Charged: How the Police Try to Suppress Protest

Author:   Matt Foot ,  Morag Livingstone
Publisher:   Verso Books
ISBN:  

9781839762499


Pages:   336
Publication Date:   24 May 2022
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Charged: How the Police Try to Suppress Protest


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Overview

Charged is an essential investigation into the role of policing protest in Britain today. As the UK governments try to suppress all forms of dissent, in their pursuit of more control, how do the police manage crowds, provoke violence and even break the law? The book tells the conflicted history of the relationship between the police and protesters. The landscape of how police deal with protest changed following criticism of the police during the 1981 Brixton riots. New military-style tactics were sanctioned by the Thatcher government, in secret. Over the next forty years those protesting against racism, unfair job losses, draconian laws, or for environmental protection were subject to brutal tactics. In the aftermath, media attention denigrates protesters while the police are praised and continue to act with impunity. Looking through these moments of conflict widens our understanding of policing public order to reveal the true character of the state. Since the 1980s successive governments, from Thatcher to Johnson, covertly plot to suppress protests, using standardised aggressive tactics - from batons to horse charges to kettling. Through undisclosed documents and eyewitness accounts the authors reveal organised police violence against miners at Orgreave, print workers at Warrington, anti poll tax campaigners, student protestors and Black Lives Matter. The voices of protesters however have been undeterred.

Full Product Details

Author:   Matt Foot ,  Morag Livingstone
Publisher:   Verso Books
Imprint:   Verso Books
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 21.00cm
Weight:   0.413kg
ISBN:  

9781839762499


ISBN 10:   1839762497
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   24 May 2022
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Michael Mansfield QC Introduction: Secrets and Lies PART 1: Maggie Thatcher's Bootboys 1. The Guinea Pig: The Messenger Printers, Warrington 1983 2. Maggie's UK War: The Miners, Orgreave 1984 3. Boot Boys in the Beanfield: Battle of Stonehenge 1985 4. Murdoch's Paper Boys: Wapping 1987 5. The Tinderbox: Anti-Poll Tax Protest 1990 PART 2: Major - Back to Basics 6. The Trap: Welling Anti-Racist Protest 1993 7. Succession of Repetitive Beats: Battle of Park Lane Criminal Justice Act 1994 PART 3: New Labour - Tough on Crime 8. The Commissioner's Kettle: May Day Protest 2001 9. Barriers to protest: G8 Summit Gleneagles 2005 10. The MP's Kettle: G20 Protest 2009 PART 4: Austerity Justice 11. Charged: Student Fee Protest 2010 12. State of Play Acknowledgements Endnotes Index

Reviews

Brilliantly readable, it carries you with it every step of the way. One forgets how frightening authority is and the detail on police behaviour is dreadfully shocking and distressing. It never assumes what you might believe or what you might already know and at the end leaves the reader in no doubt as to what has happened in this country. -Emma Thompson, actor and activist Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone have carefully documented the organised violence and secret police tactics used to attack trade unionists and others who have exercised their right to protest in Britain since the early 1980s. They uncover the way that successive Home secretaries and chief police officers have covertly worked together, deploying and legalising draconian tactics to defend vested interests from active legitimate dissent. If you want to know the dark history that has led us to the current police bill and to understand how the powers it contains would be used, I recommend that you read this book. -Sharon Graham, Unite the union general secretary


Author Information

Matt Foot is a Criminal Defence Solicitor, he specialises in representing protestors and victims of miscarriages of justice. As a campaigning lawyer he co-founded Justice Alliance to protect legal aid and Asbo Concern. He has also written in the Guardian and the London Review of Books. Morag Livingstone is an award winning documentary filmmaker, writer and internationally published author. She is co-author of two bestselling narrative non-fiction books Hackney Child and Tainted Love. She is also a Lecturer and Tutor in photojournalism, moving image and storytelling.

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