Police Scotland said thousands of police officers will receive public order training on the eve of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
Before the November international conference, officials are undergoing professional training.
The summit will deploy about 10,000 police officers from all over the UK every day, making it one of the largest police operations in the history of the UK.
Between August and September, the Scottish Police Department will have approximately 2,500 public order officers coming for training.
As part of this, an exercise was held at Cragiehall Barracks near Edinburgh on Monday.
The task of the police in riot gear is to deal with a mock protest, and the other police officers play the role of a demonstrator of the organization “Sabotage Uprising”.
“Protesters” participated in a sit-in demonstration outside a bank. The demonstration started peacefully and then became more confrontational. Some people threw objects at the police.
Mounted police were also used in the exercise, while the police took action to disperse the crowd and used riot shields to defend against attackers with baseball bats.
A group of politicians and activists were invited to the training day, some of them played the role of police or protesters.
Scottish Labour Party MSP Monica Lennon (Monica Lennon) put on the boiler suit, helmet and body armor of a public order officer when she joined the police force.
She told PA News Agency: “It’s very heavy and warm. I’m covered with eggs and all kinds of things.
“But it’s nice to see how the police behaved in this situation.”
She added: “It’s very daunting-even pretending to have to stare at the protesters.”
Police Scotland stated that it will adopt a human rights-based approach to monitor any demonstrations during Cop26.
Leaders from all over the world will gather in Glasgow to discuss the issue of tackling climate change.
A senior official stated that the force has contacted protest groups to allow peaceful demonstrations.
Deputy Sheriff Wilkel said: “The Scottish Police is a rights-based organization that takes our values of integrity, fairness, respect and commitment to upholding human rights as the core of everything we do.
“This means that we will protect the rights of people who wish to peacefully protest or counter-protest on Cop26, balancing them with the rights of the wider community.
“We will provide a commensurate police response to any protest, and are already in contact with known protest groups to ensure that their rights to peaceful assembly and protest are met.”
He said the police will focus on demoting during demonstrations similar to Cragiehall’s simulations.
Mr. Kerr told the PA News Agency: “Today’s matter is for a few who may not want to come to peaceful protest, may want to disrupt city life and participate in the disorder.
“For that small group of people, we want to make sure we have the most comprehensive strategy available.”
When asked whether the Scottish police could rule out the use of undercover police in protest groups, he said: “In extremely unlikely situations, we will deploy them. The accountability system for using these strategies is very onerous.”
Quan Nguyen, Cop26 Coalition’s Scottish Coordinator, is organizing protests in Glasgow, the UK and around the world in November this year. He said: “Protests and dissent are essential to healthy democracy and are the way human rights and justice always win. worldwide.
“Without protest, there is no political will to take action. The rights to protest, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech are protected rights, and the police have a legal obligation to defend these rights.
“People must be able to challenge the most exclusive and opaque Conference of the Parties in history, otherwise we will not have the opportunity to deal with the deadly climate disaster that is currently causing serious damage globally.”
He urged people to participate in the climate justice protests on November 6.
This author
Neil Plan is a political reporter for PA Scotland.
