G20 police 'used undercover men to incite crowds'

[BooScout]

Source: The Observer

An MP who was involved in last month's G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.

Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.

Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament's joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/10/g20-policing-agent-provacateurs

[DerekJ]

1. Why? What would be the benefit?

[ljm2002]

2. They usual...

...to make the demonstrators look bad. It's an old, tried and true tactic used by jackbooted thugs worldwide. I thought everyone knew that... IOW, surprised you had to ask?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Truly! Whoever hasn't learned about it long ago should be able to figure it out! n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. More specifically, to make a peaceful demonstration seem like a violent one, so that they could

trundle out more of their cliches, such as describing the crowd as a "rent-a-mob"; the reality of course, being that the "agents provocateurs" are the only hirelings.

But then, you know all that, really, don't you Derek? You were just winding us up, weren't you? If not, maybe politics isn't for you.

[bertman]

14. and don't forget justifying more PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT and CROWD CONTROL

WEAPONRY.

Obviously, Britain has laws that allow for the peaceful assembly of protesters just as we do in America. But when every protest "turns violent" it's much easier for public sentiment to be swayed toward restricting protest.

[Joe Chi Minh]

26. Very good point.

[LiberalFighter]

29. Or even legislate peaceful assembly as illegal.

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bryan Sacks]

46. For a Canadian version:

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWMLDpE02-Y&feature=channel_page

[Demit]

52. Perfectly legitimate question. You could've left off your last snide paragraph and

made it a legitimate answer.

[Joe Chi Minh]

56. It's not supposed to be kindergarten. Men and women are putting their

bodies on the line, and you mutts are whining about the lack of courtesy of your critics. At least, this one. What sort of a question was that - assuming Derek is an adult, or at least in his teens? You should be ashamed of yourselves.

[Demit]

62. If it's not kindergarten, stop acting like a belligerent child.

[Joe Chi Minh]

61. Let me explain: it's reasonable to assume that a progressive who felt

the need to ponder that question, would be unusually naive. But if he was baffled, he'd have the elementary sense to wait and see what other posters wrote by way of clarification.

But let's not dwell on that, because the real question is how difficult is it to fathom? Either the police "agent provocateurs" wanted to do their police chief's bidding, or they wanted to further the cause of the protesters - and in a singularly juvenile and unhelpful way, wholly anomalous when compared to the behavour of the other protestors.

But clearly, the second premise is absurd, as indeed the passive demeanour of their uniformed colleagues towards the impostors clearly indicates. So, the impostors wanted to cause trouble for the bona fide protestors - the nature of that trouble doesn't matter for the purpose of understanding this.

What was there for Derek to be baffled about? The natural inference, therefore, seems to me to be that, it is unlikely he is too simple to understand any of the above, so he seems highly likely to be a Canadian troll or regressive. We do have Canadian trolls on here at times. I have no respect for masquerading, right-wing interlopers, trolls, so I tend not to make the normal endeavour to be courteous to suspects, since, if what seems to me the overwhelming evidence against them is true, they are not a friend of mankind in any shape or form, as well as insulting the intelligence of DUers. I hope that makes the reason for my terse or snidey tone a little clearer.

And you, Demit? Why am I having to explan this to you?

[DerekJ]

54. May be courtesy, good posting manners, and not being an asshole is not your forte either. May be

you are the one who should not be posting here.

WTF kind of an arrogant snide remark was that?!!

I did not ask you to answer my question, so buzz off.

[Judi Lynn]

4. There's a very old term created for people like that:

Main Entry:agent pro·vo·ca·teur
Pronunciation:\ˈä-ˌzhäⁿ-prō-ˌvä-kə-ˈtər, ˈā-jənt-\
Function:noun
Inflected Form(s):plural agents provocateurs \ˈä-ˌzhäⁿ-prō-ˌvä-kə-ˈtər, ˈā-jən(t)s-prō-\
Etymology:French, literally, provoking agent
Date:1877
: one employed to associate with suspected persons and by pretending sympathy with their aims to incite them to some incriminating action

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agent+provocateur

[Prometheus Bound]

5. Watch this Canadian video.

Police provocateurs at Montebello Summit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1nHvvkzvA

Why?
- Give protesters a bad name.
- Give the police a chance to beat ordinary peaceful protesters.
- Scare normal people from participating in protests for fear they will be associated with crazies and be beaten by police.

It's very effective.

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. "Don't hurt him! He's one of ours! So are the others."

[formercia]

23. Here's where they're busted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&NR=1

[LiberalFighter]

31. Just like the old Pinkerton security.

[AlphaCentauri]

16. Cause and effect, to repress the people

infiltrators are known for making groups of people with valid arguments against the elites to "brake the laws"

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[formercia]

36. Discredit the protesters

turn the population against them.

[DCKit]

45. And the best-case, logical outcome of their actions...

would be to limit the Constitutional and Civil Rights of any who would protest. Additionally, if more than one person is involved, it rises to the level of conspiracy.

Why aren't the police and other law enforcement agencies who engage in these fascist, unAmerican activies being prosecuted for these crimes?

On Edit:
Yes, I realize that the two most recent cases happened in GB and Canada, but it also happens right here at home.

[bvar22]

20. It gives "Police" justification to use violence to supress dissent.

!

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

24. Welcome to DU

:)

[formercia]

25. It's also to justify their Tactical Team budget

Without violence, there would be little argument to fund the budget for tactical teams. The officers would be more effective out on the street writing traffic tickets.

[bvar22]

41. Yes.

Now they get to dress up in their Storm Trooper costumes.
Fascist LOVE their costumes.

[tblue37]

42. To justify violent suppression of protests against unaccountable power. nt

[sce56]

53. A very old tatic that whey they can start a riot and blame it on the peacful protestors!

Watch this YouTube Video of some smart old protesters stopping them from starting a POLICE RIOT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow
OTTAWA – Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que.

Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.

A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his hand.

The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.

Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.

Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.

Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.

Kevin Skerrett, a protester with the group Nowar-Paix, said the photos and video together present powerful evidence that the men were actually undercover police officers.

"I think the circumstantial evidence is very powerful," he said.

The three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any offence.

Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the summit – two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.

Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to organizers and are genuine protesters.

"But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being arrested . . . How do (police) account for these three people being taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?" Singh said.

"I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents . . . and they were caught red-handed."

[madrchsod]

6. of course they did....

i thought everyone knew that every left wing demonstration have provocateurs...

[FraDon]

7. Beware • the spit-shine sandals ...

we used to joke, 40 years ago, at the antiwar demonstrations. • Infiltrate, inform, incite, & discredit. • It's an ancient, and ever present, totalitarian game plan.

[formercia]

9. Agents of Repression

http://www.southendpress.org/2004/items/Agents




Written by a key AIM member and one of its most knowledgeable supporters, Agents of Repression, features one of the best histories of the FBI siege of Wounded Knee. The 1973 attack resulted in Peltier's imprisonment. The book also provides a well-written synthesis of the FBI efforts against the Black Panthers.

This edition, Volume 7 of the South End Press Classics Series, includes a new introduction examining the cases of Leonard Peltier and Anna Mae Aquash and the infiltration of AIM by the FBI. While the FBI seems a less flagrantly violent organization now than in the 1970s, twenty-first century readers will learn why America's political police force remains a threat to those committed to fundamental social change.

“This study gives a chilling account of the government attack against AIM and the Black Panthers, placed in the context of the traditional use of the FBI for domestic political repression. It is a powerful indictment, with far-reaching implications.”—Noam Chomsky




I picked up my copy at a book sale cheap. Lots of good references and names you will recognize.


If you're involved in any kind of protest, this book may save your butt. If you're in an organization involved in protests, you can be it's been infiltrated.

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. Here is some awesome coverage of the theme of "agents provovateurs",

in relation to terrorism and false-flag operations:

http://sandiego.indymedia.org/media/2006/10/119638.pdf

[xchrom]

11. recommend

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. Good to see my buddy Cointelpro is still with us.

The rumors of his demise appear to be, shall we say, premature.

[LaPera]

15. Who would be surprised by this & a lot more, we know the greed of the corporate structure.

[Mnpaul]

17. I was wondering if they did it at the RNC

Watching some of the videos, it sure looked like it. Give the police a reason to disperse those nasty protestors. It has already been proven one of the RNC welcoming committee members was working for the feds.

[lib2DaBone]

19. Example: The Republican National Convention In St. Paul ..Last Summer

.. A "Hippie" with long hair carrying a brand new hammer was seen breaking windows on storefronts.

A few hours later.. this same "hippie" was seen getting into an unmarked police car at a nearby park.

At this same park... Ninja-suited riot police were busy arresting people who had tickets to a sanctioned event. Ahh yes.. our tax dollars at work. The only problem.. who are they working for?

[RoccoR5955]

21. I figured as much...

Some of the people in those videos looked too much like police to me.
I have a good eye for undercover police in real life, maybe I do in video also.

[IndianaGreen]

22. After the scandal of the smear e-mails and lavish lifestyles by MPs

it seems that the Brown government is teetering on the precipice of political irrelevancy. Having the MET behave like an American version of Nixon's dirty trickster certainly takes the cake.

Leading article: A flipping sense of entitlement

Phil Woolas, the Immigration minister, is pilloried for claiming for nappies and women's clothes. He says he did not claim for them – they were on receipts that he submitted, although he did not need to, in order to claim up to £400 a month on groceries.

Like many of the trivial items for which MPs have claimed, however, they expose a system that is unsustainable. Jacqui Smith's 88p bath plug had already become an object of national ridicule and television satire. To it can now be added the 26p wooden spoon, the £599 bill for servicing a ride-on lawnmower, the £2.50 KitKat and the £10 bag of horse manure, among others.

No one doubts that most MPs and nearly all ministers work long and antisocial hours, but any temptation to sympathy is dissipated by the culture of entitlement that has been revealed by some of the correspondence that now sees the light of day. Such as the temporarily anonymous Labour MP who said that "natural justice" required that he be reimbursed £3,100 for a 40-inch TV because he had not realised there was a price limit.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-flipping-sense-of-entitlement-1682151.html

[LiberalFighter]

30. What is the deal with British ministers? Taxpayers pay for their living expenses?

[mrfrapp]

55. Apparently so.

In all the professional commentary surrounding these revelations I've yet to hear anyone question why they get these subsidies at all. Apparently, it's acceptable that we pay for their living expenses, it's just the details that are in question.

Peasants like me have to make do on our wages I see no reason why our elected representatives shouldn't have to. And if they don't like it they can bugger off and get a proper job.

[LiberalFighter]

58. They should just get a straight salary and pay their expenses from it just like everyone else does.

[marmar]

27. Quelle surprise! Agents Provacateurs trying to bait people into violence....

...... so they could impose police state tactics.

[djp2]

28. Happenedi recently in ..

Canada.. Photos proved they were wearing uniform shoes and protection...Whatever happened in that case?

[formercia]

48. See post #10 and #23 n/t

[conspirator]

32. motherfaking facists. It's open class war now ! nt

[formercia]

35. That's what a provocateur might say.

Choose your words carefully, lest you be branded as one.

[conspirator]

49. All wars are class wars. These things should be said openly

I am aware that rioting is useless, and so is peaceful protest. It is a really war and the only way to win is sabotage, and operating outside the law.

[backscatter712]

33. This is another reason why I hate cops.

Fuck the pigs!

[formercia]

34. Not all cops are like this

but there are right-wing-reactionaries that infiltrate police forces to provoke this kind of behavior by the police.

They infiltrate both sides to provoke the violence that causes fear among the populace and use it as an excuse to promote their agenda.

"Only we can protect you." "Those wishy-washy Liberals don't have the intestinal fortitude to get the job done."

It's just a variation of the Mafia protection racket.

[bluesmail]

38. Agentz provocateurs.

[Overseas]

39. K&R to highlight the continued use of agents provocateurs. //nt

[davidinalameda]

40. the headline doesn't quite match the article

[Wednesdays]

43. K&R

:kick:

[lovuian]

44. What ticks you off is that our money

pays for our own suppression

[formercia]

47. And the right-wing reactionaries will say.

That's the beauty of it and we profit from making the costumes and guns.We sell them insurance policies to protect their properties and tell the on the TV and cable networks we own, what a dangerous place this country would be without our protection.

[file83]

51. We should pass a law that everytime a police department gets caught

doing this "agent provocateur" crap, their budget INSTANTLY gets reduced by %50.

The next time, another %50 (which would be 25% of the original budget).

And it's permanent cut, their budget can only go up again if the voters decide it so.

I think the problem would sort of take care of itself then.

Big budgets are what allow for this crap to happen.

[Joe Chi Minh]

57. Neat point!

[jwirr]

50. Isn't that a form of entrapment?

[redqueen]

59. I am shocked! SHOCKED!

:sarcasm:

[proteus_lives]

60. Not surprising.

I imagine every political/business/union/religious/national/etc group on Earth uses this tactic.