On the Evening of Saturday July 2nd,a street party took place out front of the Forest Café on Bristo Place. People were dancing and playing music in the street, which had been blocked off since the Make Poverty History march during that same day. At 00:15 the police arrived at Bristo Place and began what seemed to be a training exercise. There were about 10 vans, 65 police officers, and 7 riot police vans by Bristo Square. They progressively moved into the street to form a straight line that filled the width of the street. The first line moved forward pushing people out of both ends of the street. A second line followed the first by about 20 meters. Once they reached the middle of the street the first line continued to push people out toward Bristo Square whilst the second turned around and did the same in the opposite direction.
The police were dressed in high visibility yellow jackets with their uniform underneath. The majority of them had no numbers or any other form of identification visible and when asked why they didn’t respond. We also asked to speak to a Senior Officer in order clarify this matter but the officer refused to speak to us because he was too busy. The officers clearing the street told us that the street needed to be reopened in order for traffic to come through even though the street had been closed all day and the near by roads were nearly empty (except for the odd taxi) by that time of night. Only a few officers mentioned the possibility of continuing the party at the meadows once the majority of the people had been dispersed.
A man in his mid twenties crossed the line of police and was arrested by two officers with no visible identification. He was immediately taken to the parked vans on Chamber Street. When asked what he got arrested for he said he didn’t know and he added that he hadn’t even been read his rights. Furthermore, the police refused to tell us the charges this man was arrested for. He was quickly put into a van where we couldn’t talk to him anymore. We asked for the numbers of the officers that made the arrest but they refused to reveal their identification.
When asked if a Senior Officer was present to assist the arrest procedure at the van, all the officers present looked at each other blankly. These officers did not work for the local police force and weren’t being looked after by a Senior Officer to make sure they were doing their job correctly. When questioning about the destination of the detainee they simply answered that they didn’t work in Edinburgh and they didn’t even know the city. None of them could even tell us why the detainee got arrested.
A few officers after repeatedly asking for their identification told us their numbers. Assisting the arrest was officers173 whose supervisor is Merdock, 11 (Sargent Glendanan), and 64 who refused to tell us the name of his supervisor. One of the officers driving the van was 5574 and the van licence plate was SCO2 GZK. The van drove off at about 1:00 am. There was also a van with a van with the code OS97 and license number S46 CUA.
Officer139 from the Police in Galaway seemed to be the only sensible officer on duty who managed to at least tell us that the arrestee would be held in Livingston. He also explained to us that he wasn’t wearing any number because his identification was linked to the number on his van. However, we weren’t able to determine which van he was talking about nor was he able to give us that number.
This is a very serious offence to have people disguised like officers and serving the police force with no personal identification. As legal observers and average citizens it is essential for us to be able to identify individual officers in order to make sure the police obey the law they claim to defend. Just as you may have heard of the violent protesters at summits such as the G8, we are also aware of the police violence. Please help us keep protesting a legal right respected by all.