‘Just there for a ruck’?Violence and Non-Violence in Protest Policing

during the 2005 G8 Hugo Gorringe & Michael Rosie

‘The selection of Gleneagles as the location for the next G8 Summitrepresents an outstandingopportunity for Perthshire, Taysideand Scotland to further enhance ourreputation worldwide’.

Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise

‘There was an outpouring of you know: Genoa, Evian, Seattle’

(Police Respondent, Tayside 1)

Watch out …

‘Anarchy’ and ‘Genoa’ in the *quality* press (selected headlines)

• ‘Genoa, Geneva - now Auchterarder gears up for G8’, Guardian, Feb 2005

• ‘Anarchists plot anti-G8 action as Police prepare for ‘extreme measures’’, Scotland on Sunday, Feb 2005

• ‘Police prepare to make thousands of arrests at G8: Army barracks to be used as holding camps for violent anarchists who are already finding their way into Britain’, Sunday Telegraph, June 2005

• ‘Police call up 10,000 to prevent repeat of Genoa’, Times, April 2005

• ‘We’re prepared for Genoa-style violence, admits G8 police chief’, Scotsman, June 2005

Source: LexisNexis

Agreeing that …. %

The protests surrounding the G8 summit will change our world for the better

31

The protests will cause major disruption

74

The protests are likely to be violent 44

Opinion Poll evidence TNS Social Scottish Omnibus, June 2005 (N = 1,100)

Global Protests?

In recent years, protesters have turned out in force at almost every major international forum or summit … Protesters oppose business-driven globalization, war and

undemocratic decision making and press for global peace and justice.

www.globalpolicy.org

• ‘Not much has happened here … just the odd bits and pieces which everyone thoroughly enjoyed and no-one got hurt. The G8, however, is of a very different magnitude. For a start we are talking about 10,500 cops coming up [from around Scotland and England]’ (Tayside 2).

‘Aye, I think I would say that there was a Scottish approach. There is a difference. It’s much more about dialogue and community interaction and

that as well as the more legal things like the difference in laws between the two places’

(Tayside 1).

Seeing Blue?

• Institutional & Organisational Context– In-the-job or on-the-job

trouble

• Law and Order– Losing control?

Policing Approaches

‘Cops read papers too!’,

(Tayside 3)

• Police Knowledge

• Police Cultures

• Negotiated Management?

Research Settings

• ‘I mean to be honest with you, the policing on the Saturday and the Monday was as much of a contrast as I think you’ll ever see’ (Politician 1).

• MPH, STW, Carnival

Polis Perspectives?

‘In Europe …you know, it’s confrontation, big sticks’ (Tayside 1).

Let’s suppose an operational officer gets a custard pie in the face … Saying ‘get a PSU in there quick’ is the wrong answer. Get him

out of there. An officer’s been pied by an eejit [idiot] and is boiling about it – get him out of there, cool him down (Tayside 2).

Make Policing History?Until absolutely necessary all people will see is Scottish polis in flat caps and yellae jackets. All

very nicey, nicey, very friendly – ‘this way to the toilets madam’

style of policing (Tayside 2).

Being cordoned off abroad is usually a

precursor to the police wading in,

laying about with batons and making

arrests (Tayside 3).

Stop the War Rally• ‘If anything happens [that weekend] it will

likely be after the Stop the War (STW) rally’ (Tayside 2).

• ‘... we’ve got an history in Edinburgh of Stop the War coalition not doing what they had agreed to do, acting in an inappropriate way, not being trusted’ (LBP 1).

‘The Carnival of Full Deployment’‘Criminal Tourists I’ve called them, it is a nicephrase that captures much of what they areabout’ (Tayside 3).

‘The principle is that peoples’ personal liberty gets infringed because there is no alternative.The alternative is to allow anarchy to win andthere will be no control in society’ (LBP 1).

• ‘Two windows, 200 geraniums and several park benches’ (LBP 1).

• ‘Just as people can feel anonymous in a crowd – the mob if you like, cops can feel anonymous too’ (Tayside 2)

Good Protestor/Bad Protestor?

The Make Poverty History lot are largely a peaceful group. They have largely achieved their objectives already, because that’s what everyone is talking about. It’s on the agenda. Globalisation ... well people are talking about

climate change which they say they are interested in. But anarchist groups, they are

just there for a ruck (Tayside 2).

Conclusions?

Discretion and Police Knowledge

• Police Frames

• Police Tools

‘The force could have done more internally in terms of education and managing

people’s apprehensions’ (Tayside 1).