Stalling Tactics Win A Victory for Freedom of Expression

The activists were arrested after questioning the right of police to move on political stalls, pamphleteers and others who dare to use the city centre for any purpose other than spending or making money.

In response to a prolonged campaign of police harassment and intimidation of peaceful protesters in the city centre, members from a wide range of active campaigning groups in Merseyside have come together to form Liverpool Freedom of Expression and organise regular “mass stall” events. By all running stalls together, the groups offer each other solidarity and form a united front against the tactics of bullying and intimidation that have so often been employed against them.

Today, Merseyside Police decided that such a shameless display of co-operation and mutual support, coupled with the crass non-commercialism of giving out free information to the public, could not be tolerated on our streets.

Working their way around the stalls systematically, they confiscated materials (in some cases refusing to give receipts), provoked and patronised campaigners, demanded names and addresses, refused to quote law or give reasons to stall-holders, threatened arrest for non-co-operation and generally harassed and intimidated their way through every stall. Persistent demands for an explanation of this behaviour gleaned only the response that it was something to do with “obstruction”, though questioning how stalls backed onto a brick-built raised planting area in the widest street in Liverpool (with crowds easily moving past and around them) could possibly be an obstruction, or indeed what Act this obstruction “law” came under, met only with “You’ve already been told that” (untrue), “I don’t have to tell you that” (untrue and impolite) or shame-faced requests to ask Officer Phnemumble, who never seemed to be available when his or her encyclopaedic knowledge of this non-existent law was needed.

The first arrest came when an activist at the Anarchist Federation stall refused to give his name and address, the second when one of the stall-holders shouting “shame!” and “let him go!” at the arresting officers happened to touch the police van door with her hand (thus leaving an unsightly clean patch), and was promptly dragged inside for criminal damage.

As the remaining stalls were picked clean, activists, supporters and the public gathered around the police van holding the arrested activists, chanting “Let them go!” and “Police State!”. When the engine started, three women sat down in front of the van and others moved behind. The chants continued, and pallid police officers started murmuring anxiously into their walky-talkies. As activists with loud-hailers informed the passing public of what was happening, passers-by joined the chants and the crowd grew.

When the police backup arrived, they forced their way into the crowd and began viciously pushing back the protestors. Police pushed a disabled woman with a walking stick, hit a young woman of 17 in the chest and kicked protestors’ bags and belongings out of the way to clear a path for the van.

Though the police succeeded in arresting the two activists, the levels of unnecessary force (not to mention the pointless and suppressive nature of the entire operation), were extremely visible to the public. Today, a packed square of city centre shoppers saw first-hand the brutal repression of freedom of speech that has become endemic in this city, and they made a stand against it. The spontaneous, joint action of people who know a wrong when they see it turned what the police clearly thought would be a simple and quiet operation into a near riot. They have embarrassed themselves; they have shown themselves to lack judgement, intelligence, capability and a sense of common decency, and they have lost yet more of the public’s faith in a corrupt system that takes our money to pay for the thugs who limit our freedoms. This is a victory for those who try to educate and disseminate information on the injustices of our society, above and beyond anything our stalls would have achieved alone. Today, the police demonstrated our point for us.