I think I Heard it Ping....

As far as I'm aware the police in the UK first started using "kettle lines" during the 2001 Mayday protest.

The idea is to pen in (or, if you prefer, illegally detain) protesters, press, innocent bystanders and anyone else who happened to be there so that no-one can enter and no-one can leave the pen; resulting in an inevitable build-up of pressure until the police would be 'forced' to push back and use batons, resulting in the crowd being contained in an ever-smaller space for hours on end without food, water or toilet facilities.

On the surface, and leaving the civil liberties angle alone for now, this seems like a sensible tactic from a practical point of view. It stops trouble from escalating and reduces property damage. However, it was inevitable that, eventually, someone would lose their life as a result of this tactic since it always involves getting folk who really don't want to be there trapped in a hostile and frightening environment. Most protesters are young, fit, have had some training in how to deal with these situations and are ideologically motivated.

During the G8 protest in Edinburgh for instance I witnessed the Police charging and baton bashing a middle-aged, tweed wearing gentleman who had merely been in a bookshop (I saw him leave the shop holding one of their carrier bags) and wanted to go home. He approached the police lines (from outside the kettle-pen) whereupon he was baton-charged, surrounded and ushered INTO the kettle. Huh?!

I'm sure he's OK, but it must have been a horrible experience for someone like him who was neither prepared nor willing to experience the atmosphere in there. But, through no fault of his own, he was trapped. That particular kettle was moved around but remained in place for a good three hours. I hope he didn't have a weak bladder.

I don't know how many bank windows are trade-able for a human life in the modern market. Can't be all that many judging by the popularity of the tactic.

The fact that it has taken the death of an innocent man (whether or not it was as a result of the tactic is unclear at the time of writing. It definitely didn't help) to bring the brutality of this tactic to public attention is shocking. The press were all over every protest where the tactic was deployed. At many points in Edinburgh there were more photographers than protesters and every time a police line appeared the cameras were snapping away like nobody's business yet none of them chose to report on the police tactics. That, apparently, doesn't sell newspapers. Unless someone happens to die; then it might. Although I have still seen scant few reports mentioning it. They mostly publish pictures of angry mobs containing blood-dripping from one or more faces and/or people the police might want to arrest. As a result the press will be resisted more at future demos I fear, as protesters become aware that the photographers are hindering them in their task. This won't make it any easier for the demonstrators to get their argument out to a wider audience.

The health and safety risks from the kettle tactic are not its only fault however. It is a morally bankrupt notion to treat everyone present at a scene, for whatever reason, as terrorists, criminals and vandals for one thing. For another, it is simply a denial of the right to protest. A right which has slowly been eroded to almost nothing in the past 20 years or so. Also, it is mass-detention of mostly innocent people exercising their right to protest peacefully.

I've heard reports of people in tears, begging the police to let them leave the kettle on Wednesday, including one woman who was desperate to get out so she could collect her child. They were all, of course, refused.

If someone was actually breaking the law then they should be arrested and THEN detained. If they are not causing trouble then they should be free to carry on with their business - the police should have no right whatsoever to detain anyone without first arresting them and charging them with a crime.

The mood in the anti-capitalist subculture seems to be getting heated and differences are being forgotten as they all start to notice who their real enemies are and work together. This, coupled with the inevitable increase in support they will gain from the formally apolitical (who will become increasingly aware of their powerlessness as a result of their troughs suddenly being empty due to the banking crisis), means that we might well be in for an interesting summer.