The Great Climate Swoop: Did the Police Go Too Far?

by Christine McLaughlin

Quick quiz: which of the following is a policing priority?

a) Hunting with dogs(which was made illegal by an Act of Parliament in 2005).
b) Prosecuting their own officers for allowing two dogs to be baked alive in the sun.
c) Preventing ten years of violence, both actual and threatened, against single parent Fiona Pilkington and her two children, which affected them so badly that Fiona killed herself and her daughter in utter despair.
or
d) Stopping environmental activists who want to halt the planet's looming Armageddon from attending the Great Climate Swoop which took place yesterday.

If you followed the links you'll see that the answer was d), and more cynical readers will be unsurprised by this, but I would like to state that I have huge admiration for the police. I think it takes a lot of courage to run towards, rather than away from trouble. I believe that we need a police force to maintain law and order. I know that there are many fantastic people working in the police force and that they deal with horrific, head-messing events on a daily basis.

But I just can't accept that it's acceptable to arrest people for what they might be planning to do, and place them under restrictive bail conditions that mean they cannot communicate with friends and other organisers. One effect of the arrests is surely to discourage others from attending the protest, thereby subduing the growing movement of direct activism against climate change.

The Green Party of England and Wales and Trafford Green Party do not endorse any illegal activity; we believe in change within the law and via the ballot box. The Climate Swoop was a planned move to take over Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station and shut it down, and clearly this is illegal. I think it likely that the main aim of the event was to generate much needed publicity and keep the debate over coal-fired power stations alive and on the front pages of any newspaper that hasn't yet given itself up entirely to X-Factor/ Strictly Come Dancing coverage. However, it is my personal belief that when it comes to political protest and direct action, anything (barring violence against living creatures) goes, provided you are prepared to take the consequences.

So I respect anyone who went ahead and took part in the Great Climate Swoop: they didn't mind that they might be arrested for what they might be planning to do because they believed that the planet might benefit and that maybe there wasn't time to persuade people to vote in a certain way.
These are people who can see the urgency of the situation and want to make a difference. They are often characterised in the popular press as unwashed, unemployed and unsavoury in their habits, but are as likely to be professional people with children as anything else. Furthermore, if someone decides not to take a job in order to devote themselves to climate change activism then future generations (if they survive) will thank them and if activists fail to dress in neatly pressed suits, well neither did Gandhi, but the Hitler Youth was known for its smartness of dress so what conclusions can we draw from that?

The actions of the police should worry anyone who believes in freedom of protest. It seems they decide which laws they will uphold, which protests are acceptable and who among us is worth protecting. I've met many decent police officers in my time, in fact I've met a fair few who vote Green and support our right to protest and to freedom of speech. I hope they will speak out, and loudly in the police HQs across the country, and that their collective voices will be heard. But don't forget the police work for us: the Chief Inspector of Nottinghamshire Police is Linda McCarthy. If you'd like to express your dismay at the policing of the climate swoop to her directly, you can contact her via post, telephone or email:
L. McCarthy
Chief Inspector
Staff Officer to Chief Constable
Nottinghamshire Police
Direct 0115 9672010
Mobile 07980893342
email.linda.mccarthy@nottinghamshire.pnn.police.uk

For a full account of the swoop, visit Indymedia.