G20 protests: Met police accused of misleading watchdog
by Paul Lewis and Matthew Taylor | May 1, 2009
Scotland Yard was accused of misleading its own watchdog last night after an official report on the policing of the G20 London protests was said to contain "false claims" and "gross inaccuracies".
The document, submitted to a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority yesterday, set out the police version of events during the demonstrations last month, and included claims protesters and independent observers said were misleading.
The Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, David Howarth, said the report was "full of serious inaccuracies" and questioned its claim that protesters were free to leave police cordons on the streets.
The controversial use of cordons to "kettle", or corral, people at the rally is under review by Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary.
The report stated that "whenever possible, people were allowed to leave the cordon" around the Bank of England and the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate. But accounts from hundreds of people caught inside the pens for hours indicated police refused people permission to leave.
The author of the report, assistant commissioner Chris Allison, defended the tactics of containment, telling the MPA that penning protesters, rather than dispersing them, was effective in reducing violence. But the MPA unanimously agreed to examine kettling and other public-order police tactics, in its civil liberties panel.
Other alleged inaccuracies in the Met's report included the claim that the Bishopsgate Climate Camp had blocked a "four-lane highway", and that police had supplied water to penned people.
The report also said Climate Camp protesters had "refused to divulge their plans" at a meeting with senior officers on the eve of the rally. Howarth, who mediated the meeting, said protesters had been constructive in attempts to liaise with the police. "It is time for the spinning to stop and for senior officers to ... take responsibility," Howarth said.
The report also said the Met was cooperating with the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating a complaint relating to an alleged assault of a 22-year-old woman on 1 April. The IPCC has received 256 complaints relating to G20 demonstrations.
In a statement last night, the Met said: "Wherever operationally possible people were allowed out of the containment." It conceded that the Climate Camp had been set-up in a two-lane road, but said traffic had been impacted further south.
Regarding water supplies, the Met said: "Officers gave people water but kept the bottles so they could not be thrown ... Six toilets were deployed by the local authority at the request of police; these contained drinkable running water."