Anyone who wants to know just how badly Scotland Yard policed Wednesday's demonstration should listen to the thoughts of one of their rank and file.
A man claiming to be a territorial support group (TSG) officer called BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, to give a dramatic account of how he was narrowly missed by a fire-extinguisher, hurled from the roof by protesters who had swarmed into Millbank, the Westminster building that houses the Tory party HQ. "It landed right behind me – literally no more than six inches," he said. "I think [had it hit me] somebody would have been visiting my wife and children and saying I was either dead or very, very injured. The height that was dropped from. A solid piece of metal. I believe it took chips out of the concrete paving behind us as well." A video of the fire extinguisher being thrown from the roof can be seen here. It depicts exactly how the crowd turned against those on the roof, with chants of "stop throwing shit". Both protesters and police could see the brutality of throwing potential lethal missiles from the roof if a seven-storey building. But it is the constabulary, rather than the vast majority of peaceful students, who will be soul-searching this morning. Human rights legislation states police are duty-bound to facilitate peaceful protest. But police on the ground see their principal role as keeping the public – and their own ranks – safe. By their own measure, they failed. The TSG officer went on to say his unit – specially trained for these scenarios – were "called in" well after the building had been occupied. "We didn't see the turning point. We were just called when there was an urgent assistance put out." I was stood beside that officer, as well as the thin line of regular constables who were totally overrun by demonstrators before he and the TSG arrived. Around 20 officers, all in soft hats, were left alone to defend the building for around 90 minutes before the TSG arrived. Many of them left bleeding. The controversy surrounding the Met's handling of the G20 protests last year, which resulted in the death of Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor attacked by a TSG officer, prompted two parliamentary inquiries and a national review of policing by Sir Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary. The thrust of all three post-mortems into the G20 was that police had to improve communication with demonstrators. That meant listening more and ensuring the policing operation was proportionate to what was happening on the ground. It was clear in the days before the student protest it was going to be huge. It was also obvious that there would be attempts at direct action. So why wasn't the Met preparing for something big? These were the questions I attempted to put to the Met press bureau – itself criticised after the G20 for its relations with journalists – on Tuesday night, before the march had even begun. Press officers refused to put out even basic details of its policing plan – such as numbers of officers who would be on duty – claiming it was not necessary for an event of this kind. I was heavily briefed that the National Union of Students was likely to have inflated the estimated turnout and told the event would be "nothing out of the ordinary". When I tried to suggest otherwise, having seen a spreadsheet showing 24,034 students had registered to attend and booked coaches seats, I was shouted down. "Hold on a second: it is for us to decide what we are going to say, not for you to dictate to me what we are going to say – is it? You are a reporter, and you're asking me a question and I'm giving you a response. But I won't be bullied." The source added: "You're saying this is going to be the biggest demonstration of the year. But it has not built up anything like the G20 demonstrations – you can't draw a parallel there. This is a demonstration, we deal with them all the time." When I pushed further, the source threatened to end the conversation. "They [the NUS] are saying there will be 20,000 [protesters]. I could say, 'I'm going to do a march tomorrow and there will be 50,000 people out there.' But there may not be 50,000 people turn up!" As it turned out, 50,000 was the number of students who ended up marching through Westminster, dwarfing the "fewer than 15,000" I'm told police had actually been expecting. The Met had just 225 officers stewarding the event. There was only a handful stood at the entrance of Millbank when around 200 students first tried to infiltrate the building. This echoed a failure at the G20, when police produced a feeble pen near the Bank of England for a few hundred demonstrators and panicked when up to 10,000 showed up. On that occasion, they kettled and kicked and got their batons out, and were roundly criticised for over-stepping the mark. This time they were simply over-run. This is comment. GNM does not necessarily support the views expressed.
Courtesy to guardian.co.uk.
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