ET ISSUE 2131 Monday 26 March 2001

We're ready to be tough on May Day trouble, say police By Neil Tweedie

ANTI-CAPITALIST protesters have been warned to expect a "robust" response from police if they attempt to repeat last year's May Day riot in central London.

Senior officers said the Metropolitan Police had no intention of repeating the "softly, softly" strategy that allowed rioting in the Strand, and damage to monuments in Whitehall and Parliament Square. They also warned that surveillance teams would be on the look-out for suspects from last's year's riot who had so far evaded arrest.

The Met has published photographs of more than 30 demonstrators seen taking part in the violence on May 1 2000, and the public is being asked to phone in with any information on them or their whereabouts.

Det Chief Insp Jim Dickie, who is leading the investigation into last year's violence, said: "Those people are there because there is hard evidence - mostly video evidence - that they took an active part in the disturbances last year. What we are saying to them is: We know your faces - come back and we'll be waiting for you."

Last month, Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said that anti-capitalist and anarchist groups from the Continent and possibly even America were planning to join British demonstrators in London on May 1. May Day this year is a working day, and an anti-capitalist rally in the centre of London would be expected to cause major disruption.

London has seen three major anti-capitalist disturbances in the last three years: the Stop the City riot of June 1999, the Euston demonstration in November that year, and May Day 2000. They, and similar events in Seattle and Prague, have been the product of a diffuse coalition of anarchist and environmentalist groups, such as Reclaim the Streets, and the use of the internet to co-ordinate their actions.

A demonstration this year would be sure to attract a huge police presence. Some 5,500 officers plus reserves were deployed to police last year's May Day event, the the biggest operation of its kind for 30 years. So far, 128 people have faced charges resulting from the May Day 2000 riot. Thirty-eight were been photographed, but remained unidentified, while another eight had been identified but had not been traced.

Eight others who failed to answer police bail have been circulated around the country. Police are confident that all suspects would face charges if detained because of the weight of video evidence against them.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2001