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Police force in porkie-telling shocker

Those Kingsnorth police injuries in full: six insect bites and a toothache

When climate camp protesters descended on the site of the Kingsnorth power station for a week-long summer demonstration, the scale of the police operation to cope with them was enormous.

Police were accused of using aggressive tactics, confiscating everything from toilet rolls and board games to generators and hammers. But ministers justified what they called the "proportionate" £5.9m cost of the operation, pointing out that 70 officers had been injured in the course of their duties.

But data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act puts a rather different slant on the nature of those injuries, disclosing that not one was sustained in clashes with demonstrators.

Papers acquired by the Liberal Democrats via Freedom of Information requests show that the 1,500 officers policing the Kingsnorth climate camp near the Medway estuary in Kent, suffered only 12 reportable injuries during the protest during August.

The Home Office has now admitted that the protesters had not been responsible for any injuries. In a three-line written answer to a parliamentary question, the Home Office minister Vernon Coaker wrote to the Lib Dem justice spokesman, David Howarth, saying: "Kent police have informed the Home Office that there were no recorded injuries sustained as a result of direct contact with the protesters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/15/kingsnorth-climate-change-environment-police

Can anyone seriously believe a single word the filth says? Their record is not exactly encouraging. More worringly, in cases like this one, the lies they tell are to cover up their own excessive & unwarranted actions.

And then they wonder why people dont' trust them...
Beep boop. I'm a bot.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I am going to end up a very paranoid person very soon.
    I won't be able to trust anything that anyone says! I wouldn't be surprised if anarchy starts making a massive comeback sometime soon - the authorities are just proving more and more that they can't be trusted.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Bit like everything isn't it. You only hear the bad stuff and you seem to forget the good!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote: »

    Can anyone seriously believe a single word the filth says?

    Is there really any need?

    If I wrote that all protestors are unemployed, unwashed hippies who's only goal in life is to upset those of us who just want to get on in life and disrupt our lives simply because we dare spend money on things and not the lesser spotted Kentish stink beetle you'd go nuts.

    Effectively saying that every police officer in the land is filth and a liar is exactly the same thing.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well actually, what I think he said was that the police force is an institutionally dishonest organisation, which is quite different.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well actually, what I think he said was that the police force is an institutionally dishonest organisation, which is quite different.

    Though he may not have used the same words ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Though he may not have used the same words ;)

    Well, he might've used a bit of artistic licence. :p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    No, he asked if anyone can seriously believe a word the filth says.

    "The Filth" is a term used to describe police officers everywhere. If he meant Kent Police, he'd have said so, if he meant 1 or 2 cops, he'd have said so.

    I resent being called filth, and I resent being described as a liar.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    we call ya the scum here ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whowhere wrote: »
    No, he asked if anyone can seriously believe a word the filth says.

    "The Filth" is a term used to describe police officers everywhere. If he meant Kent Police, he'd have said so, if he meant 1 or 2 cops, he'd have said so.

    I resent being called filth, and I resent being described as a liar.
    Just to clarify Whowhere, I was indeed referring to the police force as an institution, and was not suggesting every serving police officer (or even a majority of them for that matter) is a liar or indeed filthy.

    But as far as high profile operations are concerned? And as far as police chiefs themselves are concerned? Yes, a disturbingly high number of them are bloody liars who instead of admitting errors or misbehaviour by their force, will do everything they can to cover it up.

    A friend at work was herself at this protest. The coppers were confiscating crayons ffs, and treating everyone like criminals, arresting people for no reason and being generally heavy handed and out of order.

    They might have been scared and over-reacted. But it would have been very refreshing if those in charge would have admitted as much, instead of claiming a number of officers were injured by protesters- which is in itself a rather serious offence.

    The coppers' actions might not be laughing matter to people who were unwarrantly arrested and whose job prospects might have been ruined by it. It only adds insult to injury that their bosses lied to justify how things went.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fair enough, I accept what you're saying. It's been a long couple of weeks.

    And the above is exactly the reason why I avoid protests like the plague and will continue to do so.

    The police will always have to make decisions and do things that are unpopular with some people. Saying that they could have policed the protest in a much better way.

    We had a power station protest a while back, which whilst not on the same scale was dealt with correctly. Protestors were allowed to do so, the ones daft enough to get tangled up in machinery were removed.
    None of this random searching and upsetting people bollocks, I heard some guy got his bike repair kit confiscated from Kingsnorth, I mean ffs.

    The majority of cops/PCSO's do the job because they want to make life better for everyone else. You only ever hear about the minority who enjoy dressing up in overalls abd hitting people with shields, and they give the rest of us a bad name.

    Sorry for biting your head off.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whowhere wrote: »

    Sorry for biting your head off.
    That's alright mate; I'd get pissed too If I thought I was being generalised about unfairly.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I remember seeing on the news some of the protesters just standing there with there hands up and a policeman ramming his shield into the protesters face. Pretty lame.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote: »
    That's alright mate; I'd get pissed too If I thought I was being generalised about unfairly.

    icon_cover2_nov26,0.jpg

    :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    :d
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fair enough, I accept what you're saying. It's been a long couple of weeks.

    And the above is exactly the reason why I avoid protests like the plague and will continue to do so.

    The police will always have to make decisions and do things that are unpopular with some people. Saying that they could have policed the protest in a much better way.

    We had a power station protest a while back, which whilst not on the same scale was dealt with correctly. Protestors were allowed to do so, the ones daft enough to get tangled up in machinery were removed.
    None of this random searching and upsetting people bollocks, I heard some guy got his bike repair kit confiscated from Kingsnorth, I mean ffs.

    The majority of cops/PCSO's do the job because they want to make life better for everyone else. You only ever hear about the minority who enjoy dressing up in overalls abd hitting people with shields, and they give the rest of us a bad name.

    Sorry for biting your head off.

    I've nothing to add to this debate other than I think that the reply above is encouraging because the fact that you're actually bothering to come on here and have a reasonable exchange with other citizens is actually indicative of what you said above.

    I think precisely the problem is that people like you understandably avoid demos like the plague because of the behaviour of irresponsible colleagues, so it only becomes those hooligans who love a row steaming in. I actually think it would be useful for their to be some appreciation of the role that non-violent direct action has had on society - it has been much more of a mover for the opening up and defence of rights and freedoms far more than the ballot box ever has.

    As people would do well to remember the unreported actions of police and PCSOs, I also think that sometimes some police would do well to remember that people involved in these protests are not irresponsible troublemakers who need a good kicking.

    One incident in particular; when the mass lone demonstrations were pulling about 200 police into Parliament Square each month (after SOCPA came in), just after the failed Islamist bombings on London nightclubs, the organisers immediately called off that month's events and made sure the officers at the special events unit knew that there would be no protest that month so that they could be free to get on with their jobs.

    You might say that's just what people should do (which it is) but again I think that having a well rounded acceptance of a group of people cuts both ways, between both ordinary citizens and the police.
  • SkiveSkive Posts: 15,282 Skive's The Limit
    Colin Stagg.

    Say no more.
    Weekender Offender 
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