Harriet Fletcher
High-Speed Rail 2 (HS2) is a high-speed rail line intended to run from London to Crewe and Manchester; however, deforestation of ancient woodlands and a £108 billion state budget have encouraged strong opposition. Climate change urgency has increased environmental protest placing pressure on policing organisations (Button, John and Brearley, 2001). Four hundred incidents of police violence against fracking and HS2 protesters have been reported (Griffin, 2020). This research aims to understand the impacts of both uniformed and undercover policing on the anti-HS2 community. I interviewed 7 HS2 activists and secondary data – videos, blogs and social media posts were collected to explore the policing experience of HS2 activists. Findings showed HS2 activists were subject to brutality from police, private security and bailiffs. Results showed issues of accountability and ethics in private policing and security like Pont Valley, Durham in which private security and police prioritised private interests over protesters’ safety (Stephens- Griffin et al., 2021). The shared trauma of the anti-HS2 community built cohesion; however, activists did have suspicions of infiltration from corporate spies. Results supported patterns of environmentalism repression in the UK found in Stephens- Griffin et al. (2021); Gilmore et al. (2019) and Stephens- Griffin (2021).