Police Violence Two Years on: Remembering Dec. 3, 2014

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the police attack on a Warwick For Free Education sit-in in Senate House. On Dec. 3, 2014, police stormed a crowd of protesters, spraying several with cs gas, threatening the crowd with Tasers, and arresting three people. A 1,000-strong demonstration against the violence – and Warwick’s utter complicity in the police’s action – took place the day after, followed by an eight-day occupation of the Rootes Social Building. It is fitting that we publish this commemoration from our first occupation since those events.

Many who were present on that day still suffer the consequences. The ‘Independent Police Complaints Commission’ report is yet to surface, the initial draft having been rejected in a High Court Appeal for coming to “irrational” conclusions.

Rather than release original content on the events, we thought we would point people to all the great work that has already been done:

• The original Guardian report on the violence, complete with one of the videos.
• Our skewering of then-VC Nigel Thrift’s original statement on the police violence.
• The Warwick Globalist‘s investigation into the events, written one year on and still the most comprehensive report into battle between WFFE and management.
• A personal reflection by a comrade who was brutalised and arrested on Dec. 3, written one year on.
• A half-an-hour documentary made about the occupation of Rootes Social Building, Our University. A great introduction to the philosophy of direct action, free education and more.
• An interview on the Warwick Globalist‘s radio show with a WFFE participant in Dec. 3, which covers the chronology of the event, neo-liberalisation of universities, and Warwick’s activist history.

Please share these resources far and wide. It’s crucial that people don’t forget the way the University and police acted that December.