Vortex wrote:I have found that:
1. There are a lot of spooks about.
True -- what was interesting was the way that the police infiltrated campaign groups in the 80's and 90s, and then used the skills they learnt to take apart the animal rights networks in the UK over the last decade.
Vortex wrote:2. They are nice people.
I go along with that too -- generally they're pretty funny people who like a laugh -- it tends to be the blokes in tweeds from MI5 who're the sad buggers who won't talk to you (well they can't, officially they're not there!).
Vortex wrote:3. They have the full weight of the authorities behind them.
And then some more which isn't strictly allowed -- as seen by the recent farce over NETCU's off-the-record statements to The Observer (
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/12 ... oia-squad/).
BTW, you do realise that NETCU is a private company under the control of another private company, 'The Association of Chief Police Officers', and so is not subject to the same rules of disclosure and accountability that other police organisations must adhere to?
Vortex wrote:4. They believe in what they are doing.
True, but I think they prefer the overtime, and cracking rally fowl jokes about women peace protestors!
Vortex wrote:5. They don't care about you as an individual - they will go away once you play ball ... or crush you if you resist.
That's the bit I disagree with. Police spooks are like a form of herpes -- if you get caught in their clutches once they'll keep coming back.
The key thing is
not to resist. If you resist then they can do precisely what they want to you because you've behaved precisely as they want you to. Alternately, if you're nice, courteous (I once offered the the police a cooked breakfast whilst they were ransacking my house --
what fun!) then it is they who lose control -- bcecause they have no idea how to handle you. As Alinsky says,
you have to push them beyond their own experience, whilst at the same time make them meet the terms of their own rules (they just can't do it -- so much of the police's exercise of power relies on winding up the people that they want to arrest so that they can arrest and process them).
Eventually (although it helps to have a good knowledge of the various rules and regulations on detention and evidence) you can completely screw up their day by smiling and being relaxed (again, I remember a wonderful incident where I drove a sergent loopy because we'd spend five minutes working out precisely what he meant by the terms he was using in each of his questions, after which I'd answer with just a "yes" or "no").
They can only crush you if you have something to lose. Having "b'in there and done that" with visits, a heavy raid and other hassles in the 80s and 90s, if you're prepared to be a complete psycho and risk everything it tends to really annoy them. They can't deal with that because you're not playing within their power dynamic -- instead they have to enter into yours.
What scares people about the police is the
thoughts they have about the police being nasty; once you've met that and gone through it (an experience I find is corroborated by the exploits of other direct action protestors from peace and environmental groups and the 80's/90's) then it gets harder for them to intimidate you.
