This document is a response to the Public Engagement on Police Use of Water Cannon (Greater London Authority / Mayor of London / London Assembly) consultation and its implications for developments across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as mainland Europe and beyond.
Ekklesia’s paper sets out reasons for regarding the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) proposal to introduce the use of water cannon in London as a dangerous and retrograde step.
It spells out the preferability of service, community and consent-based models of policing over force and coercion-based ones, and ends by outlining the contours of further research and consultation into nonviolent police methods, resourced by praxis among Christians and others.
Focus on water cannon and weaponisation is a ultimately a huge distraction from the real task: which is to move from containment to engagement, from kettling to cooperation, in approaches to policing that enable rather than block public assembly and manifestation.
* Read the full document here (*.PDF Adobe Acrobat document, 5pp, 117kb): http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/files/police_use_of_water_cannon_and_policing_disorder.pdf