Public Intelligence

The following photos were taken in late March and early April 2012.

The purpose of this bulletin is officer awareness. Officers should know that instigators involved in violent demonstrations might be familiar with, and might try to apply, techniques from the “Crowd Control and Riot Manual.” The handbook, from Warrior Publications teaches protestors how to defeat law enforcement crowd control techniques. Although it does not address specific groups or organizations, the information is widely applicable.

The technology, developed by a former Royal Marine commando, temporarily impairs the vision of anyone who looks towards the source. It has impressed a division of the Home Office which is testing a new range of devices because of the growing number of violent situations facing the police. The developer, British-based Photonic Security Systems, hopes to offer the device to shipping companies to deter pirates. Similar devices have been used by ISAF troops in Afghanistan to protect convoys from insurgents. The laser, resembling a rifle and known as an SMU 100, can dazzle and incapacitate targets up to 500m away with a wall of light up to three metres squared. It costs £25,000 and has an infrared scope to spot looters in poor visibility.

The following photos were taken before during and after the attempted eviction of the Occupy LA encampment by the LAPD on the evening of November 27 and into the morning of November 28, 2011.  Several photos at the end of the series show a similar response from campus police at nearby UCLA on November 28, [...]

A survey of news reports and eyewitness photos from the last six months indicates that tear gas grenades and canisters being used around the world to suppress peaceful demonstrations and prevent political change in despotic regimes are largely made and sold by U.S. companies, often with the consent of the U.S. government. Police and security forces in Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, Bahrain, Yemen and Greece have all utilized U.S.-made tear gas and often other “less lethal” munitions, such as rubber bullets.

linmtheu – http://www.flickr.com/photos/26040773@N07/
SekaRuis – http://www.flickr.com/photos/sekarius/
endiaferon – http://www.flickr.com/photos/endiaferon/
cortlinux – http://www.flickr.com/photos/cortlinux/

Foxtongue – http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxtongue/
BrittneyBush – http://www.flickr.com/photos/tzofia/
eych-you-bee-ee-ahr-tee – http://www.flickr.com/photos/eych/
refreshment_66 – http://www.flickr.com/photos/15574096@N00/

These photos are from the last several days, beginning approximately January 26, 2011. Photo credits are at the bottom of the page.   Special attention should be given to the fact that Al Jazeera English and many reporters have released their coverage of recent events in Egypt under a Creative Commons license.
abcharlie – [...]

Fabrizio Terrezza – http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabriter1985/
Michele Massetani – http://www.flickr.com/photos/gigiomc/
Giacomo Cosua – http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacko83/
Andrea Veroni – http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreatm/
Alessandro – http://www.flickr.com/photos/diffaphoto/
makisraf – http://www.flickr.com/photos/efthymios-gourgouris/

The following excellent photos were taken by Nicholas Adams at one of the most recent student fees protests held in downtown London on November 30, 2010.

chrisjohnbeckett – http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjohnbeckett/
Phil Coomes – http://www.flickr.com/photos/blinkofaneye/
Jymography – http://www.flickr.com/photos/jymography/
suburbanslice – http://www.flickr.com/photos/suburbanslice/

viewO – http://www.flickr.com/photos/fottav/
Bas Verbeek – http://www.flickr.com/photos/basverbeek/
Yohan Park – http://www.flickr.com/photos/ggamdungi/
Chiew Ping Hoo – http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiewping/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jymography/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tralamander/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurence-hardy/

During running battles with police, demonstrators torched a police armoured car, chained themselves to stretches of line, tried to undermine tracks by kicking out stones and fought with officers in woodland leading to the train in a day of tense drama. The head of Germany’s Green Party, Claudia Roth, was among those last night involved in a sit-down protest on the road to Gorleben as police appealed for calm. Costs for policing for the train which left a nuclear fuel reprocessing France on Friday has already gone over the £50 million. The security operation to ensure the cargo of reprocessed fuel from nuclear power stations in Germany reaches its destination is one of the biggest ever mounted with 17,000 police officers on duty.

akynou – http://www.flickr.com/photos/akynou/
Serge Grosclaude – http://www.flickr.com/photos/8895916@N06/
La Monolecte – http://www.flickr.com/photos/monolecte/
Mesli – http://www.flickr.com/photos/mesli/
marcovdz – http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcovdz/
Fabien Decker – http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabien_becker/
samsofy – http://www.flickr.com/photos/samsofy/
Frederic Minois – http://www.flickr.com/photos/cirderf/
tehf0x – http://www.flickr.com/photos/tehf0x/
Jean-Baptiste Lequere – http://www.flickr.com/photos/lequerejeanbaptiste/
Renaud Moisson-Leclerc – http://www.flickr.com/photos/53992746@N00/
trashpo21 – http://www.flickr.com/photos/p_o/

Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister, has threatened to send in paramilitary police to stop rioters who torched cars, trashed stores and injured police and others on the fringes of nationwide protests. Officials, however, declared the protests were on the wane even before the Senate is due to approve Mr Sarkozy’s bill to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and full pension entitlement from 65 to 67 on Thursday evening, after which he is banking on the strike movement fizzling out despite its huge popular support. He also hopes that school holidays next week will put a stop to pupil protests. He said more than 1,400 people have been detained for such violence over the past week.

French oil workers expanded a strike yesterday over government plans to raise the retirement age, while European discontent over belt-tightening measures flared up in Portugal, Italy, and Greece. All of France’s oil refineries were on strike after two more plants voted to join the protest yesterday. The government deployed police to force the reopening of several fuel depots that had been blocked, raising concerns of possible gas shortages. French students clashed with police and labor leaders planned more demonstrations today and Tuesday.

Financial markets tumbled as protests erupted across Europe at the human cost of painful cuts as new EU rules to prevent national governments bowing to pressure over unpopular cuts were tabled in Brussels. The European Commission, concerned that some eurozone governments are wavering in the face of mass protests yesterday (WEDS) moved to introduce huge fines if national governments failed bring their public spending within levels set by the EU. Spain was gripped by a general strike, in Greece doctors and rail workers walked out and the Irish parliament was blocked with a cement truck to protest at the high cost of bank bailouts at a time of deep cuts to public spending. Brussels was paralysed by 100,000 trade union demonstrators from 24 countries, including Britain. As protests mounted, the European Commission proposed new measures threatening euro zone countries, such as Spain and Ireland, with multi-billion fines if they did not hold firm on budget cuts aimed to stop a Greek-style debt crisis tearing the European single currency apart.

A white transit police officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Thursday in the videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man that triggered a night of rioting in Oakland, California. The defendant in the racially charged trial, Johannes Mehserle, 28, testified that he mistakenly drew his pistol instead of his electric Taser weapon and shot Oscar Grant, 22, while trying to subdue him during a New Year’s Day 2009 confrontation. But prosecutors said in closing arguments that Mehserle “lost all control” and intentionally shot Grant because he was resisting arrest.

Police cracked down on anti-G20 demonstrators Sunday, bringing weekend arrests to more than 600 as they tried to prevent a repeat of Saturday’s violence and vandalism near the global leaders’ summit. Advocates for some of those arrested said protesters had been the victims of police brutality. As the summit wrapped up, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose government spent more than $1 billion on security, said the violence Saturday was caused by “a few thugs” who are attracted to summits.