The policing of the demo in Glasgow on the 15th Feb was heavy-handed, I think deliberately so. The unprecedented number of Forward Intelligance Teams and the 2 arbitrary arrests imply the start of a pre-G8 crackdown on peaceful protest. So at the die-in outside Glasow's Army Recruitment Office on the 15th, there were 3 Forward Intelligence Teams to cover the 100 or so protesters. A FIT team is two cops stood by a not-cop with a video camera who spends the time filming people at a demo. If you speak, if you, stand, if you chat, if you walk, if you sit, they film you. They're not there to prevent trouble, they aren't there to provide evidence (solely), they are there to intimidate. Folk get nervous and defensive round cameras even though they are not doing anything wrong. The sheer number of cops was silly as well. I counted at lesat 5 vans, mounted polis were present and the brave lads of the Army Recruitement Corps had took the day off work and got the cops to set up a barricade in front of their office. That's not the kind of Troops Out we were after but it's a start. After singing, spraying each other with (tasty) fake blood and listening to the lady with the megaphone we get in the road and sit for about 10 minutes. It's a nice day for it. A man in a suit tells us (very loudly) to be quiet. Does he not normally hear the rush hour traffic we stopped? When we're back off the road, while a bunch of announcements are made over the megaphone, a group of individuals start suggesting that people might like to go on a wee walk, see some other Glasgow sights, maybe the MOD building on Argyle St or the Labour Party HQ. So off everyone trots onto Buchanan St, singing a bit and laughing a lot at the cops jogging to get in front of us. No-one announced anything through a megaphone or asked their permission to move, so after their leisurely hour's intimidation they're suddenly the ones on the defensive. Simply because they aren't sure what we're up to. We know, we're just walking. But we weren't certain enough where we were going, so at Argyle St we get forced left instead of right and we're in single file going round in a circle. "Whose Pavements? Our Pavements!" no-one chants. Back at Royal Exchange Square (aka Square 1). Things get "exciting" and an arrest is made. It's a student who hadn't intended to attend the protest, just joined it as he passed. The following conversation is overheard: "Why did they arrest him?" "Cos of his warrant" "What's the warrant for?" "Not warrant, WAND." He was carrying a piece of driftwood the size and sharpness of a pencil. It was a nice looking thing but it's going to look pretty stupid in a plastic evidence bag. Not as stupid as the arresting officer in court though. Except it's unlikely to go that far. The law on "offensive weapons" states that you can be lifted for carrying anything they don't like but they are under no obligation to go to court with it, so likely there'll no comeback for the wrongful arrest this plainly was. At the same time, the lady with the meagphone gets bundled into a van. What's she charged with? The officer doesn't know. Fuck it, they can make something up while they're waiting at the traffic lights. I'm kind of getting to my point here. The fact that they arrested the perceived "leader" and an inexperienced, unattached protester says to me that it was a deliberate attempt to intimidate the rest of the protesters and get us to disperse, defeated and depressed. The 3 FIT teams are an attempt to identify the "leaders" of protests against the G8 and the more they can scare off "ordinary" citizens from expressing their opinions the better. What can we do to counter this? We need to be looking out for each other on demos, even the people we don't know. And the fact that we all went off to Stuart St police station to show solidarity is encouraging. We should've been there longer though. Singing and drumming so they two could hear that we were outside for them, not fucking off to the pub so the lawyer can cut a deal. The police can claim that they won't let them out till we've gone but it only takes 2 of them to process an arrest and they couldn't afford the overtime on a line of 20 for very long. When did the two get out? No-one's posted that here yet. Anyway. We can't back down in the face of Police intimidation. We have to stand up to it, call it out as unjust and laugh in its stony face. Tell us to get off the pavement? We'll climb lamposts. Tell us that a stick is an offensive weapon and we'll find you a tree to arrest. Don't think you can piss on us and tell us it's raining. Peace everyone.