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IMO, David Gilbertson has nailed the new policing mentality in this new article in the Guardian. We’ve been watching it develop for years, and anyone who has been ‘comparing and contrasting’ the US police force with that of the UK could see where things were heading:

“Increasingly, British policing morphed into a faux-US style of operation. Uniforms were made to look overtly military. The public were regarded, almost uniformly, as suspects, with any hint of dissent interpreted as anti-police. To this must be added the post-9/11 and 7/7 atmosphere. A succession of intrusive powers under the various terrorism acts convinced many officers that they are frontline combatants in the war on terror.

The concept of officer safety has assumed a life of its own. It started in the late 1990s with the laudable aim of designing a stab-proof vest for officers as a response to a small number of knife attacks. The concept has now moved from a defensive posture to an aggressive model. Officers are trained to be on guard against attack, to regard every situation, no matter how seemingly benign, as a threat situation. The lesson is that the public are your enemy.”

At the core of this policing crisis is a leadership failure

I’ve been regarded with extreme scepticism from some quarters for making the same claims over the last few years (especially that in the second quoted paragraph). It’s encouraging to see that there is growing agreement about the nature of the new policing.

EDIT: Have just realised that Mr Gilbertson is a former Scotland Yard commander and assistant inspector of constabulary, something which of course makes the article all the more important!

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Photorestrict/

From the preamble:

On the 16th of February, the Government passed a law (in the Counter Terrorism Act) making it illegal to take a photograph of a police office, military personnel or member of the intelligence services - or a photograph which “may be of use for terrorism”. This definition is vague at best, and open to interpretation by the police - who under Home Secretary guidelines can “restrict photography in public places”.

We call for these vague restrictions to be lifted, as they can easily be mis-used by the police.

If (when!!) you sign, remember to confirm your signature by clicking on the link in the confirmation email message.

IMO the amendments to the Counter Terrorism Act passed on 16th February are a deliberate and disgraceful attempt to reduce the accountability of our police force. If the events of last week weren’t enough to convince you of just how valuable public scrutiny of police activity is, then cast your eyes over this latest incident to be publicized. There are plenty more examples where this came from. And remember, the police are being equipped with Tazers this year. Prepare for plenty of stories from ordinary citizens of aggressive police officers threatening and dishing out electrocution punishments to any person not complying with their (often legally dubious) orders in sufficiently rapid fashion.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Photorestrict/

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NB. If all you see after clicking on the map links below is a black map area, try manually clearing your cache if using Firefox, or hitting Ctrl+F5 if using Internet Explorer.

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This is the location at which Ian Tomlinson was photographed lying on his back in front of police officers at last Wednesday’s G20 protest rally in Cornhill, London:

Google Street View view of scene
Press photograph of scene on 1st April

There appears to be at least one CCTV camera opposite the spot where witnesses claim that police assaulted Mr Tomlinson, or at least there was when the Google Street View car last passed by. It’s on the front of the Cornhill Insurance building:

Cornhill Camera View 1
Cornhill Camera View 2

But did it have the incident in its field of view? Can anyone spot any more cameras that may have captured the event?

I’ve read nothing about live camera footage of the alleged assault itself. It would be surprising if none had been captured.

UPDATE: Well, it’s academic now. The witness claims have been confirmed. The police did indeed assault the poor man. He had every right to be where he was, he had every right to be doing what he was doing. The police had not seen him cause any trouble, but they violently pushed him over from behind anyway, and minutes later he was dead.

Not content with ignoring due process (post pending), the rule of law, demonstrating utter contempt for democracy and civil rights, beating young girls over the head with clubs, manslaughtering those down on their luck (2), and spying on our personal communications, our government, police and security services also want us to rummage through our neighbours’ dustbins, you know, in case there’s anything in there that can be used to denounce them.

Frankly, I’ve long harboured suspicions that one of my neighbours is a democrat, committed to open, accountable government. Obviously, I’m reluctant to report him without good evidence for it’s a serious, unsavoury allegation, one that could ruin his career and family life, But rest assured, I’ll be scratching and sniffing his wheely bin for the tell-tale signs. If he so much as drops an Open Rights Group pamphlet in there, it’ll be the salt mines for him and his counter-revolutionary brood.

Note for the smug cynics, bullies, thugs and rule-breakers within our police force. This government won’t be in power forever. You might want to start thinking about your exit strategies. At the very least, consider how to CYKCA (Cover Your Kevlar-coated Arses). Oh, and here’s some advice, this time around “I was just following orders” isn’t going to cut any ice.

How did democracy end up in this mess? “It just fell down the stairs, honest M’Lud”.

Has your government secretly classed you as a “pre-terrorist” on account of your political actions or beliefs? Alberto Toscano has written a disturbing article on the Liberty Central website that highlights the stakes involved with the development of the “new authoritarianism” that is infecting so many of Europe’s political leaders.

It’s not only political dissenters who are in the sights of those who prefer to focus on “ruling” rather than “serving”. Whatever you may think of football and the fans who follow it, you should be aware of current police treatment of football supporters, if only because what is happening to football fans today will no doubt be happening to runway protesters (and their ilk) tomorrow. [UPDATE: it's happened: Campaigners monitored by civil servants]

And while on the subject of the police acting in an illegal overbearing manner, let’s not forget that many police officers are due to be equipped with Tasers this year. These are devices the ostensible purpose of which is to reduce the need to use firearms against citizens, but which, as the American police have repeatedly demonstrated, often end up being used to simply compel unruly, noisy or merely irritating citizens to obey the wielding officers’ commands. (EDIT: never mind the US police, you don’t have to go that far to find officers gratuitously electrocuting citizens)

*Image from Mike Langridge’s flickr collection. Mike has kindly made this picture available for public use using the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence.

“For five years I have avoided using the phrase ‘police state’. But the sort of things going on here is what you expect in a police state, a banana state. This is the most extraordinary event of my parliamentary career.” (David Davis)

I find the items on this list extremely disturbing, particularly those which relate to his offices, phone and computer.

The six facts causing Tories alarm about Damian Green

“The arrest of Damian Green for doing his job of opposing the executive is a step too far in rolling back centuries of democratic achievement. The pretext is the excessive desire of this government to keep all public information secret, and prevent the taxpayer from finding out what has been done in their name and at their expense. This is the most secretive, as well as the most authoritarian, government of the modern era.”

In case you’re wondering, the author is not exactly a natural political ally of the Conservatives:

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2008/11/the_jackboots_a.html

(Link seen on Glyn Moody’s blog)

Updates:
Cross-party fury over MP’s arrest
Damien Green arrest ‘like Mugabe’s Zimbabwe’
Damian Green arrest: PM accused of contempt for parliament
The six facts causing Tories alarm about Damian Green