Police provocation and media management

I was emailed this letter earlier today. It has been submitted to The Guardian's Letters page. It concisely summarises the case against the police's conduct in central London yesterday:

'The policing of the student demonstration in London yesterday (24.11.10) was nothing short of corrupt. The police play the 'innocent' game frequently, but in this case it is totally blatant as anybody with an authentically independent mind saw.

The placing of an empty police minibus (in Whitehall) in the path of a known militant march of student demonstrators is a 'red rag to a bull'. It is nothing short of entrapment and because of the huge policing resources and plans the police made to kettle demonstrators, is part of a deliberate 'newsmaking' for the right wing dominated media.

It is also intimidating for protestors to be pushed around and contained, and as such is an attack on the right to demonstrate. If there are any police still interested in real policing, I hope they will disassociate themselves from the operational plans and decision making of the Metropolitan police for that protest march.

Yours

Dr Trevor Bark, Co Durham'

Also see the video of the student activists' press conference concerning yesterday's 'kettling' of protestors.

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