Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

120 police detained and prevented from attending demo!!

M. P. Farce | 07.10.2004 21:31 | Anti-militarism | Repression

The police of London were travelling to a peace demo in Gloucestershire when an overwhelming number of anti-war protestors stopped and searched them in the sleepy hamlet of Lechlade. The police claim that the search was intentionally slow, and many police were filmed by the protesters through the duration of the search.

Police_returned_to_london_by_protestors
Police_returned_to_london_by_protestors


Many items were seized from the police, but most of these were benign or defensive in nature. The protestors claim that the presence of shields and two pairs of scissors indicated that the police had more violent intentions.

Based on the intelligence received, and the presence of "offending articles", the protestors decided not to allow the police to continue their journey to the peace demo. The activists claim that the police were uncooperative. The activists claim that they had no choice but to detain the police as some clearly had violent intentions, but it was impossible to distinguish between the violent police and the innocent police.

The protestors turned the police around and escorted them to London. Several police rang 999 to explain the circumstances, but the forced escort continued to London. While the group were idling in stalled traffic around the Shepards Bush region, the police were able to escape the escort by fleeing into nearby streets and parks. The Metropolitan protestors followed a group of police all the way to Hyde Park - harassing and intimidating most of the way.

The police have sought justice at the Divisional Court via a judicial review, but the result was unsatisfactory in-so-much-as the court ruled that the protestors were justified in preventing police from attending the demonstration, but they were not justified in detaining the police for nearly 3 hours. Now the case has reached the Court of Appeal, the penultimate British court available to the police. Both parties are seeking to overturn the decisions at the lower court which were not in their favour.

Police claim that their Human Rights were violated - the right to freedom of from arbitrary detention, the right to freedom of assembly, and the right to freedom of expression.

Support the right to police protests!!! Come down to the Royal Courts of Justice!

----------------------

OK, obviously the above report is a parody!

However, nearly the same thing has taken place with the roles reversed (police / protestors), and the Fairford Coaches case is coming to a Court of Appeal near you (if you live in the South East, that is).

The police will be pressing for the right to detain innocent protestors, and the former coach detainees are pressing for the right not to be forced away from lawful demonstrations. If you are free on the morning of Thurs or Friday the 14-15 October 2004, please come down to the main entrance of the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand and support the right to protest!

We'll have a 1 hour demo outside the courts from 9am-10am both mornings. If you want to come in and watch the case you are fully welcome to come in - 10.30am-4pm both days. Ask at the desk for the specific court we'll be in. If you have a camera, you'll be asked to leave it in a shop on the opposite side of the Strand.

 http://www.fairfordcoachaction.org.uk

ps- Thanks for the pic Raphael Haik! The pic is from a terrific collection of London photos by Raphael at  http://www.photoraf.com - He had nothing to do with the Indymedia posting. It just happened that he had a site with the perfect illustrating photo.

M. P. Farce
- Homepage: http://www.fairfordcoachaction.org.uk

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech