Summit policing

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Use of a Molotov cocktail against police units at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in 2007

Summit policing ( English as: "police management of protests against summits" ) is a police tactic for bigger stakes in demonstrations , protests , street battles and blockades , which, unlike the since the 1970s prevailing years so-called management Negotiated ( English as: "Managemement the event through negotiation ” ) and rather relies on repression and militarization. However, since the police also act preventively , it is a double-functional measure .

Since around 2003 and after the protests against the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community in Vancouver in 1997 and the so-called Battle of Seattle in 1999, at which globalization critics prevented the planned ministerial conference of economic and trade ministers of the WTO , there have been major demonstrations and protest events against Summit events of international institutions have replaced the police concept of negotiated management with that of summit policing , which, especially in the United States, is also known as command and control or strategic incapacitation ( English for example: "strategic weakening" ).

It goes beyond traditional notions of police work during protests, focuses on militarization, the enforcement of criminal law and is described as a reaction to a new repertoire of actions by previously unknown groups of demonstrators. Strategic incapacitation is a partial return to the early police style of escalated force ( English escalated violence ) of the late 1960s . In the US, First Amendment rights are given lower priority and arrests and the use of force are no longer considered a last resort. There is also less communication with less known and more disruptive activists, they are more likely to be arrested and subjected to police violence. Summit policing can be understood as both state influence on the image of activists and an attack on political and civil rights .

development

The sociologist Peter Ullrich stated in 2012 that since the 1960s there had been a “ civilization ” of the police's handling of protests. The police's respect for democratic rights has increased, and minor violations of the law have been tolerated in order to defuse the overall situation in a pragmatic sense. Protest researchers like Donatella della Porta , who dealt with protest policing , had, however, since around 2000 expressed the fear of an “authoritarian-repressive turn”. In this change, "after decades of pacifying the police's handling of protests", "a new tendency to repressive handling of protesters" can now be seen. She has been observed since “ Seattle ” and the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 , at which the protester Carlo Giuliani was shot. The underlying issues are those of the environmental protection movement and those that, like the criticism of capitalism , austerity politics or globalization, have a connection to the financial crisis from 2007 or the euro crisis .

Use of pepper spray as a " less lethal weapon " in Seattle on November 30, 1999

The emergence of the anti-globalization movement has been evident since the end of the 1990s in a new, transnational wave of protests aimed specifically at international summit events such as the World Trade Organization , the World Bank , the International Monetary Fund and the G7 , G8 and G20 groups. Their activities are perceived and criticized as the transfer of national decisions to supranational organizations. The government's response was in a new police model and that so-called with the establishment of "red zones", the increased equipment with non-lethal weapons , the establishment of databases on traveling demonstrators, the use of special forces for counterinsurgency and military such protests effectively counter.

The police management of protests differs between continents and countries, it depends on the respective legal system. Protests against summit meetings come from different national and regional (anti-globalization) groups, which are also treated differently by the police units, whereby the institutionalization of the protest groups seems to be a decisive factor. For example, trade unions may be treated differently than disorganized groups. Differences in police action can u. a. also be based on the experience and organizational culture and structure of the police units, and the political culture of the country concerned. The way the police deal with protests is an important issue if one wants to understand the relationship between social movements and the state, as the police officers are perceived as representatives of the state, their actions determine the perception of the rulers in the eyes of the protesters and, on the other hand, waves of protests as well act on the police.

Police measures

Video surveillance at the G-20 Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy 2009 in London
Barrier measures around the European Central Bank at Blockupy 2013

According to Ullrich , the repertoire of police measures in this regard includes demonstration and residence bans, denial of access to the primary events, reinforcement , information generation, " inclusive accompaniment " and video surveillance of demonstrators. The latter cause insecurity and discourage participation, but on the other hand produce “feelings of exclusion and stigmatization” that could incite the participants' potential for aggression. This would blur the lines between crime prevention and repression.

Petzold and Pichl stated in the Kriminologische Journal 2013 , using the example of Blockupy , that summit policing is a strategy of “social control of dissent”. The police would increasingly work with prognostic techniques in order to be able to identify potential troublemakers , try to gain the authority to interpret the situation through communication management and create a permanent state of emergency that would be contrary to civil rights . In Germany this means, among other things, controls in advance, police cauldrons , selective attacks against demonstrators, the “provision of strong forces capable of dominating at any time” and the creation of spaces for the purpose of criminalizing and controlling activists .

"Red zones", taking possession and rededication of public space

Map of the land use of the city during the G8 summit in Genoa 2001 : yellow zone with limited access and red zone with very restricted access.

This could be done by cordoning off entire zones with police grids as well as using evidence preservation and arrest units , cavalry units , clearing tanks and water cannons . Activists would be kept away from the scene and sealed off. This will temporarily transform public spaces into no-go areas (“red zones”) to which the general public has no or only limited access, regardless of whether they want to protest or not. This boils down to a "struggle" for public space; for example, in 1999 the mayor of Seattle was able to set up a protest-free zone around the convention center under emergency law and impose a night curfew . At the third America Summit in Québec in 2001 , the authorities erected a four-kilometer-long and three-meter high steel and concrete fence around a public area that could only be entered by delegates from the summit and its residents. This restriction of a public forum can be seen as an expression of the privatization of public space in neoliberalism .

Difficulty access, geographic relocation, police cauldrons

Furthermore, it is possible to deny protesters access to the city or even the country of the summit via border controls or to make it more difficult and to relocate the venues beyond physical security to remote areas where mass protests are to be made impossible, as has been the case since the G8 Summit in Genoa at the G8 summit in Kananaskis in 2002 , the G8 summit in Évian-les-Bains in 2003, at the G8 summit in Gleneagles in 2005 and at the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau in 2015 . While this approach was successful in Kananaskis, Canada , it did not prevent protests either in Gleneagles or at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in 2007 . Countermeasures by the demonstrators can be the demonstration concept out of control and the five-finger tactic , which provide for small groups to flow around or bypass the police chains. In addition, the method can lead to the geographical relocation of the protest events, as has been the case since 2006 at the World Economic Forum in Davos . Demonstrating directly in Davos in 2006 meant being searched by the Swiss Federal Police and included in an extremist database created by them. The creation of no-go areas can therefore also be accompanied by the establishment of an official, controlled and limited protest zone, which is located kilometers away from the site of the summit. Police cauldrons appeared on various occasions, for example at the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010 .

Police equipment, arms and international cooperation

An SEC -Polizist with helmet, body armor, Pepper Ball -Gewehr, bamboo floor and service weapon

The introduction of POMS ( Public Order Management Systems ), initially in the United States, also included new police equipment and technologies.

Since about 1970, sophisticated communication systems, new protective equipment (were body armor , helmets with plexiglass visors ) and weapons ( batons , rubber bullets , CS gas , pepper spray introduced). Sonic cannons were carried but not used at the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010 , shock grenades were used alongside pepper spray, rubber bullets and tear gas in Seattle in 1999 and at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009. Rubber bullets were also used in 2000 in Washington, DC during protests against a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank .

In addition to its distribution in the United States, international training is also taking place on POMS, for example in Indonesia. Similarly, American and French specialists trained Mexican elite units to prepare them for the 2004 EU-Latin America Summit in Mexico. An Italian special unit that was responsible for an attack on opponents of the G8 summit in Genoa had previously been trained by police officers in Los Angeles.

Media campaigns

Media campaigns and press conferences by the police, including with the use of embedded journalists , can begin in advance of a summit event, with the aim of presenting police measures, justifying them and warning of the dangers of the protests with the help of unusual threat scenarios, such as this was the case before the World Economic Forum in 2002. The media representation of militarized police actions already weakens the protest before the event.

If the arrival of foreign demonstrators is expected, nationalistic and xenophobic feelings of the local population as well as fears of anarchists and terrorists can be fueled and exploited. For example, before the EU ceremony on May 1, 2004 in Dublin , warnings were given of the possible arrival of 15,000 European and London anarchists ( WOMBLES ) and an associated bloodbath. In fact, around 5,000 demonstrators came and there was no bloodbath.

The police benefit from the fact that the mass media, serious or associated with the boulevard , preferentially report on the topic of violence at summit meetings, whether it is expected, does not occur or actually takes place. During the photographic portrayal of Carlo Giuliani's death in Genoa in 2001, it was noticeable that the selection of photos in the press selectively portrayed Giuliani as the perpetrator attacking police officers with a fire extinguisher rather than showing the body lying in a pool of blood and run over by the police jeep. It is part of the “business” of the media to prefer to report on dramatic and violence-related events, preferring to rely on official sources such as police statements, which can detract from the origin of the protests and distort the image of the demonstrators.

Extension of the term terrorism

Since around 1999 the term “ terrorist ” has been expanded to include militant animal rights activists (Animal Liberation Front) and environmental activists, right up to opponents of globalization. In the United States, “the right to protest was merged with the threat of terrorism”, and in Europe too there was an attempt by security agencies to equate anti-globalization activists or, in England, environmental activists with (future) terrorists. At the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in 2007, the German police went further than other countries in using the term “terrorist threat” - they justified preventive raids on opponents of globalization by claiming that they had established a new terrorist group. This reduced what was actually a political conflict to a problem of police work.

More options

A protester was arrested at the G-20 Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy 2009 in London

Other options for summit policing include moving the summit to an authoritarian country in which open political protest is not tolerated , for example in Qatar (see Doha Round ) or, as in Singapore, only under highly regulated conditions.

Political activists can be increasingly monitored and harassed, up to preventive arrest and temporary suspension of political and democratic rights. The provision of 700 free prison cells in case of need happened, for example, in 2005 at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong .

The repertoire of the summit policing also includes the mistreatment of prisoners and the blocking of demonstrations. Their police infiltration, also by agents provocateurs , could be observed in Heiligendamm in 2007: Police officers disguised as members of the black bloc began to throw stones at their uniformed colleagues. Although they could be exposed by demonstrators, which stopped the stone throwing, the regular emergency services launched a defensive attack with a water cannon, so that the goal of provocation was achieved.

The disruption of places where protesters meet, sleep, eat and exchange information, as well as their electronic monitoring for information gathering are other police means.

Depending on the jurisdiction of the country concerned, military assistance is also requested, as was the case in 2004 in Dublin and in 2002 at the G8 summit in Kananaskis. In Germany, the use of the armed forces inside is subject to severe restrictions.

See also

literature

  • Donatella Della Porta, Herbert Reiter (Ed.): Policing Protest . The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1998, ISBN 0-8166-3064-X .
  • Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse : Politics of Globalization . Policing Anti-globalization Protests: Patterns and Variations in State Responses. A New Pattern of Summit Policing? SAGE Publications , Los Angeles 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , chap. 9 , p. 197-206 .
  • Tino Petzold, Maximilian Pichl: Spaces of exceptional rights: State space productions in the crisis using the example of the Blockupy Action Days 2012 . In: Criminological Journal . 45th year, no. 3 , 2013, ISSN  0341-1966 , p. 211-227 .
  • Lesley J. Wood: Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing . Pluto Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7453-3388-5 .

Web links

Commons : Demonstrations and protests against the G8  - Collection of images
Commons : Demonstrations and protests against the G-20 major economies  - Collection of images
Commons : Demonstrations and protests against Summits of the Americas  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy, Volume 15, Issue 3, 2005: From Negotiated Management to Command and Control: How the New York Police Department Polices Protests . doi: 10.1080 / 10439460500168592 , editorial and abstract.
  2. ↑ Explanation of the term in the Encyclopædia Britannica
  3. ^ A b c Lesley J. Wood: Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing . Pluto Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7453-3388-5 , pp. 25 .
  4. ^ A b Lesley J. Wood: Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing . Pluto Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7453-3388-5 , pp. 26-27 .
  5. ↑ Tómas Mac Sheoin, Nicola Yeates: Politics of Globalization . Accounting for Summit Policing: From Negotiated Management to Strategic Incapacitation. Ed .: Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse. SAGE Publications India, New Delhi 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , pp. 204 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ^ A b John Noakes, Patrick F. Gillham in :: The Policing of Transnational Protest . Ed .: Donatella Della Porta, Abby Peterson, Herbert Reiter. Ashgate Publishing , Aldershot 2006, ISBN 0-7546-2676-8 , pp. 99–101, 103 (English, excerpt [PDF; 512 kB ]).
  7. ↑ Tómas Mac Sheoin, Nicola Yeates: Politics of Globalization . Accounting for Summit Policing: From Negotiated Management to Strategic Incapacitation. Ed .: Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse. SAGE Publications India, New Delhi 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , pp. 204 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Tómas Mac Sheoin, Nicola Yeates: Politics of Globalization . Policing Anti-globalization Protests: Patterns and Variations in State Responses. A New Pattern of Summit Policing? Ed .: Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse. SAGE Publications India, New Delhi 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , pp. 197-201 . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ↑ Tino Petzold, Maximilian Pichl: Spaces of Exceptional Law: State Space Production in Crisis using the Example of the Blockupy Action Days 2012 . In: Criminological Journal . 45th year, no. 3 , 2013, ISSN  0341-1966 , p. 215 .
  10. ↑ a b c Peter Ullrich: The repressive moment of the crisis. Are we experiencing a return to authoritarian conflict resolution? In: WZB Mitteilungen . No. 137 , 2012, p. 35–37 ( The repressive moment of the crisis. Are we experiencing a return to authoritarian conflict resolution? [PDF]). The repressive moment of the crisis. Are we experiencing a return to authoritarian conflict resolution? ( Memento from May 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ A b John Noakes, Patrick F. Gillham in :: The Policing of Transnational Protest . Ed .: Donatella Della Porta, Abby Peterson, Herbert Reiter. Ashgate Publishing , Aldershot 2006, ISBN 0-7546-2676-8 , pp. 113 (English, excerpt [PDF; 512 kB ]).
  12. ^ A b c d Lesley J. Wood: Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing . Pluto Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7453-3388-5 , pp. 27 .
  13. ↑ Donatella Della Porta, Herbert Reiter (Ed.): Policing Protest . The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1998, ISBN 0-8166-3064-X , pp. 10 .
  14. ↑ Donatella Della Porta, Herbert Reiter (Ed.): Policing Protest . The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1998, ISBN 0-8166-3064-X , pp. 11 .
  15. ↑ a b Tómas Mac Sheoin, Nicola Yeates: Politics of Globalization . Accounting for Summit Policing: From Negotiated Management to Strategic Incapacitation. Ed .: Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse. SAGE Publications India, New Delhi 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , pp. 205 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  16. ↑ Donatella Della Porta, Herbert Reiter (Ed.): Policing Protest . The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1998, ISBN 0-8166-3064-X , pp. 1 .
  17. ↑ Tino Petzold, Maximilian Pichl: Spaces of Exceptional Law: State Space Production in Crisis using the Example of the Blockupy Action Days 2012 . In: Criminological Journal . 45th year, no. 3 , 2013, ISSN  0341-1966 , p. 213-217, 220-221 .
  18. ↑ Tino Petzold, Maximilian Pichl: Spaces of Exceptional Law: State Space Production in Crisis using the Example of the Blockupy Action Days 2012 . In: Criminological Journal . 45th year, no. 3 , 2013, ISSN  0341-1966 , p. 213-217, 220-221 .
  19. ↑ “ Heiligendamm is locked. An isolated district of Bad Doberan, a high-security zone, surrounded by a twelve-kilometer-long fence, guarded by thousands of police officers, until one day after the conclusion of the G-8 summit on June 8th, only passable with authorization cards at two checkpoints. Hotel employees and suppliers are allowed to go through and of course the around 280 residents of Heiligendamm. “In: G-8 protection: Heiligendamm ready for the onlookers. In: Spiegel.de. May 30, 2007, accessed April 30, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Mike Schier: Concern about G7: Herrmann announces border controls. In: merkur-online.de. March 20, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015 .
  21. ↑ a b Tony Blair : “… again forces the politicians to isolate themselves from the protest if possible. After the Genoa summit in 2001, the [G8 / G20] meetings tended to take place in remote places where it is not so easy to be disturbed: Évian in France… ” in: Mein Weg. Bertelsmann, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-570-10071-4 , p. 604.
  22. ↑ Not everything under control yet, Tagesspiegel of January 28, 2008
  23. ^ "Five-finger tactics" - that's how they got to the fence of the Hamburger Abendblatt on June 7, 2007
  24. ^ Lesley J. Wood: Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing . Pluto Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7453-3388-5 , pp. 36 .
  25. ^ Lesley J. Wood: Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing . Pluto Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7453-3388-5 , pp. 37 .
  26. ^ John Noakes, Patrick F. Gillham in :: The Policing of Transnational Protest . Ed .: Donatella Della Porta, Abby Peterson, Herbert Reiter. Ashgate Publishing , Aldershot 2006, ISBN 0-7546-2676-8 , pp. 110 (English, excerpt [PDF; 512 kB ]).
  27. ^ Lesley J. Wood: Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing . Pluto Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7453-3388-5 , pp. 32-35 .
  28. ↑ Tómas Mac Sheoin, Nicola Yeates: Politics of Globalization . Accounting for Summit Policing: From Negotiated Management to Strategic Incapacitation. Ed .: Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse. SAGE Publications India, New Delhi 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , pp. 205 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  29. ^ Lesley J. Wood: Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing . Pluto Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7453-3388-5 , pp. 40 .
  30. ↑ (White Overall Movement Building Liberation through Effective Struggle)
  31. ↑ related photo, protected by copyright
  32. ↑ Image of the dead, protected by copyright
  33. ↑ Tómas Mac Sheoin, Nicola Yeates: Politics of Globalization . Accounting for Summit Policing: From Negotiated Management to Strategic Incapacitation. Ed .: Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse. SAGE Publications India, New Delhi 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , pp. 208 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  34. ↑ Donatella Della Porta, Herbert Reiter (Ed.): Policing Protest . The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1998, ISBN 0-8166-3064-X , pp. 19 .
  35. ^ "... prison cells were prepared to house 700 prisoners ..." in: Tómas Mac Sheoin, Nicola Yeates: Politics of Globalization . Policing Anti-globalization Protests: Patterns and Variations in State Responses. A New Pattern of Summit Policing? Ed .: Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse. SAGE Publications India, New Delhi 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , pp. 231 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  36. ↑ Tómas Mac Sheoin, Nicola Yeates: Politics of Globalization . Policing Anti-globalization Protests: Patterns and Variations in State Responses. A New Pattern of Summit Policing? Ed .: Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse. SAGE Publications India, New Delhi 2009, ISBN 978-81-321-0255-7 , pp. 203 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  37. ↑ “ Around 5,000 police officers and up to 2,500 soldiers were deployed to ensure that everything ran smoothly. “In: Large contingent police and military. 7,000 soldiers guard the EU ceremony in Dublin. In: RP online. May 1, 2004, accessed May 3, 2015 .
  38. ↑ Shirley Paré, Vern Neufeld Redekop: Beyond Control: A Mutual Respect Approach to Protest Crowd - Police Relations . Bloomsbury Academic, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-84966-017-4 , pp. 80 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).