If you haven't seen the footage from the G20 protests by now, you must've been sleeping. Police officers backhanding women, beating peaceful demonstrators with batons, and pushing over Ian Tomlinson, allegedly causing his tragic death (a view held by many).

The Stop the War Coalition were particularly angered by such outrageous tactics, and called a protest at New Scotland Yard on Thursday 16th April, to assemble at 5pm. Despite being famous for their collaboration with police during many huge demonstrations, Stop the War had been warning of the dangers of controversial and brutal police tactics for the last few years, and the organisation see the events at the G20 protests as the culmination of this evident shift of the Metropolitan's approach.

With a very large media presence, we quickly got the chanting underway:

"Stop police brutality! PROTESTING IS NOT A CRIME!"

It can't have been more than a few minutes in that news filtered through of the police request for us to move across the street. Not only was this illogical, as the street directly outside was far wider meaning people could still get past, but I thought considering the nature of the protest it was a particularly absurd move, even by police standards. So Andrew Burgin, a Stop the War Officer, took the megaphone to put the proposition to the growing crowd. When he asked for those who thought that we should agree to move across the street, not a single hand went up. We were staying.

A speaker from CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) also stepped up to give his support, and his words were particularly potent:

"We don't want to be here, fighting for our democratic rights..."

It was precisely the point. During the recent furore surrounding police violence at recent demonstrations, there is a risk of the real issues being diluted. We are here to fight injustice around the world, capitalism, poverty and war, not the police. But through our presence at New Scotland Yard, our message was clear - people will not stand for these outrageous attacks on our civil liberties.

It was a small gathering, peaking at around 60 supporters, but massively significant nonetheless. It was left to Chris Nineham, another Stop the War Officer who I had met in Strasbourg (at the NATO protests earlier this month), to make the announcement we had all been waiting for:

"With immediate effect, Stop the War will not be complying with the police!"

Sara (my revolutionary sister) and I were so happy - it had been what many people had been calling for for quite a time now - if the police agree to a protest, then the government have agreed to it. If the government have agreed, then who are we protesting against?

People clearly felt rejuvenated, and the chanting became far more creative:

"Met Police, what do you say? HOW MANY SKULLS HAVE YOU CRACKED TODAY?!"

Speaking to Ben afterwards, another demonstrator behind the mic, I think that his feelings spoke for many, distraught at the needless death of a completely innocent man and disgusted by the mindless aggression of our so-called "police force":

"I was so tempted to say fuck the police..."

The only thing our cops need to police is their own behaviour.


Photo - http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/02/18/new-law-in-uk-makes-it-illegal-to-take-pictures-of-police/