For the past few months, Hilary Pilkington (University of Manchester) has been attending demonstrations and other events organised by the English Defence League (EDL) as part of ethnographic research conducted for the MYPLACE project. Travelling with members of the organisation (who are aware of their status as researchers) to these events has allowed project members to experience demonstrations from the perspective of EDL members themselves. This article documents the policing of a particular EDL demonstration that might be experienced by members of a wide range of organisations

Pilkington, Hilary

English

LSE Research Online

blo gs.lse.ac.uk http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/po liticsandpolicy/archives/27763De mo nstrato rs b e ing  e sco rte d  o nto  the  tub e  at King sCro ssWhen is a kettle not a kettle? When it is on slow boil…For the past few months, Hilary Pilkington (University of Manchester) has been attendingdemonstrations and other events organised by the English Defence League (EDL) as part ofethnographic research conducted for the MYPLACE project. Travelling with members of theorganisation (who are aware of their status as researchers) to these events has allowedproject members to experience demonstrations from the perspective of EDL membersthemselves. This article documents the policing of a particular EDL demonstration that mightbe experienced by members of a wide range of organisations.When is a kett le [1] not a kett le? When it  is on slow boil…On 1 September the EDL conducted a legally sanctioned demonstration in Walthamstow, East London(see here f or details of  the aims of  the demonstration set out by the EDL). It was roundly declared bydemonstrators to be ‘the worst demo ever ’. It is not hard to understand why: demonstrators neverreached the f inal rendezvous point where speeches by EDL leaders were meant to take place; they wereon the receiving end of  a barrage of  eggs thrown by counter-demonstrators; they were kept within atight police containment cordon f rom approximately 12.30 to 10pm; and, bef ore f inally being released,they were arrested en masse under Section 60 of  the Criminal Justice Act (breach of  peace), regardlessof  whether there was any evidence that individuals had participated in, or were likely to participate in, anypublic order of f ence.The purpose of  this blog is not to debate the rights orwrongs of  EDL views or policies but to describe theexperience of  being on that demonstration f rom aparticipant’s perspective and raise questions aboutwhether police strategy was, in this instance,warranted.The f irst indication that this was going to be ademonstration with a dif f erence was when the usualpolice escort into the init ial ‘muster ’ place as EDLcoaches approach the city of  demonstration did notmaterialise. Instead two coaches of  EDLdemonstrators of f loaded their contents at King’sCross station with no police presence and noknowledge of  whether counter demonstrators werewaiting. Fortunately (but it appeared to be luck ratherthan planning on the part of  the police) demonstratorswere picked up f rom the station f ront by EDL stewards and guided towards the designated pub (wherethe police were in attendance) without violent incident. Around 12.30 the police began to move thedemonstrators towards the start point of  the march – this involved taking them back to Kings Cross andescorting them on a packed and claustrophobic tube train half  a dozen stops down the line toBlackhorse Road, maximizing disruption to public transport and other passengers.Demonstrators were contained outside Blackhorse Rd tube station f or a while af ter which they began‘the long march’ to Waltham Forest Magistrates court. Because of  the endless stops while the police triedto clear counter demonstrators f rom the sanctioned route and, when this proved impossible, the EDLmarch was re-routed, this relatively short journey took around two hours. This process (already nowlasting around three hours) is reminiscent of  what has been ref erred to as a ‘mobile kettle’. But thef rustration was only about to begin. The demonstrators (media reports have varied in their estimates ofEDL demonstrators f rom 200-500 but based on previous demonstrations, we would estimate there wereDe mo nstrato rs are  ‘co ntaine d ’ c lo se  to  Waltham Fo re stMag istrate s Co urt500-600) were then f ully kettled f or a f urther two hours, in f ull view of  the f inal destination (where therally was meant to take place) and of  the counter demonstration, which had ef f ectively prevented theEDL rally taking place. Police vans and a solid police cordon prevented any movement outside a containedarea while police with dogs patrolled the grassy area that lay between EDL demonstrators and their f inaldestination. As is clear f rom the photo below, throughout this period of  containment demonstrators werevideoed by the police.It was at this point that the mood began to become agitated. Despite the total lack of  inf ormation, astime ticked on it was clear that the speeches that the demonstrators had come to hear would not takeplace. Periodically small groups of  demonstrators hatched plans to ‘break out’ of  the kettle area and,when they attempted this, scuf f les broke out with the police. As rumours spread that the EDL leadershiphad abandoned the attempt to hold the rally and been escorted away, the mood grew despondent. It wasnow around 5 hours since anybody had had access to water, f ood or toilets and f rustration rose. The‘long march’ back began…If  anything counter demonstrators were more ef f ectiveon the return march – splitt ing into small groups andnow armed with eggs and other missiles, they movedf rom side street to side street causing the police toslow the ‘mobile kettle’ to a halt while, with riot helmetsdonned, they cleared the next street. Around an houror so later, demonstrators were back at BlackhorseRoad station where, it had been promised, thecoaches they had come to London would be waiting totake them out of  the city.That was the last, and erroneous, piece ofinf ormation that demonstrators received until around8.30pm. Then, suddenly, af ter two hours of  questionsabout ‘what is happening’ had been met with a unif orm‘we don’t know’ f rom police of f icers on the ground,somebody, somewhere managed to persuade a policeof f icer to tell us that the Commander in charge had ordered that all demonstrators would be arrestedunder Section 60 of  the Criminal Justice Act (breach of  peace). As protests went up about thejustif ication of  this, demonstrators were told that this was ‘in your interest’ as it allowed the police toremove people f rom the area and thus ‘prevent’ f urther breach of  peace. At this point a number of  us didpoint out to the police of f icers on the ground that the coaches that had brought us to London wereparked 50 metres away and, if  just some of  the of f icers containing us in the area were released toescort demonstrators to their right coaches, they could achieve the same aim without causingthemselves a signif icant amount of  paperwork and demonstrators another two hours of  discomf ort. Theresponse, understandably, was that this was ‘not our decision’. So, there then began a very, very longprocess of  the search and arrest of  each individual protestor (taken out in twos). In the course of  thisprocess, a f ew dozen bottles of  water were thrown into the crowd and shared by those who caughtthem. It would be another couple of  hours (making it 10 or more in total) bef ore anybody would see f oodor a toilet.Af ter we had all been read our rights, told what we hadThe  re mains o f the  march: a sce ne  fro m the  final ke ttleAf ter we had all been read our rights, told what we hadbeen arrested f or, searched and given a copy of  ourarrest docket, we were transported with our arrestingof f icers to the other end of  London (the coaches bythis t ime had been told to leave) and lef t to f ind someway back to wherever we had come f rom. Bef ore welef t the bus, we were told that we were ‘no longerunder arrest’; a police of f icer ’s word, I guess, has tobe trusted….This is not a blog about the EDL. It does not seek toportray them as victims (nor as criminals). But anybodyknows that if  you put a kettle on slow boil f or tenhours, it will run dry, and when it does, it will explode.Given the experience of  demonstrators, who came toa legally sanctioned demonstration and behavedpeaceably [2], and were subjected to containment in a ‘mobile kettle’ f or ten hours without access towater, f ood or toilets, it is, in f act, remarkable that no serious violence took place at Walthamstow. At thebitter end, many demonstrators declared that they would ‘never again’ attend a demonstration. Bef oreyou conclude that this is a ‘victory’ f or police strategy, consider whether you would have the samereaction if  the demonstration had not been organised by the EDL?[1] The term ‘kettle’ or ‘kettling’ ref ers to a police strategy of  surrounding demonstrators at a protest inorder to contain them in a particular place. The police argue it is necessary as a preventative measure toavoid violence or disorder during demonstrations, but it is increasingly being used f or long periods oftime and protest groups have argued that it is deployed to deliberately f rustrate demonstrators or as ameans of  ascertaining personal details and photographs of  protestors.[2] There were 20 arrests f or of f ences other than the ‘breach of  peace’ arrest imposed on allparticipants, of  which only 9 were EDL demonstrators (others were involved in the counterdemonstration) and primarily f or possession of  drugs, f ireworks etc.This art icle was f irst published on the MYPLACE blog. Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, norof the London School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting.About the authorHilary Pilkington is Prof essor of  Sociology at the University of  Manchester. She has researched andpublished widely on late and post-Soviet Russian youth practices. She is coordinator of  a major ECf unded FP7 project – ‘MYPLACE’  – investigating youth and civic engagement (2011-15) in the context ofdiverse polit ical heritage and the receptivity of  young people in Europe to populist polit ical agendas (http://www.f p7-myplace.eu/).No related posts.

When is a kettle not a kettle? When it is on slow boil…

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