Party Vibe

Stop Police Anonymity…
“The British Police are the best in the world, I don’t believe one of these stories I’ve heard” [Tom Robinson, ‘Glad to be Gay’]
The British Police are becoming less and less accountable for their actions.
Once upon a time all police officers were readily identifiable by the number on their epaulets, which gave anyone with a grievance some way to report the actions of an individual officer. In recent years however this has changed. As police officers don the oppressive ‘riot’ gear they so cherish, they remove their numbers and mask their faces with balaclavas making themselves totally unrecognisable. This gives any victims of police assault or other injustice, no way to pursue legal action against the perpetrators.
Being a member of the police force in no way makes an individual a saint or even a law abider, so what we have in essence is a gang of potentially violent thugs with no identifiable markings whatsoever.
Once you have a gang with a certain amount of anonymity, rules no longer apply, as the actions of the gang take precedence over the actions of the individual. This means members of the gang are apt to behave in a manner they may normally consider inappropriate because the onus for appropriate behaviour is no longer on them as an individual but instead on the gang as a whole. An example of this can be seen clearly when observing the actions football hooligans, many of whom have respectable lifestyles away from football violence.
“A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual.” [Sigmund Freud]
The Police and Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008
If you do a quick search on Google Images or YouTube for ‘Police Violence’ you will quickly come across many images and videos showing the violent actions of the police in many ‘campaigns’ throughout the last century, battling against pickets trying to protect their livelihoods during the miners’ strike in 1984, attacking new age travellers and destroying their homes in the ‘Battle of the Beanfield’ in 1985, attacking protestors in Trafalgar Square in 1990 during the Poll Tax demonstration… the list goes on. It is true to say that there were indeed protagonists on the ‘other side’ fighting against the police and leading that side into its own gang mentality. This is the very nature of the beast. In my experience however it has always seemed to be the police who first instigate the trouble and it has been proved on more than one occasion that plain clothed officers have been placed within the crowd to stir up trouble and give the police an excuse to move in.
“And no they didn’t need a reason; it’s what your votes condone.” [The Levellers, ‘Battle of the Beanfield’]
These images and videos however, will become a thing of the past as of today (16/02/2009) as a new piece of legislation comes in to force. Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act will make it an offence to take a photograph of, or film a police officer “which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2008/ukpga_20080028_en_9%5D. This wording is so far open to abuse it would be laughable if it wasn’t such a complete denial of our civil liberties.
This act will leave the door open for the police to behave in whatever manner they see fit and it will be kept hidden from anyone who wasn’t there to witness it firsthand. “At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism” URL=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism”Error[/URL] however most agree that it involves campaigning for the advancement of a political/religious view or agenda. It is easy to see how this can be used against us as political activists.
The following video demonstrates how the police will try and bend the law to their own will, as this was made before this act came into existence and they can be clearly seen attempting to intimidate film maker Darren Pollard insisting he was breaking a law that didn’t even exist.
YouTube – Common Law / Civil Law Jurisdictions
Bizarrely enough Wikipedia actually defines Terrorism as “the systematic use of terror (imposing fear), especially as a means of coercion.” This to me sounds exactly like the behaviour of the police in the incidences mentioned above.
For full text of this section of the Act follow this link
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2008/uk … 80028_en_9
I urge everyone to commit acts of civil disobedience (terrorism?) in order to demonstrate how unjust this law is. Please photograph the police at every opportunity you get and post the photos to this group. They make no bones about photographing you as a ‘preventative measure’ so they know who you are. But by the same token we need to know who they are so we can prevent them from abusing us.
Also print out the ‘Stop and Search’ card that has been prepared by Mark Thomas for The Guardian newspaper. This can be found in our photo gallery. Carry it with you at all times.
In the past the police were thought to be there to help and protect us. This is no longer true. Their primary aim now is to punish and repress. There are no ‘Bobbies’ on the beat walking round our estates protecting us and our homes. Children end up dead and the perpetrators are then locked away, surely the remit of our police force should be to protect our children in the first place rather than punish those who harm them after the fact.
YouTube – The Battle of Orgreave – 52 min documentary
YouTube – The Miners Strike & The Bloody Battles Of Orgreave
YouTube – Battle of Beanfield
YouTube – Poll Tax Riots London 1990
BBC NEWS | UK | Is it a crime to take pictures?