Greens demand enquiry into climate camp policing
08 September 2008
News from the Green Party | 9 September 2008
GREENS DEMAND ENQUIRY INTO CLIMATE CAMP POLICING
The Green Party is demanding a full enquiry into policing at the Kingsnorth Climate Camp from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, after a vote at party conference this week.
On Monday, an emergency motion was passed unanimously by the conference after being proposed by Kent Green Party Chair, Hazel Dawe.
Hazel, who was at the camp last month and witnessed the police actions, said:
“There is talk that we are becoming a police state in this country – well there was a police state on the Hoo peninsula of Kent for one week in August
“I was there – I was searched at “Checkpoint Charlie’. Got my pink slip then walked about 200 yards down a Kent country lane – and was checked three times by police along that lane.”
Caroline Lucas, South-East MEP and newly elected leader of the party, also attended the camp and led a delegation of senior politicians to deliver a letter to Kent Police chiefs raising concerns about the level of policing, see: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3503.html
The motion passed at conference said:
Political policing at Kingsnorth Climate Camp
Green Party Conference requests the Green party Executive (Leader) to write to the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith requesting a full enquiry into the problems with policing the Climate Camp at Kingsnorth in August 2008.
Problems which need to be investigated include:
- intrusive and excessive use of stop and search powers i.e. blanket searches of anyone entering the camp first under s1 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and later under s60 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and people being search on leaving the camp for no discernable reason. We believe that blanket searches and searches of those leaving the camp were unnecessary and intended to discourage people from attending the camp rather than any desire to prevent offences.
- use of a helicopter to harass camp residents both during the day and at unsocial times during the night.
- excessive confiscation of private property (including a children’s’ board game) which led to chaos when attempting to reunite property with owners;
- excessive use of arrest powers for possession of prohibited substances. In one case the person arrested was held for five hours, fingerprinted and had a DNA sample taken before the pills were tested and proven to be Vitamin C
- a non functional public email address for Kingsnorth Enquiries on the Kent police web site.
- the lack of any letter from a senior officer authorising the use of s60 CJPOA at the local police station.
We ask that all of these matters be the subject of a full investigation and that the policing of future Climate Camp events be organised in line with any findings made by such an enquiry.
END
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