The arrest of 286 antifascists demonstrating against the presence of the English Defence League in East London on Saturday is another example of what seems to be a growing trend in public order policing – the mass arrest of people participating in unauthorised marches, rallies and processions.
Police filming a kettle
The tactic of mass arrest is highly indiscriminate – no consideration is made of whether the individuals concerned are truly suspected of any offence. Netpol observers spoke to a boxing coach in East London yesterday, who had tried desperately to get police officers to realise that one of the people they had contained had simply been en route to his gym, which was round the corner from the police kettle. No-one seemed willing to listen to him.
The arrests were made because the protesters had breached conditions the police had imposed on demonstrations that day. The conditions, which were published on the Metropolitan police website early last week, were ridiculously restrictive, confining anti-fascist protest to three streets and a park near to Bethnal Green station, some miles away from the areas through which the EDL were due to march.
Imposing such unworkable restrictions suggests that the aim of the police was not to place positive conditions on the UAF demonstration itself – but to render all other protest against the EDL unlawful. Protest outside the designated area was inevitable, but the conditions imposed made all anti-fascist protest a potential criminal offence – apart from that small segment which had been specifically authorised by the Metropolitan police.
It was on this basis that the police kettled 286 protesters in two groups at Mansell Street and Commercial Road. People were kept there for many hours, and although the police did eventually provide portable toilets, conditions were cramped and uncomfortable. After being filmed by the Forward Intelligence Team, protesters were placed onto buses or in police vans to be taken to police stations as far apart as Lewisham, Sutton, Croydon and Plaistow. Amongst the those held were five legal observers and, according to reports, at least two people who had simply been trying to walk home.
The cost of the operation has not been announced, but the resources devoted to it must be huge. The arrestees have not, for the most part, been charged, but have been released on police bail with conditions not to take part in further anti-fascist protest.
Saturday’s arrest of 286 people is the largest in a series of mass arrests over recent months, a pattern which may signify a worrying shift in public order strategy. Mass arrests for breaching section 12 and 14 conditions were seen at the Critical Mass in July 2011 (182 arrested) and at fracking protests in Balcombe, Sussex (39 arrested), as well as a previous anti-fascist protest in London in June (58 arrested).
Of all these arrests, few have yet made it to court. Of the 182 Critical Mass arrestees, only nine people were prosecuted through the courts, and only four of these were ultimately convicted. Many of those arrested at the antifascist protest in June are still being held on police bail, with conditions denying them the right to protest. They are still not sure whether any charges will be brought against them.
The evidence suggests that due process is not the priority of the police. Instead the focus is on ‘managing’ unwanted protest through a process of disruption and deterrence. Mass arrest certainly is disruptive, and it also has a preventative effect – through bail conditions, 286 people will be effectively banned from attending future anti-fascist protest, despite them not having been charged, let alone convicted of any criminal offence. Mass arrest is also a valuable intelligence gathering tool. On Saturday the police obtained 286 sets of names, addresses, fingerprints and DNA.
Police have the wide-ranging powers to prevent and deter disorder. But we should not allow them to use such powers to prevent, disrupt and deter protest. Mass arrest of participants in protest is not an acceptable policing strategy.
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Worrying development
10.09.2013 11:55
Not only is this an unpleasant experience for those arrested but it also gives the police the power to decide who can and can't demonstrate and where you can and can't demonstrate depriving any dissenters their right to voice effective opposition relegating demonstration/political activism to standing in a designated area for a designated time i.e. completely impotent. And once effective opposition is removed those in power can do what they fucking well like, this must be challenged and reversed.
IHTF
Dumb edl.
10.09.2013 19:43
They mince up and down the streets drunk and without any game-plan except that which has been given to them by a handful of Zionist loony extremists operating out of the US.
And our wars in the Middle East give Muslim men and women plenty of justification for carrying out acts of violence against the British and the Amerikans. You would do this if a Muslim superpower had its troops stationed on every street corner in the UK claiming that the invasion of the United Kingdom was critical to ensure the safety and security of Muslims in the east.
If that were the case, you would be on the streets with your guns and rocket launchers.
But then again, you EDL are cowards so I'm not so sure. In the face of a great eastern Empire, I think your only tactic would be to get drunk and fall over in a puddle of vomit while whining about police brutality!
Tommy Robinson
unauthorised marches, rallies and processions
10.09.2013 22:29
The most significant aspect of this is above:
when it comes down to having to 'ask' the 'authorities' for permission to stage a peaceful protest in a so-called democratic country then you are looking at dictatorship and not democracy in action.
nmn
Why so many anti-EDL were arrested in Tower Hamlets
11.09.2013 23:32
In addition, there's been a long-ish pattern within a minority of those who claim they're militant anti-fascists, posting material that tries to link (to smear) anti-fascism by association with certain forms of terrorism - that also stinks of a trap; also, before the last demo, some genius posted on Indymedia implying people can't really be part of anti-fascism unless we discuss tactics on an email list that just happens to be controlled by these same group/s - so, even if the other facts didn't point to a set-up, since it's all over the news that the State can read everyone's emails anyway, under either circumstance the police have all those messages and email addresses etc either way. To cap it all however, now, finally and in addition, as a result of the demo strategy promoted by yes those same group/s, nearly 300 activists have now also been arrested, photographed, badly harassed, identified, and had their DNA taken and been fingerprinted by the police
It's very good the EDL were outnumbered in Tower Hamlets, again, but this situation stinks. The cops are very good at herding (and arresting) (political) sheep, but there's an old saying about how hard it is to try herding cats... Much respect to everyone who had the courage to oppose the EDL, but next time remember the autonomous left is exactly that - autonomous. If any person or group sets themselves up as a leader, then be aware the place they try to lead us to might be a trap
"This made me think the whole thing was more an exercise in intelligence gathering" -
No leaders
Saturday 15 July 1989 Bethnal Green Road Mass Arrest 40 plus anti-racists
12.09.2013 16:21
That was another Saturday and on that day too actual mass arrests were made.
Those arrested were almost all Bangladeshis.
They were prosecuted and they appeared in courts including the then Horseferry Road Magistrates court and the Magistrates court in wells street off Oxford Street.
Previously many appeared at the then Thames magistrates Court in Arbour Square in Stepney London E1.
The Committee for Bangladeshis’ Rights in the UK was formed in direct response to those arrests and also to campaign for justice for two Bangladeshis whose had been fatally attacked on 9 July 1980 in the Flower and Dean Walk off Brick Lane.
It was those attacks that had been the cause of the march from Altab Ali Park through Brick Lane and into the Bethnal Green Road that took place on 15 July 1989.
The arrested were tried in the various courts for more than a year and the CBRUK
campaigned for the dropping of all charges against them.
We did not get any support from anyone else.
Most certainly not from Tower Hamlets Council.
Eventually, most of the charges were either dropped or rpved untenable in courts.
Those were the days when there was no Bangladeshi leader of the local council, nor a mayor nor a Bangladeshi MP!
It was a movement that created a platform for political and human rights.
That platform was capitalised on by many still unknown but “wannabe” leaders who later became councillors and built up their own beneficial careers!
If the racist agenda isn’t comprehensively defeated then many of today’s career leaders in the name of the community will find that they have no ground under their now secure feet.
Opportunism cannot beat racism.
And being against racism is not the same thing as being opportunistic as an offshoot of anti-racist battle.
Fighting racism is also fighting corruption, opportunism and nepotism everywhere.
Committee for Bangladeshis' Rights in the United Kingdom
Five simple words
28.09.2013 13:22
I do not accept bail.
Brave but it would rapidly cause the system to collapse. If you mass arrest you really need to be able to back it up with mass detention of those who refuse bail. The legitimate reasons to refuse bail is that "Detention is necessary to protect me or somebody else" or that you will "commit further offences". The further offences would be: overt opposition to fascism.
There will be a lot of people claiming you cannot refuse bail. The law is clear that you have a right to bail. The law does not insist that you must exercise that right come what may. If the Police wish to mass arrest then they have to back it up with mass detention.
Lord Scarman
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