WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR VIOLENCE AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST?

New evidence has now emerged that the violent attack on the anti-Bush demonstration by the police on the 15th June, was not only premeditated but was also orchestrated by the police themselves. Yasmin Whittaker-Khan writing in last Sunday’s Mail on Sunday identified one ‘protester’ as a police ‘agent provocateur’. This policeman – his name and rank – has now been discovered. The background is this: On Sunday 15th June the Stop the War Coalition together with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the British Muslim Initiative organised a peaceful protest against the visit of US President George Bush to London. Over the last seven years Stop the War has organised numerous demonstrations all of which have all passed off peacefully. All these events have been arranged with the co-operation of the Metropolitan police with whom the Coalition has had a good working relationship. This time the police were clearly operating with a different agenda: 1] Whitehall was sealed off for unspecified reasons. The police had taken the ‘political’ decision not to allow a march to proceed along Whitehall. 2] More than 1200 police, many of whom were riot police, were deployed to control a peace demonstration of no more than 2500 people. 3] Without provocation the police drew their batons en masse and proceeded to attack the demonstrators. There are many independent witnesses to this and the photographic evidence is strong. Several people were hospitalised and others arrested indiscriminately. 4] There is evidence that the police used ‘agent provocateurs’ to try [without success] and stir up the crowd. See the article by Yasmin Whittaker-Khan in the Mail on Sunday 22nd June 2008. A number of questions now need urgent attention: a] Who took the decision to ban the march? Which government ministers were involved? What role did the United States security services play in this decision? b] Why were so many police deployed? c] Who gave the order for batons to be drawn and used? d] Why did the police use ‘agent provocateurs’ to try and create disorder? Were the security services involved in this sinister development? Andrew Murray, Chair of the Stop the War Coalition, said today, ‘The premeditated attack on a peace demonstration by the police marks a further deterioration in the civil liberties of all people in Britain. We demand a full public investigation into the events of June 15th.’

 

Orginal artical

P.S. the officer in questron is Inspector Chris Dreyfus

Tags: anti-war, Bush, human rights, police, Protest., violence