need to remain unnoticed in order to carry out their plans}
• Police discovered that the 7 July 2005 London suicide bombers carried out reconnaissance of the Underground trains network prior to their attacks, one of the trips being a week before they struck. {So your basic guilt by association, they took photos so look it’s what terrorists do…give me fucking strength}

Bull-fucking-shit. The City of London police have decided to react to complaints of illegal and authoritarian thuggishness with a bullshit media campaign disguised as a news item about scary terrorists, put up or shut up, if they were an evil Al Qaeda cell and not just a gang of petty crooks then show the evidence. And no, video on mobile phones is not evidence on that basis I am a terrorist, I have photographed and filmed tube stations, security cameras at sensitive locations and maps, you might accuse me of bad art (which of course would be incorrect, I’ve got an artistic licence from the post office and everything) but not terrorism. This should be a free country right up until we allow this unproven PR crap to go unchallenged as it moves us into a police state. Anyone remember the Cold War or even stories now where poor locals or Brits would be arrested by foreign security forces for taking pictures and we’d all tut and say well that just proves our political system is best and we are free compared to those authoritarian police state nightmares, well game over genius and the media are happy to play along and reprint this PR Bullshit. There, have I said Bullshit enough. We should feel insulted that they think we are so stupid as to fall for this cock and bull story.
Good time to plug this (ht2 D-Notice)-

9 Out of 5,000

Scotland Yard faced calls for an “ethical audit” of all officers in its controversial riot squad tonight after figures revealed that they had received more than 5,000 complaint allegations, mostly for “oppressive behaviour”. Details of all allegations lodged against the Metropolitan police territorial support group (TSG) over the last four years reveal that only nine – less than 0.18% – were “substantiated” after an investigation by the force’s complaints department. (ht2 Harpymarx)

The TSG (who killed Ian Tomlinson) were what the SPG became (the group who murdered Blair Peach) and clearly they have absolute support from the Met who work to keep them utterly above the law, this sketch is 30 years old yet again I post it because…nothing has changed

And please read on to see how the Met protected serial torturer and racist (and former Royal Marine, attempt to be surprised) Mark Jones even when another officer acted as whistleblower (noticeably the jury chose to believe Jones rather than Pc Amechi Onwugbonu) to the assault on several teenagers, one of whom Jones called an ‘Arab cunt‘.

New Chief

North Wales Police has a new chief constable, Mark Polin, who says things like this-

“An unorganised mind environment is not for me I’m afraid.”

This will be interesting.

Update: A Q& A in the Daily Post, he comes across as a conservative on thedrugwar inc. unlike Brunstrom’s progressive attitude.

Video & Eye Witnesses Actually Deemed Enough Evidence To Prosecute A G20 Cop

I guarantee you if there was no video this would not even be happening, This Camera Kills Fascists. If you go on a demo, go with camera, make sure it’s charged and plenty of memory space to record. We have to be our own CCTV, because it oddly never works in the vicinity of security force crimes…

And They Also Have Tasers Now…

Thames Valley Police has been fined £40,000 for breaching health and safety laws when a civilian worker was accidentally shot. Pc David Micklethwaite, 52, shot control room employee Keith Tilbury, 57, during a firearms awareness course in Oxfordshire on 30 May 2007. It was revealed at Southwark Crown Court that Pc Micklethewaite had failed a gun training course, but was allowed to continue working. He mistakenly loaded a Magnum revolver with live ammunition which was kept in an old Quality Street tin. The judge said this practice was a “disaster waiting to happen”.

Pc Micklethwaite was accused of “engaging in the pointing of weapons and the pulling of a trigger during role-play in the classroom”, “failing to examine or check the round of ammunition” and discharging the gun “while inadvertently pointing the weapon at Keith Tilbury”. Mr Tilbury, a control room employee for Thames Valley Police Authority, was shot in the stomach at point-blank range while he was listening to a lecture alongside 10 colleagues at the force’s Police Headquarters North in Kidlington. He suffered serious damage to his lungs, kidneys and bowel and spent two weeks in intensive care. Mr Tilbury has told the BBC he is unlikely to return to work.

When All You’ve Got Is A Hammer

Every problem looks like a nail-

A police decision to use a Taser gun on an 89-year-old man who was threatening to cut his own throat has been upheld by a watchdog. The Independent Police Complaints Commission(IPCC) said North Wales Police officers were protecting the public and the man’s life. The retired carpenter and World War II veteran walked out of a residential home in Llandudno, Conwy in January.

He smashed a window and ran off clutching a piece of glass. Police said at the time that they used the 50,000-volt stun gun to control the man, who has not been named, because they thought he might kill himself. The IPCC has now upheld the decision of an internal North Wales Police inquiry in to the incident. Relatives had disagreed with the decision and said the Taser could have killed him, that handcuffs were unnecessary and that the officers should have used other ways to calm him down.

This is the IPCC that has now been revealed to be complicit in attempting to cover up the killing of Ian Tomlinson

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) planned to announce that it had completed its assessment into Tomlinson’s death on 1 April and discovered nothing suspicious. At 11.30am on 4 April, investigators prepared a document announcing Tomlinson died of a heart attack after being caught up among protesters “dressed entirely in black” who, it said, were charging police.

“It was during this charge and retreat that Mr Tomlinson has seemed to have been caught up in the crowds and a number of people describe seeing him ‘collapse and fall to the ground’.”

The statement went on to say the IPCC had examined CCTV of the incident, police records and statements from independent witnesses, and been “satisfied that there is no evidence that the actions of those officers present on Cornhill contributed in any way to the sudden and untimely death of an innocent bystander”.

Their premature conclusions were read over the phone to Tomlinson’s family, but then appear to have been shelved at the last minute.

The logs also reveal the family were told by police there were “no marks” on Tomlinson’s face, a claim they contested after viewing his body. In their first interview, on Thursday, the family said City of London police, the Met and the IPCC discouraged them from talking to the media and said they believed there were attempts to cover up details about the death.

They said they were only given a selective account of a postmortem which found Tomlinson died of a heart attack.

The logs appear to confirm they were not told that the pathologist also discovered large amounts of blood in Tomlinson’s stomach and other injuries.

“Looking back, it is obvious we were misled by police in the hours and days after Ian died,” Paul King, Tomlinson’s son, said.

“There is still a lot to come out about how we were prevented from knowing the truth about Ian’s death.” He added that the family had been in shock when police family liaison officers were appointed and, he said, “trusted them too much”.

(ht2 Harpymarx)

The IPCC is a sham, they are too close to the police to fulfil the role of police oversight and investigation of criminal activity by the police. Their continued existence tells you all you need to know of authoritarian desires for police control of the population amongst the establishment, all wrapped in the shiny false pretences of accountability.

Ian Tomlison’s widow Julia and son Paul King, were interviewed in the Guardian (I wonder if the Guardian had not decided to take this stance would the killing be swept under the carpet despite coverage in independent media, because clearly the IPCC were part of the scam and citizen media is not that powerful)-

Julia Tomlinson criticised the IPCC failing to properly investigate her husband’s death until after the video was broadcast – almost a week after his death.

“The IPCC should have been there from day one – definitely – not left it five days later,” she said.

King added: “We’ve asked to see the evidence that [the IPCC] passed to the CPS. We’re still waiting for it … we haven’t seen it.

“Everyone knows that there was a lot of cover-up in the beginning. The truth will come out in the end.”

The family believe police misled them over Tomlinson’s death from the outset.

“It was half past four in the morning – a knock at the door and Stephanie, the second youngest daughter, answered the door,” Julia Tomlinson said.

“There were two police officers standing there and they asked to speak to Sam, my eldest daughter. I came down the stairs and they asked if I was Mrs Tomlinson, and I said yes.

“They said: ‘Have you heard about the G20? I said: ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

“They said: ‘If you’d like to sit down, then we’ll explain to you. And they said: ‘Your husband was caught up in the G20 riots, and he suddenly collapsed and died of a heart attack.”

Police then refused to allow her to see his body in the Royal London Hospital, she added.

“Six days later, I wasn’t allowed to go and see him,” she said. “I didn’t understand why they didn’t want me to go and see him – if someone dies of a heart attack, you get to go and see him. But they weren’t letting me.”

They also disclosed that, when a post-mortem examination was completed three days after Tomlinson died, police gave them an edited version of the results.

The family were not told that a forensic pathologist had found large amounts of blood in his stomach, a suspected dog bite on his leg and a number of other injuries.

“Now we know that it wasn’t a heart attack … that he died of internal bleeding.”

King said: “We’ve been confused by the City police, Metropolitan police, IPCC to not say anything: ‘Don’t say anything, because you’ll jeopardise the case’.

“I think we’ve been so confused with all that – don’t say this, don’t say that, even down to don’t talk to the media – they’ve made us quite scared to talk.

“The IPCC have finished their investigation, we haven’t been able to talk, and we just want to let people know how we feel. We are grieving.”

Ian Tomlinson Family Campaign

Via Harpymarx. Ian Tonlinson’s family have established a website iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk

This website and the Ian Tomlinson Family Campaign has been set up by Ian’s family. We are grateful for the huge amount of public support received since Ian’s tragic death on April 1st 2009 at the G20 protests in London. It has been very hard for our family particularly following the release of images of the police assault on Ian emerged. Ian is deeply missed by us and we simply want justice for him.

We may have a long and difficult journey ahead to achieve justice and we will rely on your continued support.

Our family has set up this campaign for the following reasons:

• To demand a full investigation into Ian’s death that scrutinises the individual conduct and operational command tactics of police officers present at the G20 protest and those in command of them when Ian was assaulted and died

• To call for full criminal charges to be brought against any officer whose actions or failure of duty resulted in Ian’s death

• To campaign for change to any police policies, tactics or frequent abuses of power which may effectively endanger people’s lives rather than protect them, so that future deaths and injuries to the public can be prevented

• To raise awareness of any issues we may experience as a family seeking justice through statutory and judicial systems that are a cause for public concern

These are some things you may wish to do for now to support our campaign:

• Keep updated by checking this official family website for press releases, news articles and updates

• Join the official campaign mailing list by e-mail at iantomlinsonfamilycampaign@gmail.com and send any messages of support or ideas to this address.

• Stay in contact – send us updates of any events you have organised including pictures, letters received back, press articles etc.

• Write to your MP

• Direct any witness information to our lawyers so it may be used in evidence

With thanks,

Family of Ian Tomlinson

Untouchable

Scotland Yard said on Thursday that there was insufficient evidence to reopen inquiries into allegations that journalists for some of Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers paid for the illegal hacking of mobile telephones belonging to high profile figures.

Assistant Commissioner John Yates also cast doubt on the extent of illegal breaking into personal mobile phone accounts owned by UK celebrities, politicians or other targets of journalistic inquirites.

Mr Yates had been asked to investigate by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, after politicians, police officers and senior News Corp executives had been drawn into allegations that thousands of such cases had been unveiled.

Against Guidelines, Police Clearly Using Pain Compliance

This was a Tasering sent to Trent FM in Nottingham

(sorry Daily Mail) According to guidelines from the Association of Chief Police Officers, they must not be used indiscriminately. Guidelines issued to forces state: ‘The use of taser is one of a number of tactical options available to an officer who is faced with violence or the threat of violence.

 ‘Its purpose is to temporarily incapacitate an individual in order to control the threat that they pose.

‘It must not be used to inflict severe pain or suffering in the performance of official duties.’

So either the cops broke the guidelines or this is a big fib they are being taught to use pain compliance or in other words electro-torture to make people do whatever the officer wants them to do. Oh yeah, they punched him a fair bit too.

Taser– This machine creates fascists.

Torture Cancer- Met Police Waterboarded Suspects

Police brutality and the use of torture is not new, but the Whitehouse’s normalisation and legalisation of torture, Blair then Brown’s supine submission to ‘the special relationship’ and the media’s acquiescence to calling it ‘enhanced/harsh interrogation’ absolutely contribute towards a culture that produces this-

Metropolitan Police officers subjected suspects to waterboarding, according to allegations at the centre of a major anti-corruption inquiry, The Times has learnt.

 The torture claims are part of a wide-ranging investigation which also includes accusations that officers fabricated evidence and stole suspects’ property. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug trial and the suspension of several police officers. However, senior policing officials are most alarmed by the claim that officers in Enfield, North London, used the controversial CIA interrogation technique to simulate drowning. Scotland Yard is appointing a new borough commander in Enfield in a move that is being seen as an attempt by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, to enforce a regime of “intrusive supervision”.

The waterboarding claims will fuel the debate about police conduct that has raged in the wake of hundreds of public complaints of brutality at the anti-G20 protests in April.The part of the inquiry focusing on alleged police brutality has been taken over by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. It is examining the conduct of six officers connected to drug raids in November in which four men and a woman were arrested at addresses in Enfield and Tottenham. Police said they found a large amount of cannabis and the suspects were charged with importation of a Class C drug. The case was abandoned four months later when the Crown Prosecution Service said it would not have been in the public interest to proceed. It is understood that the trial, by revealing the torture claims, would have compromised the criminal investigation into the six officers.

Gee the IPCC are investigating, we can rest easy then…

Report on Kingsnorth Policing Buried

Chris Ames, Index on Censorship:- The Home Office and Kent Police have buried a report on the policing of last summer’s climate camp at Kingsnorth power station, provoking suspicions that it was critical of the controversial police tactics at the protest.

 During the protest last August, activists complained of aggressive policing, including violence against peaceful protestors, excessive use of stop and search powers, arbitrary arrests and mass confiscation of personal property. A number of MPs called for an inquiry.

 Last December, policing minister Vernon Coaker told MPs that the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) was “considering the lessons to be learned” from Kingsnorth. He said he would discuss its report with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and would then “be happy to share those conclusions” with Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Secretary David Howarth.

But the report has been shelved, apparently because Kent Police did not like its findings, despite sending it back to be revised. Soon after receiving a “final” version, Chief Constable Michael Fuller commissioned a second review, on the grounds that the NPIA report “was not an evaluation of the operation overall or whether or not strategic and tactical objectives were achieved”.

 The force also refused to hand the report to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Kent Police have declined to say what the report’s findings were, in spite of a claim that its policy “has always been to be open and transparent in everything we do”.

The Home Office is now presenting the second review, which is being carried out by an assistant chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, as a “report by the NPIA”, even though both the NPIA and South Yorkshire Police have stated that the NPIA are not involved.

[More]

& Chris Ames in the Guardian, (ht2 Indymedia)

Filth

The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, said today that he was extremely concerned about some aspects of the policing of the G20 demonstrations although he insisted the vast majority of his officers had done a “remarkably good job”. Giving evidence in front of the Commons home affairs select committee, Stephenson said images of officers apparently lashing out at protesters “were a real concern and should be investigated thoroughly”. But he denied the footage showed behaviour that was “incompatible with British policing”.

Yesterday the MPs also heard from Commander Bob Broadhurst, who was in charge of policing the G20 event. He defended his officers saying they had been “superb” in challenging circumstances.

“The vast majority of those officers have never faced a situation as violent as that,” he said. “I do have a concern that some of our officers have not faced that. I would like to train them more but we don’t have the time.”

What violent situation? Oh the one your agent provocateurs tried to instigate you mean! Talk about rewriting history. And good to see the commissioner thinks murder is a compatible method of British policing. No change there.

Worth a look- Launch of United Campaign Against Police Violence

‘Guns have no place at all in our community’

Note the police (who us H&K firearms) tried to silence media coverage-

Interestingly, local media also came under pressure; Trent FM, who had shown some enthusiasm about reporting these demos, received a word in their ear from both H&K’s press office as well as the police, warning hacks that it would be ‘irresponsible’ to publish the fact that H&K has a warehouse full of weapons in Nottingham, as it may prompt criminals to try and steal them. 

In response the campaigners pointed out to the radio station that H&K’s address was published at Company House, as well as in several business directories. About the radio station being leaned on, the campaigners said that “If the security policy of H&K and Notts police relies on no-one finding out the company’s location, then clearly it is they who are irresponsible, not our campaign and not the media. A large warehouse stocked with high-power assault rifles and submachine guns with inadequate security to prevent a robbery is clearly a significant danger to the public, and publicisng such a danger is very much in the public interest.” 

The H&K warehouse, located at Easter Park, Lenton Lane, Nottingham, is next to the ‘Trent Vineyard’, an evangelist church that held the funeral of Danielle Beccan, a 14 year old girl who was killed in a drive-by shooting. At her funeral service the then mayor of Nottingham said, “Guns have no place at all in our community – not in Nottingham, not in my city nor any other city in Britain.”