Guardian UK: It's time for parents to stand with their children at the student protests

[marmar]

It's time for parents to stand with their children at the student protests
My son was badly hurt in a Met kettle. Tomorrow we must protect students from police violence

Susan Matthews
guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 January 2011 15.00 GMT



Britain University Fees Riot police react with student demonstrators outside Millbank, the headquarters of the Conservative party during a protest in London in November last year. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/Press Association Images


Major student protests are planned tomorrow in Manchester and London and already police are warning that they plan to increase the severity of their tactics. I was at two of the protests at the end of last year, and the change in tactics was striking. Whereas on the 10 November demonstration no one was hurt, on 9 December there were large numbers of protester casualties – and a smaller but still significant number of less severe police injuries. The casualties seemed to be a direct result of the change in police tactics. If these now become even more extreme, there will no doubt be more violence and more people hurt. On the 9 December protest my son, Alfie Meadows, received life-threatening injuries in an incident that is now the subject of an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation. He would have died but for the care he received from NHS nurses, ambulance workers and a fine neurosurgeon.

Despite what happened in December, Sir Hugh Orde still defends "kettling" . But make no mistake: this police tactic puts the lives of protesters at risk. As people in the crowd – held indiscriminately against their will – are compressed, they risk being squashed. If they do not move back into a solid plug of people because they cannot do so, they risk being hit by police.

After the December protest some claimed that only the aggressive or the violent would choose to stand at the front of the "kettle" facing the cordon of riot police. That was where I and my two sons were standing, although not all at the same place. Why? Because at the end of a long day we hoped to be allowed home. The Metropolitan police had announced (as I could read on my internet-enabled phone) that "clearly nonviolent protesters" would be allowed out. On the ground, however, different rules applied. We were held with a diverse group of clearly nonviolent and sometimes very frightened people. Such tactics cannot be "for the greater good", as is claimed by the police.

Despite a slew of adverse news stories (from randy undercover policemen to a failure to investigate tabloid phone-hacking), the Met are sticking to their account of "student violence". With perfect timing in the run up to new protests, news has broken of charges against seven students. The presence of an eye-catching "son of Pink Floyd guitarist" complete with a "stolen mannequin leg" exceeds a PR department's wildest dreams. Headlines are assured. But justice is intertwined with PR in this process. History is up for grabs, and the government that quickly labelled the protests "feral" now looks to images of "student violence" to justify its stance. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/28/students-children-kettle-police-violence

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

Officer punching protester at today's protests.

[provis99]

2. "Kettling": a Nazi military tactic.

Kesselschlacht: kettle battle.