It appears that the city of London’s police is classifying Occupy London as domestic terrorists/extremists, as opposed to foreign terrorists based in groups like Al Qaeda. The city of London police sent out a special warning letter to the “business community” in London detailing various threats from extremists and terrorists. The groups included among the list were Al Qaeda terrorists and extremists based in Belarus. Alarmingly, the police seemed fit to include Occupy London in the warning as well, telling the business community that the protesters may be involved in “urban exploration activity.” See a copy of the notice:
In a comment given to the Guardian, a source within the police admitted the title of the document was “not helpful.” “The reference to ‘suspected activists’ seems to demonstrate a disturbing loss of perspective. Activism is not a crime and the desire to participate in democratic decision-making should not be a cause for concern for the police in any free society,” said a statement from the Occupy London encampment. “An institution that confuses active citizens with criminals and equates al-Qaida with efforts to re-imagine the City is an institution in grave danger of losing its way.”

Previous in TP Special Topic


By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.