Edinburgh Anarchists

Elections are a good time to bury bad news. Surprising no-one, it was revealed yesterday that London’s riot police were “almost certainly” the killers of antifascist Blair Peach 31 years ago. Not that they were ever charged of course. Will Ian Tomlinson’s family face the same wait for justice?

The Sauce names names:

Inspector Alan Murray was in charge of Number One Unit SPG on the day of Peach’s death. He resigned from the force in the Summer of 1980 to join his brother in a jewelery business in Scotland. He is now now a lecturer in corporate social responsibility at Sheffield University.

The other officers in the van were PC Anthony Richardson who had been with the SPG for six months; PC Michael Freestone, who claimed he was transferred out of the unit because it was “politically expedient; PC Raymond ‘Chalkie’ White, the van driver; PC James Scottow believed to have told Peach to get ‘on your bike’ after the blow and Sgt Anthony Lake who was driving a second van.

A PC Greville Bint, part of Unit One, is understood not to have been among the officers whose identities was redacted. He gave conflicting evidence to the original inquest about where he got in and out of the van at the time of Peach’s death.

During a search of SPG lockers Bint was found to have been in possession of a lead weighed plaited leather covered stick, Nazi regalia, bayonets, German awards and medals from the first and second world wars. he was transferred out of the riot squad to Brixton in June 1979.

…and what’s Brixton famous for in the early 80s?

Hat tip: Harpy Marx

(From here)

Four months ago it was a 15-year-old schoolboy in Greece – today it’s a 47-year-old newspaper seller in the UK.

Enough with the state murders!

Whether civilians’ deaths are caused because of “heart attacks” (most likely due to police terror) or head injuries (due to police brutality) or “misfires” (due to police stupidity), we say we have had Enough!

Enough! Of your lies in attempting to cover up your mistakes
Enough! Of your “Robocop” attitude
Enough! Of your “to serve and protect” fake masks
Enough! Of you being the guard dogs of the privileged elite

We say Enough! and we are going to say it out loud so everyone can hear us.

Saturday 11th of April at 1:30pm in Bristo Square (Edinburgh)

Bring friends, banners, candles and something to make noise with (drums, whistles etc.)

You might also want to see the video footage of the police assaulting Ian Tomlinson, and read the articles by Glasgow Anarchists (“This is not an appeal to calm“) and Bristle (“Are these FIT officers?“, “Alexis, Ian, Athens, London, wherever you go a cop is a cop” and “G20 police medics: creating demand“).

See you Saturday.

…And so they killed someone. Details are sketchy but a man, in his 30s collapsed and died inside a police kettle. The police have started to spin this in a number of ways:

• release information too late for today’s papers
• they are “investigating” but seem to already know he died of “natural causes”
• no information about the man’s condition, but we are expected to gasp in astonishment at the claim that folk were chucking bottles at the police medics while they apparently were treating him.
• What next? Probably release of the least flattering photo they can find of the guy, stories about the number of demonstrations he’d been on. It’s legal to slander the dead, as Jean Charles de Menezes’ family found out.

Here’s something about those saintly police medics, reported on the London IMC timeline long before this was known (emph. added):

13.31 - G20 Meltdown: Clashes on Threadneedle St, caused by police cordon maintained for no apparent reason, Seior officers declined to give reasons for cordon when asked, police medics seen reaching over lines of colleges to beat protesters.

Without pictures, I think it’s reasonable to assume that on a quick glance police medics treating a prone body look a lot like police thugs beating a prone body, no?

4 hours after this man died, the police were merrily carrying on with their Operation Glencoe (read about the famous massacre at wikipedia). Interesting name. Having allowed the climate camp group to set up, they waited until nightfall) and for the famous 24 hour rolling news coverage to roll over and fall asleep) before wading into the camp and kicking fuck out of people. (Who, as if it matters, were steadfastly refusing to retaliate and had taken no action you could construe as violent, or any property destruction) Having smashed the camp, people were pursued into the night.

Now, if that wasn’t the Met’s plan from the offing, I’d love to hear their justification for calling this, “Operation Glencoe”

Further to what I said about the pointlessness of 24 hour news. Our state broadcaster is covering the real issues:

1940 Jamie Oliver is preparing tonight’s meal despite the fact that his wife, Jools, is due to give birth to their third child imminently. For security reasons, the dad-to-be will have to hand over his mobile phone when he enters 10 Downing Street. But officials have promised to keep him informed should Jools go into labour.

1936 While the leaders talk shop over dinner, their spouses will sit with stars of sport, business and the arts. US first lady Michelle Obama will be seated between Harry Potter author JK Rowling and Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes.

1930 The G20 leaders are in for a feast tonight. Chef Jamie Oliver is preparing a meal of Welsh lamb, Jersey Royal new potatoes and asparagus. Vegetarian heads of government can choose potato dumplings instead.

Meanwhile, the filth are moving in on the Climate Camp, at Bishopgate and all day separate from the Bank of England stuff, trying to start a fight:

Between 10 and 30 arrests at climate camp as people attempt to non-violently prevent the police from destroying sections of the camp. Bikes thrown around, tents smashed up, several injuries reported.

Having watched this unfold on the news, the journalists are being played like a fucking fiddle by the cops. Temporary lulls in their numbers just as embedded Guardian journalists stop twittering and TV hacks prepare for the 6 o’clock bulletins. While the news plays, so do the pigs, knocking out teeth and hippie girls. Now the night shift have started, sharing their vol-au-vents with St. Obama

By the time 10 o’clock rolls around, expect much Hello! style blather and little about the heat coming down on those on the street.