Posters have appeared around Lewisham. Pic: Bobby Dean
Fake adverts accusing police of getting away with murder, racism and ignorance have been posted at New Cross bus stops.
The posters, which were discovered on Sunday, had been placed behind glass in the space reserved for advertisements, and included claims that that the Metropolitan police had not been held accountable for killing an unarmed citizen. Other posters accused police of inciting the 2011 riots, racism, and “pointlessly” cracking down on cannabis users.
USA: solidarity from London! Your struggle is our struggle. #Duggan #Ferguson #ICantBreathe http://t.co/w1S5FqCpoM pic.twitter.com/36EmP0FAwH
— STRIKE! magazine (@strikeyo) December 14, 2014
The posters were designed by political magazine, Strike! as part of a campaign called called Totally Pointless Policing. The campaign aims to counter previous police campaigns that they claim are “trying to convince us – and themselves – that they’re not violent, racist and corrupt”. Strike!’s campaign page explains: “It’s propaganda pure and simple: they want us to forget that they murdered Mark Duggan, an unarmed civilian, and caused the 2011 riots; they’d rather you didn’t talk about being 28 times more likely to be stopped and searched in London if you don’t have white skin; and if the heavily redacted Operation Tiberius report is anything to go by, they definitely don’t want you to know about the 42 corrupt senior Metropolitan Police officers caught literally letting criminals get away with murder.”
What are the police worried about? #ACAB pic.twitter.com/vyRBjXBZLn — Bobby Dean (@Bobby_Dean) December 14, 2014
The magazine told i100.co.uk that they were not responsible for putting the posters up in advertising spaces around London. However, the magazine’s campaign page does encourage members of the public to download and spread the posters around.
Awareness of the posters spread on social media quickly but police were seen cordoning off the bus stops involved and allegedly tried to stop people from taking pictures of the fake adverts. The adverts have since been removed.
Neither the police nor TfL have any comment on the incident.
