Green Party condemns police
Matt S | 08.07.2005 12:33 | Oxford
GREEN PARTY SEVERELY CRITICAL OF POLICING AT PROTESTERS CAMP OUTSIDE
STIRLING
Chair of the Green Party Hugo Charlton commented: "Apart from reliable
accounts of protesters being "cordoned" off without legal justification
there would also appear to have been as substantial mistreatment of
prisoners by Scottish police arresting demonstrators. Also there have been
other reports of police confiscating medical supplies from the volunteer
medics teams providing support on all anti G8 protests."
"More seriously despite the substantial police presence and preparation,
detainees have been held in unacceptable conditions. Detainees were made to
wait in a police van, with their hands handcuffed behind their backs for 11
hours at Falkirk police station with little water and not allowed to go to
the toilet. One female detainee was obliged to urinate in the van."
Green Cllr Matt Sellwood of Oxford stated yesterday: "Police behaviour here
amounts to a serious attempt to repress and crush legitimate protesters. The
methods used have clearly broken the law and the principle of transparent
justice. Only today I have been cordoned into my camp (twice) and cordoned
outside (once) - no reason other than preventing peaceful protests was
given, and the police gave no justification in law."
From Green Party press office, 020 7561 0282.
Published and promoted by Matt Wootton for the Green Party, both at
1a Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ.
STIRLING
Chair of the Green Party Hugo Charlton commented: "Apart from reliable
accounts of protesters being "cordoned" off without legal justification
there would also appear to have been as substantial mistreatment of
prisoners by Scottish police arresting demonstrators. Also there have been
other reports of police confiscating medical supplies from the volunteer
medics teams providing support on all anti G8 protests."
"More seriously despite the substantial police presence and preparation,
detainees have been held in unacceptable conditions. Detainees were made to
wait in a police van, with their hands handcuffed behind their backs for 11
hours at Falkirk police station with little water and not allowed to go to
the toilet. One female detainee was obliged to urinate in the van."
Green Cllr Matt Sellwood of Oxford stated yesterday: "Police behaviour here
amounts to a serious attempt to repress and crush legitimate protesters. The
methods used have clearly broken the law and the principle of transparent
justice. Only today I have been cordoned into my camp (twice) and cordoned
outside (once) - no reason other than preventing peaceful protests was
given, and the police gave no justification in law."
From Green Party press office, 020 7561 0282.
Published and promoted by Matt Wootton for the Green Party, both at
1a Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ.
Matt S
Comments
Hide the following 15 comments
The Green Party? Who are they?
08.07.2005 12:44
Why is the press release from London Green Party 100s of miles away from the actual camp? Scotland does have a section of the Green party you know in Edinburgh.
Let’s look at a quote from the Scottish Greens website “The Scottish Greens are calling on the people of Scotland, and the world, to demonstrate their opposition to the G8 summit, by engaging in non-violent protest and building constructive alternatives”
Non-violent protest people. Now they wonder why the police are round the camp 24/7? Speak to the Stirling residents who live in one of the most highly unemployed, low income areas of the UK and who’s homes and property was destroyed Wenesday morning.
Perhaps the Scottish Greens can lift the phone, or more greener...send a note by carrier pidgeon to London HQ and let them know about the happenings residents of Stirling.
McTavish
greens?
08.07.2005 13:23
eatyourgreens
Seperate parties
08.07.2005 14:14
why this press release is not issued by the Scottish Party. They may well be working on
a press release of their own.
HOwever, just on a sidenote, wouldn't you agree that the police have to work within the
law in dealing with protestors? Or are you happy for them to do whatever they want,
regardless of what the protestor has done or what the situation is? Is keeping people
in the back of vans handcuffed for 12 hours when they have done nothing but 'look
suspicious' really the kind of policing you want in Scotland?
If so, fair enough, but don't complain if they start eroding your civil liberties too...
Civil liberties
Hilarious!
08.07.2005 14:14
It's a fact that the Green Party live in the past, want everyone in the UK to get around on bikes and wear garish 1970 style clothing, tank tops, brogues...
much like the "liberal democrats" they are numpties!
dot dot dot dash dash
Link
08.07.2005 14:24
Matt S
A biting fish
08.07.2005 14:27
Who the Greens? lmao
fishhead
Wrecking Replys Once Again?
08.07.2005 14:57
You all know that wasn't my original response!
How can you babble on about "free speech" and moan about the "big media corporations having an agenda" yet slice and burn your way through the comments porteayed on your site.
Not wise!
fishhead
the greens are cool
08.07.2005 15:17
It's a fact that the Green Party live in the past, want everyone in the UK to get around on bikes and wear garish 1970 style clothing, tank tops, brogues...
<<
What difference does it make what they look like, you fool, and what is wrong with attempting to politicize students in our corporatized, dumbed down universities?
Absolutely nothing.
And why are you being so facetious about using aeroplanes, or cars when necessary, and advocating cycling. Progress towards environmental sustainability is an incremental process.
It sounds as if tabloid journalists troll this site in their lunchbreak!
anon
Who speaks for the Greens?
08.07.2005 15:50
The Green party for England & Wales should comment on what is happening in there own part of the world and leave the Scottish Greens to comment about what is happening in their patch.
INDEPENDENCE
Hugo: silly name for a great guy
08.07.2005 16:28
All the various sad trots who thought that by behaving like a prat and shouting slogans at magistrates and as a result got slung in chokey as "martyrs" were not 10% as effective as Hugo. As Militant was told at the time "If you cannot figure how a magistrate’s court works you will never win". They couldn't figure it out and where are Militant now?
Hugo is middle-class and is in the Green party, I am neither, but I would rather have him on my side in campaign than all of Scotland. After all Scotland last fought the British state in 1745 and lost so badly that it has kissed English arse ever since. By contrast Hugo fought and won, no wonder various trolls feel the need to discredit him. So keep kissing that English arse McTavish/Stirling Lad/Grey Friars Bobby!
London Scot
Bizarre
08.07.2005 16:47
politicans and grassroots members) have been in Scotland - Caroline Lucas MEP, for example,
several members of the National Executive, the Co-Chair of Green party Regional Council,
and many local councillors.
However, your criteria are bizarre, because the G8 summit is taking place under the aegis
of the UK government, and the policing is being masterminded by the London Metropolitan
Police. Pretty strong grounds for a statement from an English political party, I would
have thought.
We're on the ground here in Scotland, we know what is going on, and we won't let it pass
without comment. Think what you like about that...
Matt S
Poor Old Hugo
08.07.2005 19:59
So the Greens had more success using the system against the authorities than the Militant "Smash the Tories" mob.
Anarchists please note. You achieved nothing.
Boab
Greens OK
09.07.2005 20:52
I agree with Anon. Cut this piss-taking on grounds of hairstyle and dress.
I'm sure you warrior boys are the cutting edge of street fashion
- but who cares? Grow up, get a girlfriend or sommin.
R
Rich
Militant? Anarchist?
12.07.2005 10:07
The deficiencies of Militant have nothing to do with anarchism. Militant was a centrally-organised authoritarian left movement within the Labour Party, and modern anarchists have nothing to learn from their failures.
MrDemeanour
Scottish Green's Fashion Statement
12.07.2005 13:40
Representatives from the Green Party of England & Wales were in Scotland for the G8 - great to see them up here, along with Greens from throughout Europe - and they are perfectly within their rights to express indignation about what they witnessed.
As Matt pointed out - and is clear enough on our website - the Scottish Green Party is a separate party. So though we work closely with GPEW, we'd be rather offended at the thought of a London HQ. Also, we're not just an Edinburgh party: we have branches across Scotland, MSPs from most regions, and our best electoral performance this year was here in sunny Glasgow.
On the subject of police tactics, Mark Ballard MSP and Shiona Baird MSP have been all over the media because of their response to the policing of Monday in Edinburgh. That's to say: the Scottish media, as it probably won't have made it down South ;-) In their public statements, they've been critical of police tactics, just as they were of violence from some of the protestors.
I was at Faslane with a large number of the Greens on the Monday (Mark and Shiona got caught up in the Edinburgh events after getting back), which was a perfect example of non-violent protest. About the same number as were involved in Edinburgh managed to shut down the base all day. Of course this got almost no newspaper coverage, beyond the Evening Times in Glasgow, and even on places like Indymedia it got relatively little coverage, compared to that of idiots lobbing petunias at the polis.
Personally, I think it totally counter-productive that the media were given the headlines they were waiting for, even if it was hyped out of proportion on all sides. Thursday's events showed us what real political violence looks like.
To put Edinburgh, at least, into perspective, there were about the same numbers arrested during the last big Orange walk in Glasgow - headlines which flashed around the world no further than, er, here in Glasgow. .
The general remarks about the Scottish Greens are of course wide of the mark. I can't answer for GPEW, but here in the West of Scotland, we dress with grace, style and panache ;-) We tend to leave student unions to, er, students. The Scottish Young Greens were much in evidence throughout the G8 week. And anyone in Scotland could tell you that the distinguishing feature of prominent male Greens is not bad haircut but a lack of hair at all (Ruskell, Ballard and Harvie).
Curious that for one person Green fashion death is tweed/brogues and for another it's vibrant 1970s-style clothes and tank-tops. Surely both are wrong: everyone knows that the real Green fashion disgrace is sandals with socks ;-)
Ian
Ian
e-mail: ian.ruffell@dsl.pipex.com