Forward Intelligence Teams ‘FIT’ ... Set up by the Metropolitan Police to monitor growing violence by gangs at football matches, throughout the 1990’s. They say numbers of ‘organised gangs’ are travelling across international frontiers. With the previous inadequate sharing of information that resulting in local
commanders bemoaning the fact that they were bereft of intelligence to head off or prepare for trouble. The football season is played out through the wintertime. However, the establishment of this specialist squad, with acquired skills in the surveillance of crowds, maintenance of a database, infiltration and befriending, resulted in a surplus capacity in the summer! Thus, the same squads use same techniques on matters of dissent in the summertime: protest, festivals, raves and direct action at large. “The liaison team and the protestors create the first part of the affective feedback loop. The trusting atmosphere between them allows the circulation of information which can encourage the protestors to self-police in advance, or de-escalate tense situations on the day. The loop then continues through the police command-centre, with the liaison team’s fast-time updates allowing them to develop a complex picture about the affective and atmospheric effects of particular interventions. While the quality of these updates is always going to depend on the ability of the protest liaison officer to ‘sense’ the mood, it remains a significant advance on the surveillance footage upon which the control room would otherwise rely upon for gauging the effects of their actions”.26 ‘Reclaim the Streets’, held street parties as an idea of taking back public space for the public to enjoy. They sprouted up in a number of cities. The issue is of course far beyond road traffic pollution, but the inhumanity of ‘globalisation’ at large. RTS events had been occurring in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and many other
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