A petition was presented to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) today calling for the "kettling" or containment of people at demonstrations to be banned.
The petition comes after demonstrators were kettled by Metropolitan Police for up to 9 hours during a student protest against tuition fee rises on 24th November.
In advance of the presentation, Zain Sardar, national committee member of the Young Greens, said:
"We have had over 1900 people sign our petition, which calls for kettling to be banned when there is no threat of violence between conflicting groups of protesters.
"In recent tuition fee protests, we’ve seen indiscriminate kettling by police of peaceful protesters. People have been kettled for up to nine hours without food and without medical assistance for those who require it.
"We have seen how kettling can turn a peaceful protest into an event where those who attend are effectively imprisoned and punished. Containment should only be used a tactic of last resort, as kettling is an infringement of the fundamental right to peaceful protest."
Jenny Jones, Green member of the London Assembly and the Metropolitan Police Authority, said:
"The Met have used kettling to illegally imprison peaceful campaigners and have shown they can’t be trusted with such a powerful tactic. The Met’s reputation sinks even further every time they abuse their powers and it’s time to stop this particular mistreatment."
Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, has also signed EDM 1257, which "believes kettling to be an infringement of the fundamental right to peaceful protest; and calls on the Government to take steps to stop this practice."
Notes to editors
Text of the petition to be presented to the MPA on Thursday 27 January 2011:
"We the undersigned call for the Metropolitan Police Authority to ban the tactic of containment (kettling) of demonstrations, where there is not the threat of violence between conflicting groups of protesters, as it damages the community’s trust in the police and confidence in the right to protest."
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ban_kettling/