Here's To The Police

In October I wrote a counter poem in response to a post that an Extinction Rebellion activist had posted titled 'Here's To The Police' - It was essentially thanking them for their 'hard work' in 'looking after' activists in custody, shortly after the posts, a picture was released that activists had sent flowers to cops on the 10th October 2019 at Brixton Police Station. 

I do believe they call this Stockholm syndrome ' is a condition which causes hostages to 
develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity'. 

Our experience of the Police within the anti-fracking campaign has been that of anything, but peaceful. Lancashire Police (as well as many other UK police forces) have been very 'hands on' in their approach of how they deal with protesters and by 'hands on' I mean, hands on, feet on and everything else on top of you, whilst you helplessly lie on the ground wondering what the fuck happened to your protest rights. 

The Police don't think twice about violently assaulting you and neither do they see arrest as a violent act. What we have witnessed over the campaign, is Police Liason Officers (blue bibs) stand back and watch as people get assaulted by their fellow officers. 

When it comes to campaigning the Police and the state that they represent are not your friend, they are your enemy. They will take away your liberty, they will stitch you up given half the chance and they do not give a shit about your welfare or what you believe.  
The photo's you see in this blog, are stills, from past video footage of just two arrests that happened at PNr.
Baring in mind that under half of the arrests at Preston New road have lead to convictions, between January 2017 and January 2019 there was a sum total of 449 arrests and only 220 of those lead to convictions, in a report released by drill or drop which can be read here -https://drillordrop.com/2019/10/15/under-half-arrests-at-cuadrillas-fracking-site-have-led-to-convictions-new-data/

Here's to the Police

The racist, sexist, homophobic, right suppressing, nasty unit that they are. 

Here's to the Police
For stitching up activists 
and taking away their rights 
Here's the to the Police
For lying about us in court 
and breaking our bones 
when we rise up against what this government has forced on us 
Here's to the Police
for the deaths of the 23 people in Police Custody 
in 2017/2018 
they were somebody's family 
who died in Police ''care'.
They died,
In Police care.
Here's to the Police, 
that allowed Christopher Alder 
to die in 1999 
in Police custody 
because he was black. 
Do you know his name? 
because you should, you really should
His name is Christopher Alder. 
Here's to the Police
for starving the miners 
under Margaret Thatcher 
who shut down the pits 
with the force of the Police
Have you read about Orgreave? 
It was 1984 
and they trapped the miners
with Police on horses 
and spilt their blood
on the battle of Orgreave 
and they still say 
that day was the miners fault 
and they didn't stitch them up,
some 30 years later.
 Do you know about Hillsborough?
and David Duckenfield (The cop)
who was in charge that day 
responsible for the deaths of 96 people, 
because he didn't know what he was doing.
 And the Police told the media
that scousers were pissing on the dead
and stealing from their pockets
and they ran with the narrative, 
because they didn't want to risk their own skin
It was easier to blame the working class 
than allow the public to know 
that they were lying bastards,
lying about the failures 
caused by the Police 
leading to the deaths of 
96 people that day.
Do you know about battle of the beanfield?
When children were stripped,
from their Mother's arms
screaming,
by the Police. 
Here's to the Police, 
for immigration raids 
and sending people like cattle
back to places where they aren't safe. 
Here's to the Anti Terror unit,
for treating you like an extremist
because you threaten everything 
their institute stands for. 
Here's to the middle classes, 
who refuse to open their eyes,
because they want to believe that in some way
the state is there to protect them.
So they ignore and exclude
their working class comrades
And all of the people
who have experience
of what the Police are actually like.
You put your comrades in danger, 
the moment you trust the Police.
They exist to keep us in line
on the command of the Government
and the Monarchy. 
They may treat you differently, 
because you are 
white and middle class,
but you can't ignore the facts. 
The Police are not your friends, 
They are working class traitors. 
1312
All Cops Are Bastards.

Whilst Extiniction Rebellion have come under increased scrutiny for their policy on 'loving the police, even to the point that Kevin Blowe, the coordinator for Netpol (Network of Police Monitoring) publicly criticised their deep sympathy for cops. 

''One of Netpol’s core aims when we started back in 2009, however, was to try to highlight and educate campaigners about the everyday experiences of policing, particularly in working-class and racialised communities up and down the country. What might seem like the worst case of police violence to a first-time environmental campaigner is commonplace to millions of people in the UK.''

You can read his full article here - https://freedomnews.org.uk/it-is-not-just-a-bunch-of-flowers/

- Remember, the cops are not your mates.