Kettling

For other meanings see kettle.

Riot police kettle protesters at the Camp for Climate action, part of the 2009 G-20 London summit protests

Kettling, also known as containment or corralling, is a police tactic for the management of 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, detainees can be denied access to food, water and toilet facilities for a long period. Sometimes all or some of those kettled are mass-arrested.

Tactics

The term "kettle" is a metaphor, likening the containment of violence to the containment of heat and steam within a domestic kettle. It 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 small battles. 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. Kettling has been criticized for being an indiscriminate tactic which leads to the detention of law-abiding citizens and innocent bystanders, as well as for denying detainees access to food, water and toilets. In some countries the tactic has led to legal challenges on the grounds of human rights violations.

United Kingdom

The kettling tactic was first used in the UK at the N30 anti-WTO protest at Euston station, London (parallel to the shut-down of the meeting in Seattle) on November 30th 1999. . It was a development of previously used police cordoning tactics - the difference was the long length of time, constant impermeability and the small size of the 'kettle'. The tactic was used in the UK by the London Metropolitan Police during the May Day riots of 2001 to contain demonstrators and on countless other large public order situations. However, the action also resulted in large numbers of bystanders as well as peaceful demonstrators being detained in Oxford Circus.

Kettling was later used at protests against the 31st G8 summit, held in 2005.

Following the use of "kettling" during the May Day riots in 2001, two people who had been corralled by the police at Oxford Circus sued the Metropolitan Police for wrongful detention, alleging that it was in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights, and that they had been held without access to food, water or toilets. The pair lost their court action in 2005, and their appeal failed in 2007 when the Court of Appeal backed the High Court ruling.

In 2009, a ruling by the House of Lords decided that the High Court was entitled to take into consideration the "purpose" of the deprivation of liberty before deciding if human rights laws applied at all. Summing up, Lord Hope said:

There is room, even in the case of fundamental rights as to whose application no restriction or limitation is permitted by the Convention, for a pragmatic approach which takes full account of all the circumstances.

One of the 2001 plaintiffs now plans to take her appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. It was reported:

Austin, who the court accepted was a lawful and peaceful demonstrator prevented by her detention from collecting her child, is to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights. It is to be hoped the ECHR will look again at the question of whether the "balance" and "public safety" is all on the side of allowing the police to carry out long containments or whether such imprisonment does not after all breach fundamental rights.

— Louise Christian, The Guardian

Kettling 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". 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. A number of complaints over the tactic were subsequently made to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Bob Broadhurst, the commanding officer during the protests, said that, "kettling was the best option" to counter the potential of widespread disruption by protesters".

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", and Stephenson ordered the review to consider whether the tactic is "appropriate and proportionate". The video footage also showed that police officers were concealing their shoulder identification numbers whilst on duty.

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.

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. 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.

Kettling 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. Critics point out that these protests was peaceful until the kettling started, and that kettling was the primary cause of the disorder, claiming that a riot van had been deliberately left amongst the protesters in order to incite violence that could be used to justify the kettling strategy (a sacrificial van was also used the first time kettling was used here, at the N30 protest.

Denmark

Between 250 and 1000 non-violent protestors at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen were kettled by police. A police spokesman said that the detainment was necessary to avoid disorder.

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. 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). These types of police cordon were also regularly used in the UK before the tactic got refined at the N30 protest (see above), 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.

Canada

On June 27th, 2010, after a day of violent protests, 200 non-violent protesters, journalists and passers-by were kettled in Toronto at the intersection of Queen St. and Spadina Ave. during the G20 summit. The legality of the tactic in Canada has not yet been tested.

See also

• 2009 G-20 London summit protests
• Arbitrary arrest and detention
• Crowd control
• Encirclement
• False arrest
• False imprisonment
• Forward Intelligence Team
• Habeas corpus
• Pincer movement
• Riot control
• Territorial Support Group

External links

• Youtube video of police kettling action at the 'Queen and Spadina' road junction in Toronto during the 2010 G-20 Toronto summit protests