The Camp's legal team are asking the Courts to review the legality of the following police actions:

- The authorisation to deploy force and in particular the use of batons and shields
to strike and drive back Climate Campers and others from 7.00 p.m. onwards

- The lack of clear instructions to officers to ensure force would only be used when
legally permitted

- The ‘kettling’ of the Camp from approximately 7.00 p.m. on no proper legal basis

- The fact that there was no appropriate way for people to leave the ‘kettle’ during
the following four and a half hours

- The decision to disperse the Camp under Section 14 of the Public Order Act

The litigants include Chris Abbot, who gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select
Committee on 12th May in relation to the G20 policing. He was at the Climate Camp
with his partner Louise Broadbent, whose account of her experience can be read in the Climate Camp Legal Team’s report at:  http://climatecamp.org.uk/node/563.

One member of the Climate Camp's legal team, Jane Morley, commented: “Like so many others, we have frequently experienced aggressive, heavy-handed, and often down-right violent policing. The Camp in the City was an opportunity to express our dissent at the nonsense of using market based approaches to solving climate change. What happened shows the extreme measures to which those in power will resort in their attempts to suppress this message. The police stripped those present of their right to protest freely for several hours and violently drove us away. This won't stop us, we'll be back in the Summer, and if the police grossly abuse their powers again, we will call them to account both in the courts and publicly.

"Similar abuses of police powers occurred all over central London that day, with protesters involved in the G20 Meltdown and other actions also being aggressively targeted. This specific legal action relates only to the Camp for Climate Action,
as that is the event for which we have the relevant evidence and information, and which
falls into our remit as the Climate Camp legal team. However, we hope that a positive
outcome in this case should make life easier for campaigners from many different groups and movements within the UK. Throughout the process, we will actively oppose any attempts by the police or the courts to divide the climate movement into "good" and "bad" protesters."

So far, an amazing £11,500 has been raised to support the legal action, but more money is still required. Any donations can be made via the donate button at www.climatecamp.org.uk, with 'KETTLE' as the donate reference, and are all very welcome indeed!

Meanwhile, the Home Affairs Select Committee report on the G20 Policing (published
29 June) stresses the supposed presence of 'untrained' and 'inexperienced' officers
at the G20 protests, blaming them for any inappropriate policing - essentially,
Senior Officers blaming their Juniors for strategic decisions.

True to form, the Metropolitan Police have responded to the Home Affairs Select
Committee report by refusing to accept the report's few, limited criticisms, instead claiming the operation a 'success', despite the widespread use of police violence and the resultant death of Ian Tomlinson. The Met also took the opportunity to try to blame protest groups for the police's ongoing strategy of refusing to communicate with protesters, and consistently breaking any verbal agreements made between police and campaigners on the ground. Commissioner Chris Allison said: "For that small percentage of groups with whom we have not had that constructive dialogue, I ask them to break the cycle and come and talk to us."

The Select Committee report itself similarly proposes that it is lack of communication - and not police violence - which was most problematic during the G20 protest. However, the report goes further, 'explaining' why non-hierarchical social movements in particular are targeted by the police: "It is no coincidence that those protests which lacked a clear hierarchical structure and did not fully communicate their intentions to the police beforehand were those which experienced the greatest use of force by police." In other words: march in a nice, pre-arranged line from A to B, or else we'll come and crack your skulls.

This is the second Judicial Review currently being brought by the Climate Camp. The blanket use of section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act to search everyone attending last Summer’s Climate Camp at Kingsnorth, Kent is being challenged by Dave Morris (a former McLibel litigant) and T and E (11 year old twins who attended the Camp) and is expected to conclude later this year.

 http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmic/
 http://cms.met.police.uk/news/met_comment/met_statement_re_g20_report
 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmhaff/418/41802.htm