Police drop top secret NETCU guide to policing protest

When raiding the site of the Camp for Climate Action, the police dropped a copy of their top-secret guide to policing protest.

policing_protest_pocket_legislation_guide_NETCU - application/pdf 8.9M

Cover

This guide is published by the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, AKA NETCU, and, as it states on the inside cover, is not to be released to the public - even under freedom of information requests.

Part 2 to follow.

Climate camper

Additions

If you have any conerns about NETCU then get in touch with them

04.08.2008 21:56

They only have a postal address as a contact so here's a little extra:

NETCU
PO Box 525
Huntingdon
PE29 9AL

Tel: 01480 425091
Fax: 01480 425007

Email:

mailbox@netcu.pnn.police.uk ***NEW***
Or try:

netcu@cambs.pnn.police.uk

Thanks for the latest email address, they obviously weren't too keen to share it...

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%

22mailbox@netcu.pnn.police.uk%22&meta=

You can ask for Steven Pearl, head of NETCU, for all of your complaints.

Concerned Activist
Homepage: http://netcuwatch.org.uk

Don't forget - Netcu workshop at Climate Camp on Friday

05.08.2008 11:20

Friday 8th: Netcu Watch/Sequani

http://netcu.wordpress.com

http://sequani.wordpress.com

WARN
Homepage: http://westernanimalrights.wordpress.com

Perfect

05.08.2008 11:41

Steven Pearl, Head of Netcu: THIS IS NOT A GOOD WEEK FOR HIM

Or for CO5494/LX365 Ian Skivens: See http://youtube.com/watch?v=lD06pH29c-E

Or for PC Bacon "Nobody likes me, I get upset easily"

Unlucky boys, all activists will have to be getting a copy of this guide for the event, very useful indeed.

Carnival Against Vivisection
Homepage: http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403672.html

Interesting if you dig around the NETCU website

05.08.2008 13:25

Harrods ban on fur protesting... it's apity that he was an illegal arms dealer hence the reason why he hasn't got a British passport......

http://www.netcu.org.uk/downloads/injunctions/harrods_jun_08.pdf

Others

http://www.netcu.org.uk/enforcinglaw/civilremedies/injunctionsearch.jsp

Still you get a nice look of the insides of the buildings.

loppy

Comments

Hide the following 23 comments

genius!

04.08.2008 20:20

they must be SO pissed off! ha!

doug

well done! ¡olé! really quite honestly & truly.

04.08.2008 20:33

Not since the leaking of the Eton College GCSE & community service order woodwork and weeding courses has something so vicariously juicy & not for public consumption - just dropped out of a pocket.

At first glance it reminds me a lot of the corner stone didactic work for plod "The Beat officers' companion" by Gordon Wilson. (not to be confused with either Tony Madchester Wilson or Robert Anton Wilson or "the Wilson" ETA terrorist who assassinated Franco's heir). That book used to be for sale only to the brethren (ooooops nodding to jolly roger there) I meant to write the paid up junior plod. But you can all buy the freshest editions through Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beat-Officers-Companion-Gordon-Wilson/dp/0710627211 or you could if they had any in stock. I'll give you a clue - order it through OUP. Anyway, I've a copy of said beat officer's companion. It was one the "hard to come by" books I brought with me when I left living in the UK all of 8 years ago to go on self-styled exile. The book explains page by page with nifty little line drawings and this is the relevance thing _exactly the same flow chart [Yes / No ] approach_ how to make life unpleasant for everyone. It's sort of idiot proof education which reminded me at the time of the flowchart explanation supplemental notes for entitlements to the British social welfare system and council tax exemption booklets.

you should ( if you have the time) put this wonderful document on wikileaks :

http://wikileaks.org/ or just make sure every page is legibly photographed and published here & some other gnomish critter with time on their hands will do it for you.

o as if

Fucking yes!

04.08.2008 20:36

The AR movement has been trying to get one of these booklets for a while now, I thank you in many ways for uploading the entire booklet online!!!

Will read it and comment soon I imagine. Can't wait for what Netcu Watch have to say about this :-)

ARA
Homepage: http://netcuwatch.org.uk

excellent

04.08.2008 20:46

Haha congratulations on the upload, they'll be a bit angry about it now :D

Fuck Netcu

typing it up.

04.08.2008 21:11

a typed up copy would be good. anyone got a good idea on how to share the load? wiki?

yeay

YES! Excellent

04.08.2008 21:16

Great work! Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant!

Once you have copies saved all over the place and you have made sure they are readable, etc. It might be worth having the booklet anonymously (cleaned of prints, etc) returned, thus possibly reducing the chances of a prosecution for ‘theft’ at a later date.

AR Reprints Press

Well done everybody

04.08.2008 21:46

This is very funny, and embarrassing for the plod. Wankers.

AS for typing it up I'll do some pages.

Carry on the good work.

Mayday

Makes no sense

04.08.2008 22:08

The booklet is advertised as a legislation guide for "Policing Protest" but has this as the first line:

"NETCU provides tactical advice and guidance on policing single-issue domestic extremism."

Did they get the book cover wrong or something? Unless they are trying to say that:

"policing protest" = "policing single-issue domestic extremism"

AKA: "single-issue domestic extremism" = "protest"

Many suffragettes and civil rights activists would disagree with you. Netcu got busted.

PC Bacon

prints

04.08.2008 22:22

"It might be worth having the booklet anonymously (cleaned of prints, etc) returned, thus possibly reducing the chances of a prosecution for ‘theft’ at a later date"

They use a different process for getting prints from paper, in short you cannot clean them off ( I saw that on a real life CSI program once!). once uploaded, and copied, if you are worried, burn it.

fly posters

Pages 8 & 9

04.08.2008 22:51

I'm possibly going a little ga-ga, but pages 8 and 9 appear to be missing? Any chance of a pic? I'm putting it into a PDF.

Cheers for posting this up!

BristleKRS
Homepage: http://bristle.wordpress.com

Ta for the upload

04.08.2008 23:42

Printed off 20 copies of this and will be giving it to fellow activists tomorrow :D

SHACtavist

PDF download

05.08.2008 00:01

Please see at the top of the article - full booklet available as PDF download

peeps

Pages 8-9

05.08.2008 07:16

Well spotted - I'll try to get that photographed as well as the page covered with fingers in part 2. Should be up in the next day or so.

Camper

BEEN AFTER ONE FOR AGES

05.08.2008 10:36

COULD YOU MAKE AS MUCH OF IT AS POSSIBLE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD AS I WILL NEED TO PRINT THESE OFF MYSELF FOR OTHER ACTIVISTS!

GREAT WORK!

A cop handed me that booklet...:-)

05.08.2008 12:34

You know a cop once let me look at the page in that book about Section 14 but the other cop who was with him quickly took it off me when I started looking through it ha ha. I won’t say who the cop who handed it to me was (because we should encourage such behaviour) but let’s just say everyone knows him and it’s quite a surprising one.

booklet

05.08.2008 15:10

fyi I left a comment on part two, just to say I've typed up all the text... I just need to copy the charts now once I've given my fingers a rest from all the typing!!!

I'm going to reproduce it in exact form for you all to download. I will wait till the missing pages are up so I can include them, and once its all done I will stick it online for everyone.

netcu bible

Why the excitement?

06.08.2008 23:07

I admit I've not studied all the photos in detail but this booklet only appears to be 'the law' i.e. public knowledge as published in books you can freely purchase anyway.

Izzard

Ooops!!!

07.08.2008 07:06

Ha ha ha! Once again the irresistable power of The Farce is manifest! As someone who has appeared on NETCU's homepage for quite a while, I had been at a loss for who to contact to ask to remove my image from it. Nice of them to provide full contact details. I think I shall drop them a line. Nice one, and I look forward to reading the full text. By the way, good luck for the rest of Climate camp. I can't make it this year, but you will all be in my thoughts. May the Farce be with you always!

Sgt Sideshow

Why the excitement?

07.08.2008 12:35

Why the excitement?
07.08.2008 00:07

I admit I've not studied all the photos in detail but this booklet only appears to be 'the law' i.e. public knowledge as published in books you can freely purchase anyway.
Izzard

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moon to Mars Moon to Mars this is planet Earth please come down will you? It say if you are bothered to read the front cover "For Police Use Only". Why do you think it will say that? Hmm...for fun?

loppy

Re: why the excitement

08.08.2008 19:04

"Why the excitement?
07.08.2008 00:07

I admit I've not studied all the photos in detail but this booklet only appears to be 'the law' i.e. public knowledge as published in books you can freely purchase anyway.
Izzard"

I thought that at first as well and it is mostly the law, it's obviously written by lawyers and is not readily digestible by your average police officer. The police actually disclosed version 1 as part of the disclosure process in a complaint a couple of years ago, but we didn't think it was worth publishing as the advice was so dry and boring.

But there is some useful information here - eg the NETCU guidance on enforcement of Section 4A and 5 Public Order Act 1986. It does mostly serve to confim what was already suspected - for example NETCU's ludicrous advice to police officers to say that distressing images are "insulting" and therefore an offence under Section 5 Public Order Act 1986. As far as we know, no court has ever ruled that distressing pictures are insulting - and such an interpretatio has led to at least one bumper compensation claim against the police for repeated unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution. It is useful to have the guidance in writing though.

Also of use is the legal advice to the Crown Prosecution Service re: use of Section 42 to protect residents who are not themselves the targets of a protest. The police have long since abused Section 42 so as to stop animal rights demonstrations which aren't aimed at people in their homes but which they say may harass residents nearby (eg at Sequani and Banting and Kingman where they once tried to ban protest altogether using this section). Seems like they won't be able to from now on ...

As for domestric extremism, NETCU's tautologous definition is as follows:

"Domestic extremism is the term used to describe any unlawful or recognisably anti-social act carried out as part of an 'extreme campaign'."

For their definition of " extreme campaign":

"This is when the tactics of a lawful single-issue campaign escalate into unlawful activity. This can include aggravated trespass, e-crime and criminal damage."

We know from previous statements of Steve Pearl, head of NETCU that they regard displaying placards, shouting, chanting and handing out leaflets outside company premises as "anti-social acts". And mobile demos are by definition acts of extremism according to NETCU.

To quote Pearl himself in an article in the Daily Telegraph in September 2006:
"I want those who hold strong views to get back to lobbying and other acceptable protests in a free and democratic society."

In other words anyone who takes part in any protest which is not confined to handing a petition in to Downing St is an extremist.

First NETCU went after the animal rights protestors. Now they are targeting environmentalists. Take heed ...

Freebeagle

Freebeagle

Re: Why the excitement?

11.08.2008 11:32

> Moon to Mars Moon to Mars this is planet Earth please come down
> will you? It say if you are bothered to read the front cover "For
> Police Use Only". Why do you think it will say that? Hmm...for fun?

To stop particularly dumb pigs handing them out as general information leaflets, if it was actually meant to be secret it would say "RESTRICED" or "POLICE EYES ONLY".

If you bothered to read the contents you'd realise just how little information it provides.

ACAB

It does say its restricted on the front though, re-read the front cover?

12.08.2008 15:48

"A restriction is a specific type of rule that defines a finite (and generally absolute) boundary defined for a type of process or function."

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction

The definded finite boundary = "For Police Use Only"

The type of prcoess or function = "Policing Protests"

It doesn't get much more obvious than that...

those netcu boys are well upset

Re: It does say its restricted on the front though, re-read the front cover?

19.08.2008 14:16

No, it doesn't say 'RESTRICTED' or 'CONFIDENTIAL'.

If you think anyone at NETCU would be bothered by this getting into the public domain, you need to check out the law section of your local bookshop for all kinds of other TOP SECRET SRS BSNSS.

ACAB