Policing the protest movement

By Beth Staunton

If you’ve been keeping track of the wave of student protests that have swept the UK in recent months in a defiant resistance to the government’s education cuts, or perhaps if you’ve been on them yourselves, you’ll have certainly come across the term ‘kettling’. For those completely nonplussed by this word, it refers to a police tactic on protests that involves forming tight police lines, surrounding a group of protesters, and hemming them in until they are allowed to leave. Although early examples of kittling exist, it has only become a regular approach in the last decade, and only developed into something considered normal and expected in the past two years.

The stated intent of ‘kettling’, or ‘containment’, according to the Met, is to keep protesters to the designated route, and to contain any people who may be intent on violence. It has become the usual tactic on student marches of the past few months, to the extent where demonstrators now recognise when it is about to take place, shouting ‘Scatter!’ before they can be trapped. Kettling is in fact a form of imprisonment; this was most evident on the London protests of 9th December, when demonstrators were kettled until around 11.30pm in freezing temperatures, without food, water or access to toilet facilities. Is this imprisonment necessary? Is it acceptable that thousands of people peacefully protesting for what they believe in are treated as potential criminals?

The argument that kettling prevents violence is highly contentious. Firstly, because the conviction that many student protesters are violent is unfounded. Examples such as the occupation of Millbank Tower are cast forth to prove such a claim, ignoring the fact that this event was an example of vandalism and not of violence. Secondly, speaking from personal experience of recent demonstrations, kettling seems to be designed to actually provoke violence. Nothing is more likely to inflame tempers and incite physical reaction than being unjustly confined for hours and treated with contempt and suspicion by officers of the law, with the constant threat of arrest looming over.

Ultimately, kettling is not about the protection and safety of ordinary civilians from ‘riotous’ youths. It is a politically motivated tactic that is designed to intimidate those on demonstrations, and to ideally defer people from demonstrating again, because any expansion of political activism is more likely to engender success, and consequently force the government to submit to its pressure. Furthermore, kettling allows police to employ more extreme tactics when students attempt to break out, or even for far lesser offences.

There have been shameful displays of unprovoked police violence and brutality, often caught on people’s cameras and mobile phones, and yet very rarely leading to any form of prosecution of those police officers who are far too enthusiastic with their batons. Several times, this has lead to the death of an innocent person, such as Ian Tomlinson in 2009 who was struck by a police officer merely for walking past a demonstration. We live in a society where the car of a royal couple being shaken a little gains more media coverage than the brutal infringement of peaceful demonstrator’s human rights by those who claim to be keeping the peace. That idea of peace is not my idea of democracy.

Originally at the Courier

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