Police forces are considering using anti-terrorist when Scotland welcomes the G8

http://www.channel4.com/news/special...age.jsp?id=222

Police forces are considering using anti-terrorist when Scotland welcomes the G8, Live 8 and a million protesters.

In a flurry of meetings in Perthshire, Edinburgh and London this afternoon, the scale of what could happen becomes ever clearer to the police forces, protest organisers and councils as they ponder the eventuality of a million extra people on the streets.


The Scottish police forces and the British government want to avoid the violence that occurred at the Genoa G8 summit four years ago - iolent demonstrators and equally violent Italian riot squads fighting it out. At least one person was killed by the police, more than 500 people were injured.

Scottish police say they have no water cannon and won't use plastic bullets, relying instead on batons and a remarkable arsenal of laws designed to shut down public gatherings in effect, if not design - All honed in recent years of protest by their English counterparts.

Senior officers say it's probably the biggest ever single police operation in Britain, including:


A shutdown of major areas of Edinburgh around Holyrood and the Parliament.
Security cordons at potential targets like the Forth Bridge, Edinburgh Castle - or branches of McDonalds.
Fencing off the entire Gleneagles site with legal exclusion zones and use of anti-terror laws.
Billet thousands of police at university halls of residence.
Free up courts for all-day sesssions seven days a week
And establishing a major holding centre for people arrested - potentially a former RAF base.


Momentum's building today at both ends of Britain as the fence went up around the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire. Police chiefs were at the Home Office in London discussing the use of controversial special powers...

It now seems all but certain that some Scottish police forces will ask the Home Secretary to grant them special powers under Anti-Terror Laws. This would enable them essentially to cordon off a large geographic area around Gleneagles and then stop, search and make enquiries of anybody entering that area - regardless of whether they think they're going to commit any offence or not.

The use of Anti-Terror laws to what is a public order situation is something which troubles some senior police officers and an awful lot of people outside the police force.

Two years ago at an arms fair in east London, protesters were stopped and searched under Section 44 of the Anti-Terror law. Even as one of Britain's more senior officers was telling the public this:

"We don't use this against public disorder in this country. We certainly don't use it in the capital and we have no need to. We want to target it only in places where we have real concerns about terrorism."

- Andy Trotter, Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Met Police, 2003

Clearly a law passed to prevent terror will now be used to suppress dissent in Scotland for the first time this summer - as it has been in England.

"We've seen in recent times the over and heavy handed use of anti-terror laws in particular, in a away that they were not intended and in a way that has a hugely chilling affect on the right to legitimate and peaceful protest." - " Shami Chakrabati, Liberty

But British police are expert in acting at the edge of what's legal in order to minimise violence - Mayday 4 years ago, a classic example. The Metropolitan police turned Oxford Circus into an open-air prison, detaining hundreds of demonstrators for several hours of utter boredom. Legal? Possibly not. But was there serious violence? No.

Both sides will be honing their tactics. Some will conclude that after the biggest demonstration in British history, the protests against War in Iraq, were utterly ignored by the government - violent protest like the poll tax riots are actually much more effective. The police though, tooled up with legislation rather than teargas, will be waiting.



Peace