Strathclyde Police declare war

Strathclyde Police’s campaign of intimidation and victimisation towards peaceful protest was stepped up yesterday as they began to round-up student activists in relation to city centre protests towards the end of last year over tuition fees.

Over the course of the afternoon, three young students were arrested: two in their own homes (including a 14 year old), a third outside Baird Street police station having gone there to offer support to one of those arrested earlier.  It soon became clear, however, that the arrests were far less about the charges involved – alleged breach of the peace at a Vodafone shop – but to use as a pretext to impose draconian bail conditions. These specifically ban all three from the city’s two central shopping streets – Buchanan Street and Argyle Street – and George Square, plus the entire Glasgow University campus. On top of this, attendance at any protest is banned. Due to this final condition, those assembled outside the police station this afternoon were forced to leave so that upon being released, none of those arrested would be implicated in a protest and immediately re-arrested. The police threatened those gathered outside with this scenario.

After their botched eviction of the Free Hetherington occupation at Glasgow Uni three weeks ago, the police were on the backfoot. The following morning, they swooped on the homes of three students, now facing serious charges of police assault and in one case, resisting arrest. Then on Monday of this week, Strathclyde Uni student Dominic O’Hara was found guilty of a trumped up charge of police assault at Glasgow District Court, from the 9th December demo. During the trial, both the judge and procurator fiscal proved far less interested in the specifics of the charges, and more in the nature of the demonstration itself, keen to portray it as an unruly mob storming around the city centre. At one stage the judge even snapped at a defence witness, demanding to know why prior permission had not been sought for the demo. The guilty verdict then gave the green light for Tuesday’s arrests.

It represents the latest stage of an ongoing crackdown on political dissent in Glasgow, being spearheaded by Strathclyde Polcie and the city council. Having made if effectively impossible to hold a legal march in the city centre, the student movement responded by having them anyway. Now the police have hit back with an outrageous series of arrests, and bail conditions that couldn’t be clearer in their intent: to demobilise activists and prevent them from engaging in political activity.

We will not be cowed by this attempt to criminalise dissent. As austerity and attacks on the working class are stepped up by the authorities, defending the right to protest is a crucial struggle.

A demonstration against political policing has been called for Glasgow city centre this Saturday 16 April: details here.