Five paid £85,000 three years after police snatched them from demonstration

The Guardian reported on 30th April:

Five protesters who were assaulted by officers and kept in police custody for two nights have been paid tens of thousands of pounds in an out-of-court settlement.
The five have received £85,000 in compensation plus costs, together totalling more than £100,000, in a settlement recorded at the high court this week. Their detention after a demonstration in London three years ago was "unlawful" and a restriction of their "democratic right to peaceful protest", the Metropolitan police accepted in a statement released this week.
The admission follows criticism of police behaviour at the G20 summit this month and campaigners say the payout will reinforce concerns about the Met's handling of public order events and may encourage others to seek compensation.
The peaceful rally outside the Mexican embassy in October 2006 was attended by about 20 activists calling for action over the murder of an American filmmaker, Bradley Roland Will, during a teachers' strike in the city of Oaxaca. The shooting was blamed on local state officials.
The vigil was part of a worldwide day of protest outside Mexican embassies. Eight people were arrested in London. All eventually had the charges against them dropped or were found not guilty of public order offences.
Yesterday Tony Murphy, the solicitor at Bhatt Murphy who brought the claim, said: "This case shows that policing protest unlawfully carries a high cost. This includes the severe human cost to protestors, but also the cost to the public purse and more worryingly to public confidence in the police. The implications for those I am advising in relation to G20 are clear."
David Howarth, a Lib Dem MP who has been following the case, said: "Given that the Met has admitted liability, the question now is why the officers concerned are not being investigated for criminal offences. This underlines the urgent need for an independent review of the police's attitude towards peaceful protest."
The formal apology sent to the protesters by Detective Chief Inspector Alex Gibbs, of the Met's directorate of professional standards, stated: "It is accepted that your arrest was unlawful and that any force used on you during your arrest was therefore an assault and battery.
"... I am in no doubt about the significant effect that this matter has had on you and on your democratic right to peaceful protest ... I unreservedly regret the upset and distress that this must have caused.
"The policing of public order events and demonstrations ... requires a careful balance of the rights and freedoms of often conflicting interests and necessitates officers making difficult decisions under notable pressure. In this case it is clear that balance was not achieved ... Lessons have been learned."
James Welch, from the civil rights organisation Liberty, said: "It's always good to see the police recognise the right to peaceful dissent, even if it is after an embarrassment and under pain of litigation.

Bishop punched and kicked during arrest, then released without charge

BBC, 12 February 2009

Police blanket surveilling protesters and journalists as criminals

"The ­Metropolitan police, which has ­pioneered surveillance at demonstrations and advises other forces on the tactic, stores details of protesters on Crimint, the general database used daily by all police staff to catalogue criminal intelligence."

Guardian 6th March 2009 (includes police surveillance footage from Climate Camp 2008)

Community Support Officers 'faced racism and violence'

Asad Saeed became a PCSO for the Metropolitan Police at Belgravia in 2007

Repost from news.bbc.co.uk

Staff at a police station in central London have encountered violence and racist bullying, an internal Scotland Yard investigation has found.

Many Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in Belgravia were afraid to speak out and some were assaulted or threatened by colleagues, it added.

And there was "no doubting the credibility and consistency" of these employees' accounts, the report said.

The review was submitted to an employment tribunal brought by a PCSO.

Asad Saeed claims senior Metropolitan Police officers at Belgravia station "turned a blind eye to racism".

Documents given to the tribunal also include allegations of homophobic abuse and intimidation among staff.

'Humiliating and disturbing'

Mr Saeed's claims centre on two colleagues who have since resigned from the force, having faced charges of gross misconduct.

There was an "apartheid" system at the station, he claimed, with separate vans used to transport black and white officers.

"It was obvious that there was an established racial divide," he added, saying that this became apparent "a week or so" after he joined the Metropolitan Police as a PCSO in January 2007.

One colleague who was a van driver would refuse to pick up PCSOs who were not white, Mr Saeed alleged.

"At first I thought he was just anti-social but very soon I started to think it may have something to do with me being the only Asian Muslim on the team," he said.

"I found it humiliating and disturbing whenever I called him on the radio and he would not answer.

"The airwaves were public as well, so everyone knew it was going on."

The force asked Sgt Sarah Cashman to look into complaints about unacceptable behaviour, which her report has stated took place over "a prolonged period of time".

Among claims of racist language were an allegation that one officer said: "Stick by me and we will bring down all the lazy blacks, one by one."

She also found claims of bullying and violence against people who were homeless.

Asked about Mr Saeed's allegations last week, the force's new commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, described them as "appalling", but said it was not clear when they began.

"If it did take place it is appalling, and if it was known about, I want to know what was done about it."

Cop used intelligence database for blackmail attempts

Pc Amerdeep Singh Johal of West End Central police station has been jailed for six years for attempting to blackmail 11 victims using data from the 'CrimInt' database.

Pc Jailed over Blackmail Attempts (BBC)