Legal observers witness first-hand the chaos and racism of riot policing
21.08.24
A report by Netpol:
While the government response to far-right street violence around the country in August has been to promise more resources for public order policing – Keir Starmer’s so-called “standing army” of riot officers – it is impossible to characterise the shocking wave of racist and anti-migrant attacks as ‘protests’.
Instead, what we have seen is terrorised communities and numerous anti-fascist counter-demonstrations called to defend them. Community and anti-fascist groups have come together to defend homes, businesses and places of worship, sometimes having to offer physical protection against far-right violence.
Netpol has spoken to several frontline legal groups who have been supporting the counter-protests by monitoring the police. Their experiences reveal how policing operations have been far more chaotic than portrayed in the media and have frequently targeted anti-fascists while failing to contain far-right violence.
Legal observers and others told us officers were repeatedly more interested in anti-fascists and in legal observers who were monitoring the use of police powers. They also documented incidents of the police racially profiling Black and brown youth attending anti-fascist protests and aggressive and Islamophobic policing of racialised protesters attempting to defend their own communities.
Testimonies from independent legal observer groups also show how they are currently very stretched and urgently need more volunteers.
On Saturday 3 August, for example, there were three demonstrations in Manchester: a Palestine solidarity protest, a Trans Pride march and an anti-fascist mobilisation. Green and Black Cross (GBC) Manchester had legal observers on the streets for all three, with Greater Manchester Police deploying large numbers of officers with helmets, police dogs and horses in the city centre. Their particular focus, however, was on the anti-fascists, who were allowed to march but eventually kettled. An organiser of the GBC Manchester legal observer team told us:
“Legal observers there were threatened with arrest by a PLO [Police Liaison Officer] for breach of the peace. The same PLO also pushed a legal observer into the road with oncoming traffic. The PLOs were no longer pretending to be nice with us.”
The GBC team organiser added:
“In the afternoon I then travelled over to Liverpool. A legal observer on the ground there had his face covering removed under section 60AA [powers] and was not allowed to get behind police lines. The situation soon escalated, and the police could not control the hundreds of far right who were making their way from the city centre towards the Pier Head.
It was impossible for legal observers to make notes as the situation became violent from the far right who were throwing chairs, bottles and other missiles towards us. Merseyside police completely lost control”.
On the same day in Bristol, hundreds of far-right protesters gathered near Castle Park, opposed by a large counter-demonstration. Later in the evening, a far-right group tried to attack a hotel that houses asylum seekers. A Bristol legal observer told us:
“Avon and Somerset Police were, frankly, completely hopeless. At the initial rally at Castle Park, their attention was more on anti-fascists removing their face coverings than on the far right. Fascist demonstrators had publicly stated their intention to attack a local hotel housing asylum seekers, but there were no police officers stationed at the hotel earlier in the day and other than the one or two that had followed anti-fascists there, none later. As a result, local people had no option but to link arms and physically block the entrance and prevent the far right from storming the building.”
Chris Rossdale wrote on X:
“The only reason a gang of fascists didn’t break into a hotel housing asylum seekers in Bristol last night is because anti-fascists stopped them. Police were nowhere.
Fuck any reporting that talks about ‘rival protests’ rather than making clear those stakes and battle lines.”
When local people gathered again to resist the fascists on the Wednesday [7 August], this time with many of the shops boarded up out of fear of more far-right violence, officers again seemed most interested in trying to enforce a section 60 AA [masking] order against the counter demonstration.
I had a long, pointless argument with an officer because I was wearing a disposable covid mask, which he insisted I should remove because it ‘didn’t provide protection’ from covid’. Eventually I was allowed to keep it on, but officers continued to harass young people from the local community, who had come out to protect their neighbourhood and homes, for wearing face coverings”.
On Sunday 3 August, after providing support to four protests the previous day, GBC Manchester mobilised another team of legal observers, this time in Bolton. Police numbers were again large with horses and dogs, riot shields and batons drawn. The legal observer team organiser there told us:
“I presume this was.. [because] of the Muslim community coming out to join the anti-fascists. Section 60 and 60AA were in place and people were asked to remove face coverings but the police were not enforcing this, possibly due to the number of demonstrators. We had given out bust cards and held a brief Know Your Rights session prior to the demo, so were confident if arrested, protestors would know what to do.
Later in the day, as crowds were dispersing, a small number of about 25 all Muslim anti-fascists were kettled at Bolton University. White people were allowed to disperse without police interference or dispersal notices. Police then tried to insist on protesters giving names and addresses and being filmed as a condition for leaving [the kettle]. A legal observer started to give a quick legal briefing on their rights but was then removed by officers, with a senior officer saying ‘get that fucker out of here’, He was kettled on his own until everyone else had been released.”
Netpol has reported many times on the targeting of Black-led protests in Britain, but the disarray and underlying racist attitudes of policing operations mentioned here have not been widely reported. Instead, the media and politicians have largely praised the effectiveness of the police response and promised further resources to the police.
This is why the presence of independent legal observers matters. Volunteers are actively protecting protesters’ rights to freedom of assembly and documenting what the press often does not cover.
For more on how to train up as a legal observer, visit https://greenandblackcross.org/events/
https://netpol.org/2024/08/21/legal-observers-witness-first-hand-the-chaos-and-racism-of-riot-policing/#:~:text=Netpol%20has%20spoken%20to%20several,to%20contain%20far%2Dright%20violence.