London Police Accused Of Water Torture

Martin Brunt
Sky News
June 10, 2009

Six Scotland Yard officers have been suspended over allegations of “waterboarding” drug suspects.

The men are said to have pushed the suspects’ heads repeatedly into buckets or bowls of water in a bid to force them to reveal the locations of drugs.

The accusations suggest they were simulating the notorious “waterboard” torture techniques employed against al Qaeda suspects by CIA staff.

The process involves hooding and strapping a suspect to a board and then tipping him head-first into a bath of water.

The effect is to make the suspect believe he is drowning.

The claims come as Scotland Yard is investigating similar allegations against the British Security Service MI5.

…….full article here

Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims

Hundreds of teenagers are having their DNA taken by police in case they commit crimes later in life, an officer has disclosed.

Murray Wardrop
Telegraph
June 4, 2009

Officers are targeting children as young as 10 with the aim of placing their DNA profiles on the national database to improve their chances of solving crimes, it is claimed.

The alleged practice is also described as part of a “long-term crime prevention strategy” to dissuade youths from committing offences in the future.

The claim comes amid widespread criticism of government proposals to store DNA profiles of innocent people, including some children, on the database for up to 12 years.

Civil liberty campaigners have condemned the tactic of as “diabolical” and said it showed contempt for children’s freedom.

A Metropolitan Police officer made the claims after figures were released showing that 386 under-18s had their DNA taken and stored by police last year in Camden, north London.

The officer said: “Have we got targets for young people who have not been arrested yet? The answer is yes. But we are not just waiting outside schools to pick them up, we are acting on intelligence.

…….full article here

Man who died after police restraint ‘covered with injuries’

Paul Lewis
The Guardian
June 1, 2009

The mother of a man with psychiatric problems who was pinned face down to the pavement by three police officers shortly before he died told an inquest today that when she viewed her son’s body his face was covered with injuries.

The inquest into the death of Faisal Al-Ani, 43, from Southend in Essex, was shown a montage of CCTV footage including the moment he was wrestled to the ground by police officers.

Essex police had been responding to a call after Mr Al-Ani was seen acting in an agitated way in the town centre around 9pm on 31 July 2005. The three officers, one of whom was an inspector, had gone to the assistance of three community support officers who saw Al-Ani, a father of six with a history of psychiatric problems, gesturing wildly and acting aggressively towards nearby teenagers.

…….full article here

Police’s latest brainwave: Report people who wear too much ‘bling’ to Crimestoppers

David Wilkes
Mail Online
May 10, 2009

Watching a tight T-shirt-wearing, cocksure man wearing a gaudy gold chain round his neck strutting down the street is often worth a phone-call to the fashion police.

But one force is taking the idea a step further and encouraging people to shop Mr T-wannabes to Crimestoppers in a novel – some might say barmy – plan to bring down the crime rate.

In the latest example of innovative policing in Britain, the Gloucestershire force is encouraging members of the public to report people wearing too much ‘bling’ during the recession.

They are also urging people to shop anyone who drives flash cars or buys expensive items without the apparent means to afford them during the credit crunch.

…….full article here

G20 police ‘used undercover men to incite crowds’
MP demands inquiry into Met tactics at demo

Jamie Doward and Mark Townsend
The Observer
May 10, 2009

An MP who was involved in last month’s G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.

Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.

Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament’s joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.

…….full article here

Youtube

British police spying operation caught on audio

Steve James
WSWS.org
April 29, 2009

“UK police can afford more than 20 quid,” said the intelligence officer, during an exchange in which members of a unit associated with Strathclyde Police sought to recruit art student Tilly Gifford as an informant within the environmental protest group Plane Stupid.

Excerpts from a transcript of the interview, made secretly by Gifford, were published by the Guardian on April 25 (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/25/police-informers-tape-recordings-gifford).

The unnamed officer’s comment epitomises the growing importance the British government and the UK’s financial and corporate elite attach to policing political dissent.

The evidence of police spying follows the brutal police attack on protestors at the G20 summit in London, the “pre-emptive” arrest of 114 environmental activists planning a protest at a Nottingham power station, and the arrest and subsequent release of 11 Pakistani nationals and one UK citizen on April 8.

Plane Stupid member Gifford was arrested on March 3 during a protest at Aberdeen airport. She was charged with vandalism and breach of the peace during a peaceful protest against climate change.

…….full article here

G20 officer ‘pointed Taser at protesters’

Adam Fresco, Tom Whipple and Sean O’Neill
Times Online
April 20, 2009

A video from the G20 protests shows an officer allegedly pointing a 50,000-volt Taser at a group of people lying on the floor of a squat in apparent contravention of police guidelines.

The video, taken by a prone protester, shows officers, believed to be from City of London police, screaming at people to get face down on the floor as one apparently stands with a Taser in a two-handed grip in front of him. Another stands with his baton raised.

The footage is published as The Times discloses that the police officer suspended over a video showing him beating a female protester at the demonstrations was already the subject of a complaint for an alleged similar attack on a woman the day before.

Katie Surridge, 24, claims she was the victim of an unprovoked attack by the police sergeant on April 1, less than 24 hours before he was filmed hitting Nicky Fisher’s legs.

…….full article here

Wake up and Smell the Pepper Spray. These 3,609 new laws are to control us, not protect us.

Lauren Booth
Mail Online
April 19, 2009

I was outside the Bank of England during the G20 protest, not far from where passer-by Ian Tomlinson died after being assaulted by a police officer.

The police presence was as excessive as it was provocative.

The Metropolitan Police’s Territorial Support Group (TSG) are the aggressive offspring of the disgraced Special Patrol Group of the Eighties.

When policing events, they are issued with ‘Nato’ helmets, flame-retardant overalls, stab vests, gloves, balaclavas and boots. All carry the standard batons, pepper spray and cuffs.

Yet let’s try to remember the last full-on riot in Britain that resulted from
a political rally – ah yes, the Poll Tax riots almost 20 years ago.

But the police are still authorised to use Tasers and firearm-trained TSG officers carry pistols or sub-machine guns.

My God, when did we accept that armoured cars, special snatch squads and armed police were the right level of policing for protests against Government policy?

How did we sleepwalk into a situation where our movements, all of our electronic data, even our DNA, is stored on a massive central database?

…….full article here

Man Detained As Terror Suspect For Photographing Police Car

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
April 16, 2009

Despite police claiming that an ambiguous section of the UK Counter Terrorism Act of 2008 would not outlaw taking photographs or film of police, a man was detained as a terror suspect this week simply for taking a photograph of a police car in order to document police misconduct.

62-year-old Malcolm Sleath, who is chairman of his local park society, saw a police car driving erratically down a North London park footpath, despite the fact that by law police are supposed to investigate on foot in such circumstances.

He began filming the police car to document the misconduct so that he could later present it to the chief sergeant.

…….full article here