G20 - The Impersonating a Police Officer Sketch

Paul Jay has posted an excellent two part interview with constitutional/criminal lawyer Clayton Ruby. Ruby is defending British satirist Charlie Veitch, the second person to be charged at G20 under the Public Works Protection Act. You can watch both parts at The Real News Network or at Creekside.

Shorter Ruby: We do have the right to peaceful protest under the Charter; unfortunately we just have no way of enforcing that right.

Veitch faces two charges. One - failure to cough up ID after being escorted by police to within the five meter perimeter of magical police authority. And two - impersonating a police officer. Except that he didn't.

Jay only provides a snippet of the not impersonating a police officer sketch, so here it is transcribed - Veitch's exchange with a rather literal-minded dude from Paragon Security.

CV : "We're from British Military Intelligence, I'm here with the metropolitan police ... so it's all fully authorized at the highest levels ... cause you know sometimes ... have you heard what an Agent Provocateur is?

Security: "I have no ideas."

CV : "What it is, sometimes when there are big demonstrations - I can tell you this because you're security - they use fake protesters to cause trouble, and we're here to be those fake protesters. So it's fully authorized."

Security: "OK, I understand that, do you have a certification?"

CV : "No, we're not press, 'cause we're undercover, and if we carried ID around, we might get searched by protesters."

I really don't see any way for them to avoid reading this little exchange into the record at the trial as evidence. Snerk. Unless, as with the other guy they charged, they just opt for not showing up to the court date at all.