Senate House violence under investigation by IPCC

The alleged police violence at Senate House last December is now being investigated by the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC). The investigation was launched after 10 student complaints were made to the IPCC.

The investigation concerns a campus protest on 2 December 2014 when 20 Free Education campaigners gathered to protest against tuition fees. The protest was disrupted by West Midlands Police who entered and allegedly used CS spray and tasers to threaten students.

Police were called in by the University security team after a staff member was allegedly assaulted. The case of such an assault is also under investigation.

The law firm representing the Free Education campaigners, Lochlinn Parker if Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors, commented on the fact that IPCC are conducting the investigation first hand in a Guardian article: “It is relatively rare for the IPCC to launch an independent investigation, when you consider that the overwhelming majority of complaints are investigated by the local police force.”

The West Midlands Police have made no comments as of yet.

It has been claimed by students that as they were discussing issues raised regarding tuition fees and the high management wages, the police entered Senate House and dispersed the gathering by assaulting students and spraying them with CS gas.

A released video shows them grabbing students and roughly and aggressively pushing them out of the building. They are seen to hold a student by the camera strap around her neck and push her to the floor.

Anna Rivers, a third-year Literature student and one of the protesters present at time of the alleged police violence, said: “The police threatened us with Tasers and then CS gasses us, in come cases from a position of dangerously close proximity.”

In an email correspondence to all students and staff at the University, vice-chancellor Nigel Thrift wrote that the arrival of the police “was linked solely to an allegation of assault”.

He continued: “The Police indicated on arrival that if we were able to identify the individual they would have taken his details and left the matter at that. We were not able to secure that information. In their view they were left no choice but to attend the building in person.”