CROWD CONTROL: WHAT IS KETTLING?
May 24, 2012
CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/05/24/f-kettling.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/05/is-kettling-a-valid-police-tactic.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/05/24/montreal-arrests-kettling.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/05/16/g20-policing-report.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/05/17/g20-officers-discipline.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/05/13/pol-rcmp-watchdog-report-g8-g20-toronto-2010.html
When police in Montreal kettled student protesters, they were using a controversial crowd control method that has led to complaints of human rights violations, but one that has also been called the "least intrusive and most effective" tactic available to officers.
The Montreal incident came almost two years after police in Toronto boxed in hundreds of people for hours in the rain during the G20 summit in Toronto.
WHAT IS KETTLING?
Kettling is a police tactic to control crowds where officers surround a group of people on all sides. In some instances, police direct protesters toward a predetermined location. As the crowd grows, the police presence tightens around them.
Police control access to the location and decide how to allow people to leave, perhaps through a predetermined spot.
WHERE DOES THE TERM COME FROM?
The use of the word kettle in this instance is based on the German word "kessel" — a cauldron, or kettle — to describe an encircled army about to be annihilated by a superior force, according to a BBC report tied to uses of the crowd-control technique in the U.K.
The analogy is that for soldiers in the kettle, it would quickly become unbearably hot.
POINT OF VIEW
IS KETTLING A VALID POLICE TACTIC?
More than 500 surrounded by police and arrested in Montreal Various other interpretations surround the term. Security expert Mal Geer told the BBC that kettling is so-called because "it takes the steam out of a potentially violent situation."
But, the BBC noted, a G20 protester in London had another view: "Kettling means keeping people inside an area until they are boiling with rage."
WHERE HAS IT BEEN USED?
Kettling has been deployed by police forces in several jurisdictions, particularly in Europe, over the past 15 years.
One of the higher-profile instances took place during an anti-globalization protest in London, England, in 2001. That demonstration at Oxford Circus saw more than 1,500 people held for several hours.
WHY IS IT CONTROVERSIAL?
Kettling has sparked complaints of human rights violations and been criticized because law-abiding citizens and bystanders who may not be protesting have sometimes found themselves trapped behind the police lines.
Questions also surround the length of time a kettling may last, and the lack of access to water, food and toilets.
WHAT IS THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE?
The use of kettling during the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010 became very controversial.
On the evening of June 27, Ontario and city police boxed in about 400 people at Queen Street and Spadina Avenue. The incident has since been examined in various reviews and reports.
An internal Toronto police report recommended that the use of kettling — a term the report itself did not use — for containing people be modified, especially to leave an exit point when people are boxed in.
Ian McPhail, vice-chair and interim chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, has said that once RCMP officers arrived at the scene in Toronto, the commander in charge raised a number of questions about the strategy.
"He was concerned about the nature of 'kettling' because that's not RCMP policy," McPhail said in an interview, noting that when it comes to crowd control, RCMP policy is to provide an exit.
A recent report by Ontario's police watchdog criticized Toronto police for using kettling during the G20, and noted that it was deployed on at least 10 occasions during the protests.
The Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) recommended that police allow more time and use better technology to provide warnings to disperse a crowd before kettling or arresting people.
The police order to keep the group of protesters, bystanders and even some journalists boxed in at Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue "in a severe rainstorm that included thunder and lightning was unreasonable, unnecessary and unlawful," according to the OIPRD report.
It violated the detainees' constitutional right against arbitrary detention and was negligent, the 276-page report says.
WHAT HAVE COURTS SAID?
In March 2012, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the 2001 kettling in London was "least intrusive and most effective" tactic available to officers, the Guardian newspaper reported.
The case was the "most significant among a host of legal challenges to the crowd control technique," the Guardian reported.
The Guardian quoted the ruling: "Moreover, again on the basis of the facts found by the trial judge, the court is unable to identify a moment when the measure changed from what was, at most, a restriction on freedom of movement to a deprivation of liberty."
RELATED STORIES
Is kettling a valid police tactic?
G20 report clears RCMP but raises questions over 'kettling'
External Links
OIPRD report on G20 policing
Report on RCMP role at G8/G20 summits
Toronto Police Service After-Action Review
Montreal kittling 6:04
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IS KETTLING A VALID POLICE TACTIC?
Community Team
May 24, 2012
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/05/is-kettling-a-valid-police-tactic.html
comments51
Montreal and Quebec provincial police surrounded and kettled protesters in Montreal Wednesday night, arresting 518 people, the largest mass arrest since the demonstrations began.
Police arrest protesters early Thursday morning after a march against tuition fee hikes in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/CP)Kettling is a police tactic widely used in Europe where riot police surround demonstrators and limit or cut off their exits. Critics say kettling often results in the scooping up of innocent bystanders as well as offenders.
The police say they kettled demonstrators because some in the crowd threw rocks at officers. "Their physical integrity was in jeopardy," said Const. Daniel Lacoursiere of the Montreal police. "That's why all these arrests were made at the corner of St-Denis and Sherbrooke."
A recent report by Ontario's police watchdog blasted Toronto police for their use of the tactic during the G20 summit two years ago, saying they violated civil rights, detained people illegally and used excessive force.
Kettling was used on at least 10 occasions during the G20 protests, the report said. The Toronto police senior officer who ordered the kettling of protestors was among 45 officers who are facing misconduct charges.
The Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) recommended that police allow more time and use better technology to provide warnings to disperse a crowd before kettling or arresting people.
A separate report by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) found that the Mounties' role in the G20 kettling was not consistent with RCMP policy. CPC vice-chair Ian McPhail said that RCMP policy on crowd control is to provide an exit.
Is kettling a valid police tactic? Should there be limits on its use? Let us know what you think.
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“The phrase kettling is a translation from the german word used to describe the police tactic in the 60's known as the Hamburger Kessel.
www.wordnik.com/words/
http://www.wordorigins.org/
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KETTLING
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettling
Kettling (also known as containment or corralling)[1] is a police tactic for controlling large crowds during demonstrations or protests. It involves the formation of large cordons of police officers who then move to contain a crowd within a limited area. Protesters are left only one choice of exit, determined by the police, or are completely prevented from leaving.
TACTICS
The term "kettle" is a metaphor, likening the containment of protestors to the containment of heat and steam within a domestic kettle. Its modern English usage may come from "kessel" - literally a cauldron, or kettle in German - that describes an encircled army about to be annihilated by a superior force.[4] A cauldron is expected to be "boiling" with combat activity, the large enemy forces still quite able to offer "hot" resistance in the initial stages of encirclement, and so are to be contained, but not engaged directly.
To avoid allusions to military confrontation, kettling is sometimes described as "corralling," likening the tactic to the enclosure of livestock. Although large groups are difficult to control, this can be done by concentrations of police. The tactic prevents the large group breaking into smaller splinters that have to be individually chased down, thus requiring the policing to break into multiple groups.[5] Once the kettle has been formed, the cordon is tightened, which may include the use of baton charges to restrict the territory occupied by the protesters. The cordon is then maintained for a number of hours: the ostensible aim is to leave would-be "violent" protesters too tired to do anything but want to go home.[6]
Kettling has been criticized for being an indiscriminate tactic which leads to the detention of law-abiding citizens and innocent bystanders.[7] In some cases protesters are reported to have been denied access to food, water and toilet facilities for long periods.[2] Further criticism has been made that in some instances the tactic has been used to foment disorder with the aim of changing the focus of public debate.[8] In some countries the tactic has led to legal challenges on the grounds of human rights violations.
CANADA
On June 27, 2010, 200 persons, including protesters and bystanders, were kettled in Toronto at the intersection of Queen St. and Spadina Ave. during the G20 summit. Several hundred people were also kettled outside of the Novotel Hotel on the Esplanade and arrested.[9] The following year the Toronto Police Department swore to never use kettling again.[10]
On March 15, 2011, 250–300 protesters in Montreal were kettled on St-Denis just north of Mont Royal during the Annual March Against Police Brutality. Police used stun grenades, riot gear, and horses to kettle the crowd.[11]
On May 23, 2012, police in Montreal moved in on student protesters, kettling them and making 518 arrests — the largest number in one night since the demonstrations began weeks earlier. [12]
GERMANY
An early example of kettling was by German police in 1986. During a demonstration by anti-nuclear protestors at Heiligengeistfeld, Hamburg on 8 May, Hamburg Police cordoned approximately 800 people into a "kettle" for several hours.[16][17] German kettling tactics distinguish a stationary form of detention (Polizeikessel) and a mobile form, in which protestors are enclosed by a mobile police cordon while they march (Wanderkessel).[18] These types of police cordon were also regularly used in the UK before the tactic got refined at the N30 protest (see below), and dubbed a kettle.
Kettling has been challenged in the German courts on several occasions. The 1986 Hamburger Kessel was ruled unlawful by the administrative court of Hamburg. The district court found German police guilty of wrongful deprivation of personal liberty.
Following an anti-nuclear protest in 2002 in Hitzacker, Lower Saxony, a protestor took a case to court because she had been denied access to toilets when she was held within a police kettle. The district court found that she had been handled inhumanely and that the police had acted unlawfully.[19]
UNITED KINGDOM
Parliament Square Disability Rights Demonstration,1995The kettling tactic was used in the UK against disabled people during a Disability Rights Demonstration in Parliament Square, London October 1995. [21]
G20, 2009Kettling was used once again during the 2009 G-20 London summit protests outside the Bank of England, as part of the police Territorial Support Group's "Operation Glencoe".[2] When police started to allow protesters to leave the kettle, they were photographed by Forward Intelligence Teams and told to give their names and addresses (which they are legally not required to do). Some refused to do so and were forced back into the kettle by police.[24] A number of complaints over the tactic were subsequently made to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.[25] Bob Broadhurst, the commanding officer during the protests, said that, "kettling was the best option" to counter the potential of widespread disruption by protesters".[26]
On April 15, 2009, Scotland Yard ordered a review of these tactics. Criticism of the policing of demonstrations has been increasing, and amateur video footage which recorded two incidents of violent police behaviour, notably the death of Ian Tomlinson, brought police tactics into the media spotlight. The incidents were said by Sir Paul Stephenson, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to be "clearly disturbing",[27] and Stephenson ordered the review to consider whether the tactic is "appropriate and proportionate".[27] The video footage also showed that police officers were concealing their shoulder identification numbers whilst on duty.[28]
An inquiry was held by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into an incident during the G20 protests, in which a woman held in a kettle suffered injuries from police action and subsequently experienced a suspected miscarriage. The inquiry concluded in August 2009 that the Metropolitan Police should review its crowd control methods, including the tactic of kettling.[29]
Denis O'Connor, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said in a report concerning the policing of the G20 protests that some police commanders did not understand the House of Lords' ruling regarding kettling. He also stated that containing protestors in a kettle was "inadequate" and belonged to a "different era" of policing. He did not suggest that kettling should be abandoned however, but said that the methods must be adapted so that peaceful protesters and bystanders are able to leave the kettle.[30] The report also commissioned a survey, conducted by MORI which found that the majority of the UK public do feel that the use of kettling is appropriate in some situations. Depending on the circumstances, between 10% and 20% of those questioned feel that it is never appropriate to contain people in this way.[31]
In April 2011, the High Court of Justice ruled that kettling on that occasion was illegal, and it set out new guidelines as to when police were permitted to kettle protesters.[32] This means that the police "may only take such preventive action as a last resort catering for situations about to descend into violence".[33] Police would still legally be allowed to kettle if they had reason to believe that violence would break out.[original research?]
Student protests, 2010Kettling was used during the 24 November 2010 student protest in London and in various other locations around the country. Guardian blogger Dave Hill thought the kettling was in retrospect "probably inevitable", after the protest two weeks before had led to damage at the Conservative party headquarters.[34] In July 2011 three school children will challenge the use of kettling of children at this protest. They will seek a Judicial Review in the High Court, arguing it broke broke the laws of the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Children Act 2004, mainly the right to protest and the safety of children.[35]
Kettling was used to contain student protesters in Parliament Square on 9 December 2010 and thereafter on Westminster Bridge.[36] Protesters were trapped in Trafalgar Square and other landmarks for up to nine hours. An anaesthetist from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary working as part of a field hospital said that there was a serious health and safety risk to people trapped in the kettle and some suffered crush injuries whilst others were nearly pushed off of Westminster Bridge into the freezing Thames, likening it to the Hillsborough disaster.[37]
Anti-Cuts protests, 2011Kettling was again used at the March 2011 anti-cuts protest in London. Activists were given assurances by Metropolitan police that they would be shown to safety after the protest, which was described as non-violent and sensible. Once outside, the protesters were kettled, handcuffed and taken into custody.[38]
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On pourrait aussi traduire par SOURICIÈRE ou technique du violeur. La fille est dans un recoin et le violeur la laisse deviner en prenant tout son temps ce qui peut lui arriver.
