OTHER ISSUE 3 ARTICLES:

ANGER IN KIRKBY

LIVERPOOL BUSINESS ELITE SPYING ON US ALL

LOCAL ROUND UP

BEWARE ARMED AND DANGEROUS

New Labour’s announcement this month that they are going to hand the unaccountable Military Police the power to deal with civilian ‘public order’ problems is a serious attack upon civil liberties. In France the national semi-military police force CRS have a fearsome reputation for the violent disruption of demonstrations and strikes, for brutal beatings and deaths in custody. In Merseyside, the closest equivalent we have is the Operational Support Division. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the charming officers of the OSD, they are the ones that hang out in the bull-barred Ford Trannies with “Support Group” written on the side. Far from being supportive of the public, the “snatch squad” are assigned a roving policing role, designed to respond to public order problems when and as required.
OSD regularly embarass the rest of their colleagues, not because of their enthusiasm for violence, but because they get caught so often. In two notorious recent cases, OSD were caught dishing out their own particular form of summary justice on CCTV - although no officers were disciplined in either case. In September 1999, after the Liverpool v Manchester United match OSD were again in the frame for beating up dozens of law abiding citizens, including a man in a wheelchair and a 15 year old boy in Slater St. Such was the stupidity of the OSD that they didn’t realise they were being covered by CCTV (again). Mind you, despite the 70 complaints lodged with the Police Complaints Authority, only three were identified for abuse of authority. Many of the OSD were wearing scarves to hide their identity. The OSD were also the ring-leaders of the police violence used against the dockers picket line which led to 4 local MPs calling for an inquiry to establish why numerous pickets were dragged away and beaten up in vans.
This is precisely what happens when a section of police officers are left to their own devices and given the task of protecting the ‘public order’. The extension of powers to the military police can only lead to more brutal treatment meted out to anyone that dares stand up against the expansion of state and corporate power. www.statewatch.org.uk