Why and how the policing of public protest has changed in the last 25 years

Authors Avatar

Why and how the policing of public protest has changed in the last 25 years

Historically political protests, demonstrations and riots were quite common in Britain. What was not common however, was a structured public service department equipped to deal with such events. This essay will purport to show how and why policing of public protest has changed in the past 25 years.  Eighteenth century Britain experienced some horrendous rioting, i.e. the St George’s Field Massacre 1768 the Gordon Riots 1780and the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 is this a mirror image of things to come.  

 

            One of the major functions of the police has always been the control of public order, i.e. demonstrations, sports grounds, festivals and striking pickets. “The duty of a police officer....includes the preservation of the peace, or rather the prevention of a breach of the peace...”It is also understood that the police have certain obligations in ensuring the physical safety of people when faced with large gatherings. However, three elements cause major problems for the police when faced with any large gathering, (i) freedom of public expression, (ii) police obligation to the public safety of the participants and (iii) their obligation to the protection of the rights of others). 

 

             It was not until the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that British society started to settle down. The emergence of WWI made it difficult for public protests of a large scale and Britain remained quiet as regards to public disorder. However, with the emergence of Oswald Mosely and his right wing supporter’s the situation began to change, hence the passing of the Public Order Act 1936. Again, Britain began to quieten down, and even the demonstrations became more civilised, i.e. CND rallies which were peaceful.

“Since the end of WWI there has been a

marked declined in violent confrontation”

 

             The early 1960’s saw one of Britain’s most serious natural disasters in Wales. This event illustrated how ill equipped and disorganised the police forces were in dealing with a large scale situation. Laws and the policing skills which were in existence at this time were for dealing with events such as future wars and not for police forces to assist others in the occurrence of a natural disaster. Thus arrangements for ‘mutual aid’ required a major overhaul, hence the establishment of the National Reporting Centre, (centred in Scotland Yard and made operational in times of national emergency).

The passing of the Police Act 1964 and the establishment of the Metropolitan Force’s Special Patrol Group (mobile public order police squads) was an attempt to make a more organised and efficient police force.

 

             The growing prosperity in Britain in the 1950’s and 1960’s opened up a whole new domain of available information with television and radio, the general public for the first time became aware of issues and events nationally and internationally and witnessed a much more organised, violent and confrontational style of protest and demonstrations, such as the Anti Vietnam War demonstration which took place out side the American Embassy in 1968.

 

              This new style of aggressive demonstrating began to gain ground with the emergence of mass picketing of miners at the Saltley Coke Works in Orgreave 1972. The early 1970’s was an era of great political turbulence in Britain, and it saw the development of the New Labour and a rise in the far right which generated more protests. With the emergence of this new style  political protest the problem for the police was that they were not equipped in terms of specialist equipment and trained to withstand these aggressive style demonstrations.  Hence it became common at these aggressive demonstrations for the police to use dustbin lids, milkcrates and anything else at hand which they could construct makeshift shields from in order to protect themselves from missiles.

Join now!

              This inability to be able to disperse violent demonstrations put the police in a very dangerous position, thus the issues of equipping the police forces with tactical training and protective wear started to be addressed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (A.C.P.O). Unfortunately, the A.C.P.O were unable to finish addressing the situation before more civil disturbances broke out.  

 

                In the St. Pauls area of Bristol the police made a daylight raid on a club known as the ‘Black and White Club’. It was an extremely sensitive operation which resulted in significant rioting. The then Chief Constable, Brian Weigh ...

This is a preview of the whole essay