MET WITH UNDUE FORCE

It’s been a sticky week for SchNEWS’ favourite state thugs. The Met face a possible £250,000 compensation bill after admitting a raid on a squat the day after the G20 protests was illegal. The two demonstrators who took the Met to court are to receive £3,000 each which leaves 68 other protesters able to claim.

Cops burst into the squat armed with tasers, riot gear and a FIT team and proceeded to violently arrest the occupants (who had promptly sat down and offered no resistance) repeatedly cracking one activist on the head while he was on the floor. Despite cop claims that some ‘violent’ protesters from the day before were in the squat, none of the squatters matched any of the photos.

This followed a ruling in February in favour of climate camp, which declared the stop ‘n’ search tactics at Kingsnorth unlawful (see SchNEWS 708), anyone who’s ever been a bit pissed off with the way the cops have treated them – now’s your chance!

If you were one of the squatters – find out how to file your claim by emailing legal@climatecamp.org.uk

Also under the spotlight this week has been Met officer Delroy Smellie for his attack on protester Nicola Fisher at the memorial event for Ian Tomlinson, killed by police the day before. Despite footage showing Smellie striking Nicola with the back of the hand and then twice with a baton he denies assault. This ‘flick of the hand’ was apparently prompted by Smellie’s trouser wetting at the rampaging hordes around him, and the weapon Fisher was holding (which turned out to be a carton of organge) a terror kept well hidden from all the cameras around. The trial continues at Westminster Mags next week.

Another embarrassment for the Met came when footage was released of them beating a protester with batons and shields at the Gaza demo last year before arresting and charging him with violent disorder. After withholding seven and a half hours of video evidence until the day before the trial the cops dropped the case. Had he be found guilty Jake Smith would have been facing up to three years inside.