Emergency dispatch: Thin blue crime.
On 15 hours in Hammersmith and the Met’s illegal arrest addiction.
This was written on a phone. Typos are a political act.
It is 1.35 am in Hammersmith. I am flat on my back on the concrete floor looking up at the blue Victorian-style lamps on the front of Hammersmith police station. A copper I spoke to earlier grumbled at this retro detailing on the building that had a multi-million pound refurb (mostly to ensure the police horses in the stables there are happy; certainly not to make human workhorses in stab vests less angry with the world and the people they ‘serve’). I have been in Hammersmith for 12 hours at this point, waiting for the release of Just Stop Oil protestors lifted at 9.30 am the previous morning for the egregious crime of… walking slowly.
And I wait. And I wait. Joined by members of JSO — I’m not one — I wait. It is the waiting game and the Met has all the most powerful pieces on the board. In complete rejection of the rules under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), they slow down processing, delay interviews, stymie access to solicitors, and do all they can to punish JSO for their temerity to protest in a city where one gang is preeminent: The Met police.
It is not until 4 am that the JSO detainees are released. They emerge thirsty, tired, and without their phones — a trick to disrupt and disconcert activist networks — but they are positive. They walk towards the bus stop with energy. They know that the Met — with its door smashing, arm twisting, abuse throwing, confusion driven rage — is losing. Every time it lifts a protestor with no justification, every time it lies about conspiracies, every time it shows it’s addiction to state violence on camera, it is losing. The Met is a force of losers led by losers and working to promote the policies of the biggest losers — the government. The Met are bullies and cowards; the snides of school playgrounds given extendable batons, CS gas, uniforms, and vehicles to scream around the world in. The Met are sad, insecure, and all the more dangerous for it. It is the thin blue crime.
More to come later.
Good on you, Mic
Sterling work, Mic