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Met officers were found to have acted unlawfully in surrounding G20 Climate Camp protesters – with a tactic first used in 1990s
It was as darkness fell that one of the most controversial policing operations in modern history erupted into bloodshed. Ten thousand protesters had come to the City of London on April 1 2009 to demonstrate against the perceived failings of world leaders holding a G20 summit in the capital.
The centrepiece of the Metropolitan police's response was the notorious "kettle" – an attempt to contain thousands of people inside police cordons, often for hours on end. The result was bloody clashes as protesters attempted to break free, with chants of "our streets".
The climax came shortly after 7pm when, the high court has now ruled, thousands of environmental campaigners were unlawfully contained against their will at a Climate Camp on Bishopsgate.
It was around the same time, and just a few hundred yards away, that Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper seller who had been trying to find a route home past police cordons forming kettles around the Bank of England, was pushed to the ground by a Met officer. As the ongoing inquest into his death has been hearing, Tomlinson, a father of nine, posed no threat to Pc Simon Harwood. Tomlinson collapsed and died less than three minutes later. No senior Met officer has taken full responsibility for failings at the G20, perhaps the most catastrophic public order operation since the Poll Tax riots. And few expect the high court judgment to result in any about-turn at Scotland Yard.
Thursday's ruling was partial, but mainly favoured the claimants, G20 protesters Hannah McClure and Josh Moos, who challenged the legality of the "violent" restraint methods used against them. Judges found the so-called kettle used to contain McClure and Moos shortly after 7pm, and the force officers used to push them back, were unlawful.
The Met will contest the judgment and has vowed to continue kettling large crowds, saying the way it does so has been modified since the G20.
There is some truth to that claim, even if protesters complain that the provision of a couple of portable toilets and Twitter updates thanking them for their "patience" do not change the essential fact that they are kept against their will.
Kettles were used at all three major student fee demonstrations at the end of last year, leading to negative headlines when some of those trapped inside in freezing conditions turned out to be children in school uniforms.
The tactic was used again, to a lesser extent, at the demonstration in the capital last month.
The Met pioneered the use of kettling in the late 1990s, first using it at a major public order event in May 2001, when thousands of protesters were contained in Oxford Circus. That prompted a legal challenge from protesters, who argued they were essentially imprisoned without justification.
Lois Austin, who said the Oxford Circus kettle prevented her from picking up her infant daughter, repeatedly lost her cases against the Met, the law lords ruling in favour of the Met, just a few months before the G20. Austin is taking the case to the European court of human rights.
In the aftermath of their law lords victory, Met commanders were confused about exactly what they were permitted to do. Some thought it gave police almost total permission to contain activists. In fact, thresholds need to be met, and officers must prove an imminent breach of the peace.
In the case of the G20, they were unable to do this. The 2009 demonstration was largely split into two crowds consisting of around 5,000 people each.
The legality of their containment of protesters near the Bank of England, scene of some of the most bloody clashes, has not been questioned.
But it is now established the Met unlawfully detained thousands of environmental activists, including McClure and Moos, gathered at nearby Bishopsgate, where there was a carnivalesque Climate Camp with pop-up tents and food-stalls. Riot officers began advancing on the Bishopsgate crowd with batons and shields, violently striking the crowd back.
Those officers soon discovered that citizen journalism provided equal accountability to any court. Activists with video cameras had scaled a nearby building and filmed as non-violent protesters in the kettle were pushed, kicked, punched in the face and struck with shields.
The video, which was uploaded on to YouTube, has been viewed more than half a million times. It shows how the crowd held their arms in the air, palms open, chanting "this is not a riot".