Part 11: GaslightingAssange, Kettling as a Basis for Arbitrary Detention
by Jude Fleming, Human Rights Defender, researcher, writer, teacher
Kettling is a police tactic which is used on peaceful protesters to subdue or eliminate dissent or civil liberties including right to assemble, associate and exercise free speech. It is often part of an arsenal of police tactics which fall under the Miami Model or even more broadly, Strategic Incapacitation.
It is confusing by design. Protesters are surrounded or boxed-in by police and given two conflicting messages:
a. You are free to leave (you are not);
b. You are going to be arrested.
The arrest will happen no matter what the protester(s) do. In Assange’s case he was a solo protester and subjected to these conflicting messages. Britain’s talking points on Assange’s asylum always included both contradictory messages.
An important example of Kettling happened in downtown Toronto, Canada during the G-20 protests in various locations including the designated “free speech area”. It looked like officers from Star Wars arrived in military configurations, surrounded protesters and bystanders, kept them confined for hours, abducted a few singled-out persons of interest, maintained the kettle, arrested them all, detained them in dog cages with little food and water, charged them, put them through court proceedings and eventually dropped the charges months down the road. One man in his 50’s with a handicap was violently arrested, had his prosthetic leg ripped off, glasses ripped off, was put in an overly air conditioned dog cage with no glasses or wheelchair, fed white bread with cheese whiz and one styrofoam spilt portion of tap water without charge. He was protesting in Queen’s Park, the designated free speech area outside of a government building when this happened. (Aside, it was after June 27th, 2010 that I became a strong advocate for civil liberties and the Occupy Wall Street revolution).
Watch these videos, then apply your new perspective to the Assange arbitrary detention while he was in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, UK between June 19, 2012 and April 11, 2019. My tweets/threads and thoughts follow. (written as tweets, then copied/pasted).
Assange was KETTLED by police while he peacefully sought asylum on Ecuador’s soil. I did a Thread on this topic on April 1, 2020 to Correct the Record and end GaslightingAssange. I have done other tweets on this topic over the years, but this was the most comprehensive.
Kettling redux: Police surround an individual or group of protestors and give them mixed signals and messages about their behaviour and the consequences. ie. “You are free to leave”, even though you are surrounded by police and “You will be arrested if you don’t leave”.
If the protestors do leave, they are arrested anyway. All roads lead to arrest even though they are/were told they were free to leave. It is a police tactic which falls under the category of Strategic Incapacitation or the Miami Model. It is illegal in Canada, legal in UK.
Assange was KETTLED by police (UK Gov’t) and was never free to leave the embassy. Any question that is formulated based on UK /US propaganda that does not respect International Asylum laws or understand Kettling is a false question. GaslightingAssange
Journalists need to do some homework: Look up “KETTLING” as a police tactic, then report how the UK chose to squander British tax purse to kettle Assange, blame him and Ecuador and *Gaslight* everyone via media/press releases that Assange was “free to leave”. GaslightingAssange
Over and over again British MP’s have hammered in the lie that Assange put himself in self-inflicted arbitrary detention and was free to leave whenever he chose to face justice. For a crash course in GaslightingAssange watch every minute of this video. Assange, the victim, is blamed for taxpayer funds being allocated to kettle him. He is blamed for seeking asylum which interrupted his pristine track record of meeting bail conditions up until he feared for his life. WATCH:
Meanwhile, UK media amplified the lies. “Assange breached his bail conditions to go to the embassy and British police have guarded the building in the upmarket central London neighborhood of Knightsbridge day and night ever since, at an estimated cost of more than 10 million pounds ($15.6 million).” @Reuters
“It is completely unacceptable that the British taxpayer has had to foot the bill for this abuse of diplomatic relations,” said Swire, adding Britain still had a legal obligation to extradite Assange while the rape allegation remained outstanding. via @Reuters
“I have instructed our ambassador in Quito to reiterate to Ecuador that the continuing failure to expedite the Swedish Prosecutor’s interview and to bring this situation to an end, is being seen as a growing stain on the country’s reputation.” ~UK Hugo Swire via @Reuters
Correct the Record: UK entrapped Assange. Manipulated the flow of EAW cases. Spent $16 million on kettling him. Involved multiple gov’t departments (SOCA, Home Office etc.), bullied Ecuador and is now torturing him.
UK chose to allocate resources on a KETTLING OPERATION on Assange. It is arbitrary detention. Also, UK held other EAW cases in abeyance, adjourning them regularly pending the outcome of AssangeCase challenge to legal *proportionality*.
Count the number of times the UK House of Commons accuses Assange of self inflicted detention, insults toward @UN, abuse of MP Diane Abbott (puts words in her mouth), blaming Assange for $ spent on kettling 25 min. https://www.c-span.org/video/?459762-1/british-home-secretary-statement-arrest-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange …
The “Assange Policy” infected every single press release, media scrum, speech from MPs in UK parliament, diplomatic negotiations with Sweden, Ecuador and Australia, COURT JUDGEMENTS and response to the United Nations. IT IS CRIMINAL.
The UK is responsible for the 10 yr Stand Off, Torture, Arbitrary Detention. The UK allocated funds for the Kettling Operation of Assange. The UK scripted every judge PRIOR to court hearings to entrap Assange. The UK must be held accountable. Names must be named. It is a Stain.
The dripping contempt of every single judge against Assange is sickening. Read Deborah Judge Taylor’s scolding regarding “bail infraction” with a deeper knowledge of Kettling Operation. READ: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/sentencing-remarks-assange-010519.pdf …
ASSANGE MUST BE RELEASED IMMEDIATELY FROM BELMARSH PRISON. TODAY. AUSTRALIA MUST FACILITATE THIS. AUSTRALIA IS COMPLICIT IN HIS TORTURE. WAKE UP.
Britain (UK) has held Assange, tortured him, derided international law and is actively putting him at risk of imminent death in Belmarsh COVID-19 threat * UNDER THE CONSERVATIVE GOV’T* since David Cameron, Theresa May and now Boris Johnson. HE MUST RESIGN.
The Assange Policy as delivered by Judge Arbuthnot (wife of a high ranking former Conservative UK MP) — cruel contempt, GaslightingAssange, dripping with sadism and obviously ghost-written by retired CPS lawyer Paul Close. READ: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/assange-ruling-2-feb2018.pdf … KETTLINGASSANGE
Police tactic of Kettling was deployed on Assange for 7yrs, then UK blamed the cost on him and Ecuador, but it was a Kettling Operation they enacted. On the day of Assange’s arrest April 11, 2019 multiple MP’s repeated this lie in the House of Commons, unchallenged. See Hansard transcript and videos.
This lie was also repeated in UK courts multiple times over many years.
Mixed messages: You are free to leave. You have committed no crime. You’re under arrest. KettlingAssange
Arbuthnot Part 1, Feb. 6th (goes with Part 2 in thread above) READ IT NOW: Dis. Gust. Ting. https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Assange-Ruling.pdf … GaslightingAssange
To seal the learning in your mind, watch this excellent documentary by CBC’s The Fifth Estate on Police Tactics during the Toronto G-20 summit. It’s the best 40 min. you will spend today, guaranteed. You Should Have Stayed At Home.