"The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions.

"In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed."

Nanny Knows Best

Bid to evict St Paul's protest camp begins at high court

The City of London Corporation has lost control of St Paul's Cathedral, the high court will hear on Monday, with members of an activist camp "setting rules and policing behaviour" in the churchyard.

A trial, lasting up to four days, will determine whether Occupy London protesters can stay on the land outside the building or not.

The movement is fighting the corporation's eviction attempts.

It says members are acting within article 10 and article 11 of the Human Rights Act – freedom of expression and freedom of assembly – and has produced several defendants to contest the corporation's claims in court.

But David Forsdick, counsel for the corporation, will tell Mr Justice Wilkie that these rights do not "contemplate or justify a semi-permanent campsite" ...

Gdn  18 Dec 2011    Corporate State Log

Occupy London

'Economic justice is the number one moral issue in the Bible'

Revealed: how City fees are eating into our pensions

Tax avoidance trade puts Square Mile in spotlight again

David Cameron: the Church must shape our values

The Sermon on the Mound

Police include Occupy movement on ‘terror’ list

The Occupy movement is listed alongside threats posed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), Al Qaeda and Belarusian terrorists ...

uk.news.yahoo.com  05 Dec 2011    Corporate State Log

GCHQ to offer British firms expertise in cybercrime

Recall that the new chair of the Press Complaints Commission - Lord Hunt - told Roy Greenslade: " ... the greater challenge is with the bloggers ... "!   [Gdn]

• Government plans are part of cyber security strategy
• Barclays and BT among 15 blue-chip firms to share information
• Substantial sums could be paid for GCHQ in-house software

GCHQ is to get a huge increase in funding, and the Ministry of Defence will benefit too.

Though it does not provide specific spending details, the ideas in the strategy include:

• Creating within two years a new cybercrime unit within the National Crime Agency ...

• Sending new guidelines to courts and police highlighting the extra powers now available to them. They include using "serious crime prevention orders" that ban criminals from owning more than one mobile phone, limiting them to one email address and restricting their access to the internet ...

• Encouraging all police forces to recruit more so-called cyber specials ...

• Creating a new Cyber Defence Operations Group at the Ministry of Defence ...

Ministers have looked at the US firm, In-Q-Tel, which is funded by the CIA to help government and industry.

Set up 13 years ago, it is a not-for-profit venture that has provided technology to firms such as Google, and made millions of dollars for the US government by doing so.

The strategy is quite explicit about the implications for GCHQ, saying options include ... "working with private sector partners to explore the potential commercial applications for GCHQ's unique expertise" ...

Gdn  25 Nov 2011    Corporate State Log

Undercover police and the law: the men who weren't there

I wonder how many Jim Suttons there are 'garnering intelligence' outside St Paul's Cathedral?

... Jim Sutton ... purporting to be an ardent activist who got by as a cleaner was in reality an undercover police officer who had been infiltrating political movements for some time as part of a long-standing operation to garner intelligence on campaigners.

His real name was Jim Boyling and he was employed by a covert Scotland Yard unit specialising in monitoring political activists.

Revelations about the deployment of police spies in protest groups have provoked much controversy this year, but the latest allegations may be the most damaging.

Police chiefs now stand accused of authorising their undercover officers to give false identities in a deliberate manipulation of the legal system.

They are under pressure to explain how often they may have sanctioned their officers to deliberately mislead judges and magistrates and break the law in their courtrooms.

One undercover officer who is prepared to speak out says that the [Jim] Boyling case was not a one-off.

Pete Black, who worked alongside Boyling in the covert unit monitoring political campaigners, told the Guardian that undercover operatives were often prosecuted under their fake identities, as it helped to foster their credibility as genuine campaigners ...

Gdn  19 Oct 2011    Corporate State Britain        

Undercover detective accused of 'corrupting' trial

Trial collapses after undercover officer changes sides

Protest

Police warned not to misuse anti-terror laws to round up innocent people

David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, cautioned police while ruling yesterday that six men arrested during the papal visit last year were never involved in any plot to kill the Pope.

The half-dozen Westminster street cleaners, who were all Muslims of North African origin, were seized at gunpoint on the basis of a "barely credible" tip-off, Mr Anderson found ...

Ind  17 May 2011    Corporate State Log    War on Terror Log

Police State Britain    War on Terror    

'Pope plot' men not involved in terrorism

Police raid five squats before royal wedding

The Terrorism Act 2000

'Pope plot' men not involved in terrorism

The six men, all Westminster street cleaners, were seized after allegedly being heard discussing an attack.

They were later released without charge amid unconfirmed reports that a canteen joke had been misunderstood.

Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officers launched "Operation Grid" and arrested the six men on 17 September last year on suspicion of plotting to harm the Pope during a visit which began the day before ...

BBC NEWS  16 May 2011    Corporate State Log

Police raid five squats before royal wedding    Police State Britain    War on Terror

Bristol riot over new Tesco store leaves eight police officers injured

Corporate police state in action

Kerry McCarthy, the Labour MP for Bristol East, was on the scene in the later part of the evening.

The disturbances were just outside her constituency. "It's a very hippyish, counter-culture type of area with lots of arts shops," she said.

"One group was laying their bicycles down on the street and most of it seemed fairly good-natured but the police response was heavy-handed.

"There were two people playing saxophones on top of a bus shelter and a photographer was taking pictures.

A police officer walked across and pushed him over; there was no reason to do it.

My colleague Ben Mosley [a Labour council candidate] was hit by a truncheon and I was shoved out of the way by a policeman at one stage.

"I had a conversation with the Chief Constable. It seems the police had received reports that petrol bombs were being carried in and out [of the squat].

"It was anti-establishment protest: against capitalism and corporations, similar to what we saw in the March against the Cuts in London where Starbucks and banks were targeted."

Clare Milne, who lives nearby and has been organising the planning campaign against the store, said she had not been told why there was a police raid on the squatted building.

She said she witnessed from her bedroom window an unprovoked attack on a man walking along the street with a woman.

"An officer whacked him around the lower back with a baton." ...

Lewis Clapham, 22, a customer services worker, said:

"I wasn't involved in the protest or the squat. I just happened to be down there and I went up to the police and said I was just passing through, but one of them came and hit me really hard with a baton.

"I've got bruising all down my side now with massive swelling on my elbow." ...

Guardian  22 Apr 2011

This violence reflects simmering anger at big corporations

Police raid over 'petrol bomb plot' sparks Tesco riots

Police accused over arrests riot

London G20 demo: Met Police 'kettling' not justified

This is the same Met that is 'in bed' with Murdoch's phone hackers

Two activists have won their case against policing of the G20 protests, as the High Court ruled police containment was "not justified".

The judges upheld Hannah McClure and Josh Moos's case that police used "violence" to control the Camp for Climate Action in London in April 2009.

There was "no reasonable" justification for "kettling" but police did not unlawfully try to clear the camp.

The Metropolitan Police said it would appeal against the court's judgement ...

BBC NEWS  14 Apr 2011

Thousands may sue over police kettling

Tomlinson inquest hears from pathologist

Dr Freddy Patel ... was asked by Alison Hewitt, counsel for the inquest into the newspaper vendor's death, whether he "was requested by the police to rule out any assault or crush injuries?"

Patel replied: "Yes. That's right."

He was then asked: "Did you have this in mind when you conducted your postmortem examination?"

He replied: "That's correct, yes."

Patel said that before the examination began he had been given "new information" by police officers about the crime scene.

"It was that he had collapsed outdoors on the pavement, but there was no police officers nearby in the immediate vicinity of the body.

"There were a lot of broken glass bottles and there were a lot of protesters were using sticks and there were a lot of sticks around the area where it was found."

Patel found Tomlinson's death was consistent with natural causes because he had coronary artery disease and could have died at any time ...

Gdn  12 Apr 2011

Ian Tomlinson inquest hears police officer 'feared for his life'

The police officer who pushed Ian Tomlinson to the ground during the G20 protests two years ago told an inquest into the newspaper seller's death that he had been "in fear for my life".

PC Simon Harwood was advised by the coroner, Peter Thornton, that he was not obliged to answer any question that could incriminate him as he took the witness stand for the first time and came face to face with Tomlinson's grieving family.

His opening remark that he was "here to help the family" was met with snorts of derision in the public gallery ...

Harwood, a police carrier driver on the day, described how he saw a demonstrator crouching at the rear of one of the police vehicles and drawing or writing something on the bodywork.

He told the inquest: "I then made my way towards the person concerned". His intention, he said, was to arrest the man ...

But the arrest caused other protesters to react as the arrest began going awry and his target struggled to break free.

He said he had become the centre of attention, with the protesters jeering and shouting.

There was a "large gasp" from the crowd as the suspect he was holding collided with the door of a police van ...

Gdn  05 Apr 2011    Ian Tomlinson

Policeman who struck Ian Tomlinson faced two previous aggression inquiries

Ian Tomlinson death: police officer will not face criminal charges

Ian Tomlinson

Why did police charge only 11 rioters over the anti-cuts protests?

A total of 149 have been charged in connection with the protests – 138 of them (94 per cent) face criminal charges of aggravated trespass at the high-end store, with only 11 charged for the more violent protests elsewhere in the capital, including serious disturbances in the West End during which police were pelted with ammonia-filled lightbulbs ...

David Winnick MP, a senior Labour member of the Commons' home affairs select committee, said it was "very strange" that protesters involved in the Fortnum & Mason sit-in featured so heavily in the break down of those charged.

"The people who went into Fortnum & Mason were not involved in violence," he said.

"They were told that if they left the building they would not be charged, and they were. Why isn't it that the large majority of the arrests were of people who were engaging in violence?" ...

Raj Chada, a solicitor representing several of those arrested and a specialist in public order law, said that contrary to normal police practice it appeared that suspects had not been formally interviewed about the reason for their arrest.

Instead, detained protesters were asked a single question before being charged with aggravated trespass, an offence originally drawn up to deal with hunt saboteurs ...

Independent  30 Mar 2011

UK Uncut accuses police of politically motivated arrests

UK Uncut arrests threaten future protests

Police face big cuts challenge

Police may be given new powers

Police turn to untried tactics as 100,000 plan march on cuts

Scotland Yard's new plans to control crowds during mass protests have not yet been trialled it emerged, as thousands of protesters prepare to descend on central London this weekend ...

gliffothewisp

One thing about being a cynic is that you are seldom disappointed, but I never heard of this little sweetie until now - The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (as highlighted in the Indie today).

First introduced in 2002, this little beauty enables police forces to "... designate targeted police powers to private firms."

Ultimate Security Services are the latest beneficiary. To be fair, it seems at the moment to be being used for minor things like stopping people riding bikes on the pavement, and kids smoking - but I have this horrible "Thin end of the wedge" feeling.

Independent  21 Mar 2011

The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme

skills for security

VSG wins Community Safety Accreditation

EventGuard

Johnson building an army of private police