Having just got back from a far-too-short afternoon at the camp, it was pretty clear the policing was aimed at trying to scare people away from the camp and keep it marginalised.

Talking to the Taxi driver who was ferrying groups of people to the station, it seems that this tactic worked to an extent, putting local people off attending the event. But it had also put local people off the police, so hardly a good bit of community policing.

Ultimately, since the direct action part of the event was optional, the police really missed the mark in treating the whole event as a criminal undertaking. They actually seemed to be losing the plot a bit (or making up weird excuses for harassment.)

The taxi guy recounted that a female police officer had explained that they confiscated the soap from the site because they were afraid the protesters would get naked and cover themselves in soap so the police could not catch them. Perhaps the police force spend too much of their time off at Ibiza bubble parties, but this struck me as a bit of a hollow reason to deny people basic personal hygiene facilities.

I've been talking a lot about the Climate Camp. Despite that John Cleese might advise: “don’t mention the weekend!”

Fuelled partly by pride, (that I attended climate camp) shame (that i didn’t ‘do’ more) and partly by a lingering intense new disillusionment with government and police (and i was there, remember,) i'd like to tell you that the accounts of goings on, that you can find on the Climate Camp website are all honest, decent and ethical.

Plus here are a few paras from me:

In writing this I thought hard how I would have reacted to some dreadlocked tattooed hippy* posting something here...
(* i am officially none of those by the way, i am a 49 yr old ‘establishment’ sort of chap) but we all make up our own stories don’t we.
N.B. There were bankers, consultants, vicars, and probably quite a few eco-professionals there.

For various complicated reasons, including a small yellow streak maybe – the shocking police operation had made me timid (‘in-timid-ate’) – and had made me very very tired after near total sleep deprivation each night by police helicopters, dogs, raids, and psychological operations – i copped out and joined the ‘children’s and novices family fun peace’ march to the camp. The Orange group. (Actually, I went with it in mind, and in heart, that I would readily act as one human shield if any elderly or pre-teen person were to be attacked by a dozen riot police with batons.. )

Here comes the bit you won’t believe. The main group complied with each and every police request during the planning before-hand, however odd.
They asked us not to march through the local village (where we could have been seen and had chats with locals). We complied.
They asked us not to march to outside the main gate of the power station. We complied and went to a back gate. And so on.
All the details of the march were pre-agreed, there were thousands of police present to watch our peaceful march.
(If not locals, we were kept away from them!)

The deal was that we would sit down at the power station gate, eat some lunch, listen to some speeches, before leaving at around 1pm.

Surrounded (and interestingly, visibly penned in) by police in riot gear, with dogs, on horses (by then I’d seen the horses and batons in use), the situation was more than bizarre enough (and terror-fying enough for a novice like me.)
That was before what I was about to hear.

The police helicopter, the one that had been circling directly overhead, (0.5 tonne of CO2 per hour?) not helping my enjoyment of some wonderful speeches, and generally adding to my sense of confusion that i had somehow become a dangerous criminal without me knowing it, turned on its high-fidelity tannoy (i wish the speeches could have used the police sound system) and announced this:

“Please disperse immediately, or the police will use batons, horses and dogs.”

That ‘announcement’ – if you can call it that - was made at 12:50 precisely. Lunchtime. This was ten minutes before we were due to leave. I was surrounded by peace banners, picnics, lovers, women and children. Unsurprisingly, it put quite a few brave (and/or stubborn) souls off leaving. After soul searching, I left, shortly after 1pm, petrified for the safety of some new friends who were staying behind, but conscious that this orange group was committed to peaceful demonstration and that we had actually agreed to leave at 1pm.
But feeling quite sick that this could be happening in the UK in 2008.

So, there’s my account, my witness, my scary thought for the day. I wish it could be more positive.

In fact IT CAN be MUCH MORE POSITIVE – meanwhile, back at camp:

The camp itself was glorious. There was brother-sister-hood, community, passion, life energy, song, dance, poetry, love, education, cooperation and abundance.

There was no conflict. New deep friendships, new life meaning. Call me a sad old man (i’m married) but there were some incredibly beautiful women and men there. Eyes burning bright – fully alive with passion and life.

When you next wonder why the (M or F) supermodels on the catwalk aren’t as attractive as they used to be, consider it may be because they are all down at Climate Camp!

Conversations I’ll remember all my life. Abundance of food, laughter, friends, support, experiences, unity and powerfully expressed difference.

There was a sufficiency of non-carbon energy. Wood for hot water, PV panels everywhere, wind turbines: THE CAMP was off grid, thereby proving that it is totally possible for 1000 people to have the time of their lives (it was immense fun) on zero carbon. Proving that the politicians last spun spectre of the “lights going out” is a spectre of their own making, being used against our best interest.

We wouldn’t even have noticed if the National Grid had gone down for a week. (And don’t underestimate the comms power we had on site, the media tent was brimming with laptops etc)

Perhaps that’s what the establishment is most scared of, that we don’t need their dirty power any more, and ‘we’re not buying it’.

Dave

I feel compelled to comment again, having had time to reflect on my time at the camp.

It is very strange, when working to prevent a form of Genocide (and climate instability, once transmitted through markets, will be fairly systematic in targeting the poor) to be searched intimately when entering a peaceful protest.

I had more of my inner thigh explored when entering the camp than in any airport I have been through. And what harm could I have caused when I got there?

How many dangerous offensive weapons did the police find? How many injuries on other human beings were inflicted by camp protestors?

And why is a government, which says its is committed to fighting climate change, and also that it wants to see more political engagement, so afraid of this form of direct democracy?

I think Zizecks commments here, even if they do not apply to Haiti (I do not know), certainly ring true when you consider how the camp was treated almost like an infection.

http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/08/haiti-aristide-lavalas#reader-...

The UK seems to want immunity from any living political movement. The core of the camp was an approach to direct democracy, something that wider society seems not quite ready for.

so the police are doing the same as when the old ladies protested aganst live sheep heavy handed then they wonder why we call them pigs

I don't think trying to provoke peaceful demonstrators is doing a good job. It's what happens in countries with repressive regimes. I think it is you jasontimes56 who needs to look at the bigger picture.

We have treated fossil fuel energy as though it was infinite and had no impact when it was burnt. Neither are true and now the consequences are coming back to us: the effect of burning fossil fuels is now impacting the climate and we are also reaching the limits of cheap energy upon which we have built our whole economy and way of life.

Now we need to wake up and take a long hard look at our way of life - it is time to start talking to each other about how we are going to live in an energy scarce world. The days of cheap energy are well and truly over. Start making changes to your way of life before they happen to you.

I also wanted to express my anger at the way the police dealt with people attending the Climate Camp at Kingsnorth yesterday, giving the completely wrong impression to others.

Kingsnorth power station is an important issue for many people. It is a symbol of how we as a nation intend to address, or not in this case, the growing problems caused by CO2 emissions. The protesters, as far as I could see, were both peaceful and in good spirits.

I was attending as Marketing Director for Greenvoice, a new not-for-profit web site that provides campaigning tools for green causes. We host a campaign for the climate camp on our web site and I was attending a day of seminars and workshops by leading experts from the environmental world.

I do understand the need for the police to search people entering the camp. But I find it totally unbelievable that the police were harassing and victimising people in such an unfocused and belligerent way as they were leaving the camp. I missed my train back to London as a result and an another important business engagement.

I really do take issue with the following:

1.Over 300 police stopping about 30 people legally leaving the camp who simply wanted to catch trains home or to buy things like ice creams and milk from the local shop
2.The violent and aggressive technique used by the police. I witnessed some young women being pushed over by police acting more like bouncers on a Saturday night in a cheap night club than The Constabulary
3.The complete disrespect for what people were there to do. The rudeness and utter boisterousness of their approach to what was little more than a small group of young adults
4.The ludicrous decision to insist on searching everyone, which was clearly an issue with the small group outside the Camp. The Constable responsible for this (if there was one?) should have quickly backed down and allowed people through. This created an issue as people were being bullied by the police in what was a really very hot afternoon
5.The complete lack of leadership between the dozens of police forces that were there from Wales, Yorkshire, London and Kent to name a few that were on the front line
6.The over use of surveillance. I counted at least four cameramen and three stills photographers within the police ranks. To what end? Our own camera women was treated very badly and was spoken to extremely rudely
7.The over use of a police helicopter which disturbed many of the high standard workshops
8.The wrong impression that this type of police behaviour gave to locals who went past the camp
9.Allowing locals access to the local golf course alongside people that couldn't go about their business
10.The complete and utter waste of time and money

I reiterate, I do understand the need to police events such as the Climate Camp, but how this was managed yesterday was a shameful waste of tax payers money. It also creates the total wrong impression of what was a very peaceful and constructive camp. I am hoping to get an explanation from my local MP as to why the police got it so badly wrong in Kent yesterday.

Giles Robertson

Dave is absolutely right.

And once one experiences this kind of police harassment personally, one never feels quite the same way again about the boys in blue...

See my latest blogpost, about a particularly ridiculous episode of harassment that happened this weekend to a friend of mine, here: http://rupertsread.blogspot.com/2008/08/police-arrest-climate-camp-prote...