Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

NETCU, they said it.

AR | 12.05.2007 16:24 | Animal Liberation | Social Struggles | Oxford | World

A review of NETCU’s web site

The National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (NETCU) is the police unit set up to deal with so-called ‘domestic extremists’. According to their web site, the most common form of which, here in the UK, is ‘animal rights extremism’.

Tackling extremists may seem like a great idea, but what do NETCU actually mean by the term ‘domestic extremists’? One might assume it would have to be something pretty major, but rather than simply speculating let’s head over to NETCU’s web site. According to the site’s glossary section, “Domestic extremism is the term used to describe any unlawful or recognisably anti-social act carried out as part of an 'extreme campaign'.” And ‘animal rights extremism’ is “Any unlawful or, if not actually unlawful, recognisably anti-social act, motivated by an intention to disrupt lawful business or to intimidate, perceived by any party involved to be rooted in opposition to the perceived exploitation of animals.” It states “if not actually unlawful” so, lets be clear, it seems that the action does not even need to be unlawful for it to be ‘animal rights extremism’!

Imagine being labelled a ‘domestic extremist’ for simply staging something like a phone or road block. Whatever one’s view on animal rights or direct action, using the term extremism, I hope you will agree, in the context it is used by NETCU is misleading. The main purpose of NETCU does not seem to be concerned with preventing physical violence against people, which they describe as “very rare”. Its’ main work seems to be to simply target campaigners labelling them ‘extremists’.

What ever you think of NETCU’s use of the word ‘extremist’ at least they are unbiased and can be trusted to act fairly, or can they? Well NETCU does state in its FAQ “NETCU is impartial and does not enter debate on the use of animals in research.” However this is followed by the statement “The use of animals in research is lawful in the UK at properly licences premises and operates within one of the world's strictest licensing and regulatory frameworks.” This statement seems a little one sided to say the least. NETCU’s links page seems to evidence bias while the page links to no animal rights or even animal welfare web sites, it links, to pro-animal testing groups. A link to the Coalition for Medical Progress is accompanied with the text “The Coalition for Medical Progress (CMP) is an alliance of organisations that work to explain the benefits of animal research and medical progress.” While the link clearly is providing one side of the story NETCU seems to find it unnecessary to provide the other.

No matter where you stand on animal rights, please take this issue seriously, especially if you are involved with campaigning. This information is directly quoted from NETCU’s own site consider it for yourself. Could it be you next?

NETCU/police representatives are encouraged to reply as individuals to this article by commenting on the indymedia page, if they wish to share their side of the story.

Copyright – The quotes are from the NETCU web site and are copied without authorisation, it is believed this use is ‘fair dealing’ under UK copyright law. No claim to copyright in the quotes is made by myself. The quotes are believed copyright NETCU and the quote relating to The Coalition for Medical Progress (CMP) maybe copyright CMP or NETCU. All original parts of this work may be freely reproduced and used in any way by anyone, except by any police force (foreign or domestic) or any part of governmental intelligence (foreign or domestic).

AR

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. UPDATE — NETAR
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech