British police goons again

Cameras are continually throwing new light on unlawful police behavior which would once have simply have been denied

Dramatic footage has been released of two women protesters being bundled to the ground after asking a policeman for his identification number. The video shows one of the climate change protesters being held by the throat by a police officer. The footage shot by police, who were policing the protest at the Kingsnorth power station in Kent last August, has been handed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, according to the protesters.

The pictures show Emily Apple, 33, asking one of the policemen for his number. He responds: 'I don't have to tell you.' She insists he does and asks her fellow protester, Val Swain, 43, a mother of three from Cornwall, to take a picture of the officer. Moments later both are dragged to the floor and put in the stress position.

Mrs Apple, a mother of one from Cardiff, told The Guardian newspaper, which obtained the footage, that within seconds of her request she had been thrown to the floor. 'The first shot she [Mrs Swain] tried to take was blocked by the officer and the second shot she was grabbed and bundled across the road,' Mrs Apple said. 'Within seconds I was also on the floor being restrained.' When told she is being arrested, Mrs Swain cries out: 'Arrested for what? Taking a photograph?'

The footage also shows the officer holding her by the throat and pulling her head up, seemingly to show her face to the camera. Mrs Swain is later shown having her legs bound and being carried into the back of a police van by several officers. The video also shows officers applying pressure to stress points on the women's body as fellow protesters are heard in background demanding to know why they are being arrested.

Both women insist they were deliberately targeted by officers for their involvement in Fit Watch, an organisation which opposes heavy-handed policing and surveillance filming. The pair were held for four days after being arrested for obstructing police officers but were eventually released without charge, they claim.

A spokesman for the IPCC said last night that the video had not yet been received. 'Today is the first I have heard of the video. But we will look at anything that comes to us,' said Trish Keville, IPCC press officer.

West Yorkshire Police could not be reached last night and a Kent Police spokesman said he did not know how the video, shot by police officers, ended up with the Guardian.

Original report here



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