Tuesday’s student demonstration in London ended in a mass arrest of 144 people, being described by students and legal groups as an exercise in information gathering by the Metropolitan Police.
In Bristol, ten people were arrested out of approximately 1,000 protesters, five were arrested in Manchester and in Liverpool there were two arrests.
A Green and Black Cross legal support group statement said: ‘After being surrounded by moving “kettles” throughout the day, police forced protesters back to Trafalgar square where at 6.20pm a kettle was formed around the remaining people followed by their mass arrest for breach of the peace.’
An 18-year-old student from London, speaking to Green & Black Cross legal team by phone as the event occurred, said: ‘The police took me from the kettle with another person to be searched and questioned in front of cameras with bright torches.
‘They told us that if we gave our details we would be released. I have given my name, address and date of birth but now I am being arrested.’
She added: ‘These arrests are nonsense! It’s just an excuse for the Met to find out my name, take my finger prints and look at my phone to see how these demos are organised.’
Another protester, whose friend was trapped in the kettle in the snow for three hours before being arrested, said: ‘I think what’s confusing the cops is how this is organised.
‘They can’t seem to work out how these protests are happening and how to stop them and that’s why they feel the need to collect as much information on everyone as they can.’
The Green and Black Cross legal group supporting the demonstrations on the day, report many incidents of undercover police officers, members of the Forward Intelligence Team (FIT), mixing with protesters in order to gain information.
One member of the group reports seeing undercover police bringing out batons after protesters in Lewisham on Monday night attempted to enter the town hall during a council meeting on budget cuts.
Shane from Green and Black Cross said: ‘What we are noticing is a huge concentration of police resources being put into information gathering, especially around the student demos this month.
‘The concern for us is that students, particularly school or college students, aren’t aware of this tactic and make it easy for the police to monitor them by talking about everything they did or saw at the protests on Facebook.’
