EU panel backs police crowd control effort

The European Court of Human Rights says British police did not deprive May Day protesters who were cordoned during violent demonstrations of their liberty. The majority of the 17 judges on the panel in Strasbourg, France, ruled in favor of the Metropolitan Police and the tactics it used in Oxford Circus in May 2001. The case was brought by one demonstrator and four bystanders who said they were deprived their right to liberty when they were held in a police cordon for almost seven hours during a protest against globalization. The panel said the cordon, imposed to isolate and contain a large crowd in dangerous and volatile conditions, "has been the least intrusive and most effective means to protect the public from violence." The panel said there were more than 1,500 protesters in London's Oxford Circus on May 1, 2001, and more people were arriving. The police, fearing public disorder, decided to contain the crowd and cordon off Oxford Circus around 2 p.m. It took more than seven hours to safely disperse the crowd, police said. It was the first time the court has been called to consider the practice of kettling, or containment of a group of people carried out by the police on public order grounds. "There had been space within the cordon for people to walk about and there had been no crushing. However, the conditions had been uncomfortable with no shelter, food, water or toilet facilities," the panel said. "Although the police had tried, continuously throughout the afternoon, to start releasing people, their attempts were repeatedly suspended because of the violent and uncooperative behavior of a significant minority both within and outside the cordon." The European Court of Human Rights was set up by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.