Keeping the peace or keeping people down? By Jude McCulloch
Protesters will be out in force at the upcoming meeting of the WTO in Sydney, and so too will police. While the rhetoric surrounding policing focuses on protecting citizens and keeping the peace, the reality is that the main role of police is protecting privilege and power by keeping people down. This has been true from the early days of colonisation when the first police worked with the military to overcome indigenous resistance to occupation, to the first year of the new millennium when paramilitary police used batons and horses to overwhelm protesters at the World Economic Forum at Melbourne's Crown Casino. While the fundamentals of the police role remain the same, police tactics adapt to the contemporary social environment and changing technologies. A 'hearts and minds' campaign against protesters is an important part of the modern day police strategy. In the lead up to the protests the police 'aided by a conservative and compliant media' will vilify protesters in order to create a climate that attempts to justify any future violence against them. It is likely that in the context on the 'war on terror' coverage will be manipulated to suggest that protesters are potential terrorists. If police use violence against protesters it is likely that media camera people and individual protesters attempting to record visual images of police violence will be deliberately targeted to minimise coverage. Police understand that while they can manage the media they can't control it. Images of police using violence are inherently newsworthy. Police talking heads arguing that only minimum force was used against violent protesters are negated by images of heavily protected police using horses and wielding batons against passive, non resisting, outnumbered, and sometimes visibly injured protesters. A picture paints a thousand words: cameras are important. Police tactics at protest events like those planned against the WTO have moved away from a law enforcement strategy aimed at arresting individual law breakers towards a more paramilitary style of policing aimed at using overwhelming force against groups of people thought of as the enemy. Legal support groups at the WEF in Melbourne were organised to deal with mass arrests. Ultimately very few people were arrested and very few charged. Instead police used batons, horses and sheer numbers to overwhelm people blockading Crown Casino. These tactics are of dubious legality and expose individual police to the risk of being sued. Police mindful of this risk are likely to remove identifying nametags. This tactic combined with riot helmets makes the identification of individual police officers difficult, which in turn makes the pursuit of legal action by injured protesters more difficult. Police are very aware of the risk of being sued in the face of evidence of use of excessive force and this may have a restraining effect on police tactics, particularly if they believe that the protesters have a well organised legal strategy and are capable of making and independent record of events. Again cameras are important. While police will be at pains to minimise evidence of their own behaviour and identities, protesters should assume that their actions and identities are being recorded. Police have advanced technologies that make this possible and will also infiltrate or attempt to infiltrate the various groups involved in the protest action. A relatively new weapon at the disposal of police is capsicum spray. Originally the introduction of this weapon was justified on the basis that it would be used as an alternative to firearms. However, it is clear that police see capsicum spray as a valuable tool against mass protests. Police had this weapon on standby at the WEF in Melbourne in 2000, but it wasn't used. In the event that police are outnumbered or outmanoeuvred by protesters it provides a method for clearing people from an area. Protesters should familiarise themselves with ways to protect themselves from the effects of the spray and basic first aid for those affected. Recent changes to the Defence Act make it easier for the government to call out the troops to aid police at protests. If such a call out is contemplated it is likely that great pains will be taken in constructing the demonstrators as dangerous terrorists. Finally, to avoid confrontation and to undermine the effectiveness of planned protests police may attempt to keep protesters physically remote from the site of the WTO meeting. Jude McCulloch is the author of Blue Army: Paramilitary Policing in Australia (Melbourne University Press, 2001) [ Police Powers | WTO in Sydney | Discuss ] http://sydney.indymedia.org/
