Louise Nousratpour
Wednesday August 15, 2007
The Morning Star
THE Metropolitan Police stood accused of breaching an agreement with local residents and representatives of the Heathrow Airport protest camp on Wednesday.
Angry protesters said that police tried to provoke a confrontation on Tuesday night when some 30 officers tried to raid the camp, wielding cans of what appeared to be tear gas.
The Climate Camp Action organisers said that the surprise invasion by police was successfully - and peacefully - repelled by more than 100 demonstrators, who raced to block the officers from advancing into the camp.
Spokesman Timothy Lever said: "A large number of police attempted to break into the camp and they were peacefully removed by a large crowd of protesters with their hands in the air who gradually moved the police away.
"The police gave us no warning and did not say why they were coming on the site.
"They did it after the media left and then blocked journalists from returning to cover the stand-off."
Police initially doubled their numbers at the site, with mounted officers, sniffer dogs and an automatic number plate recognition van working alongside vanloads of officers raking in the overtime.
A statement from Scotland Yard said on Wednesday that policing numbers were now back to the "normal patrolling officers."
But protesters vowed to remain vigilant, amid fears that the heavy-handed approach was part of an ongoing attempt to deter others from joining the camp.
Local MP John McDonnell condemned the aggressive attitude of police, which flew in the face of a guarantee from the Met last week that it would adopt a low-level, non-aggressive policing policy.
"What took place on Tuesday night was an invasion of the camp site by 30 to 40 officers and, since then, a fairly aggressive stop-and-search policy of people visiting the camp, including local residents," he stormed.
Mr McDonnell, along with representatives from local resident groups and the camp, met police leaders yesterday morning to discuss the situation.
"We sought to gain reassurance from police that there will be no further aggression policy and no further invasion of the camp site itself," he reported.
Asked whether he was confident that police would uphold the agreement this time, the MP revealed: "As soon as we left the negotiations, we were met with a team of stop-and-search officers," although Mr McDonnell was not himself searched.
"I continue to be extremely concerned about the scale of the policing and the aggressive attitude of some officers."
Veteran protester Penny Eastwood was being held in a west London police station on Wednesday after she superglued herself to a gate at the camp on Tuesday night.
Police used chemical debonder to remove her hand from the metal gate before arresting her on suspicion of criminal damage.
Ms Eastwood is a member of Plane Stupid, the organisation targeted by a limited High Court injunction obtained by airport operator BAA.
She is the third person to be arrested in connection with the Heathrow climate protest.
Green Party principal speaker Derek Wall announced that he will be joining the camp on Thursday "to discuss how to build a green economy - but I will be listening, not lecturing."
He praised the protesters, declaring: "Simply by occupying the proposed runway site, they have provided an inspiring example of how citizens can fight climate change.
"The camp is a scandal to the government because it sits on the very site of the proposed runway, a runway that will bulldoze a whole village," he added.
Mr Wall said that "the camp reminds Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his Cabinet and BAA of their complicity in devastating environmental destruction.
"Non-violent direct action to combat ecological destruction is the right thing and the Green Party explicitly supports it," he insisted, describing it as "shameful but hardly surprising" that anti-terror legislation is being used to "try to silence their voices."
He warned: "Air travel is the fastest-growing source of CO2.
"It is our children that will pick up the bill from this dangerous and ill-thought-out expansion," said Mr Wall.
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