London Indymedia

Arrested at Anti-War March, 20 March 04, after videoing cops

Barney Laurance | 24.03.2004 01:45 | Anti-militarism | Indymedia | Repression | London

I was arrested at the anti-war demo on Saturday after videoing the cops & walking on the wrong side of some white tape. I've been charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act.

I joined the very small anti-capitalist block at marble arch at around 12 noon. Forward intelligence team (FIT) cops were there to intimidate & photograph us, and I had brought a camcorder to video the march and the police. I recorded the flags, banners, and crowds, and got the compulsory 'watching them watching us' shot in a few times.

We joined the march, and I continued to video marchers and cops from time to time, often stepping away from the march to get a wider view. When I videoed the group of cops who were monitoring the anti-capitalist block, officer GD25 aggressively pushed me, demanding to know whether I had enough shots of his number. This cop appeared to have a particularly aggressive attitude towards demonstrators. He repeatedly asked me whether I wanted to get to Trafalger Square, an implied threat to arrest me. Other cops greeted me by name as I filmed them, a standard FIT petty intimidation tactic.

I later sat on a fence to video the march as it curved round a street, and a cop twice tried to pull me down and threatened to arrest me. I re-joined the march.

We passed Picadilly Circus, and were approaching Chris Eubanks' truck in the Haymarket. There was no traffic on the road, but the police had stretched a white tape down the middle, about four feet above the ground. Most demonstrators were walking to the left of the tape. The march was slowed by people pausing near Mr. Eubanks' truck. For mobility, and for the terribly conventional reason of wanting to continue to film marchers moving from left to right, rather than right to left, I walked just to the right of the tape.

Cops GD525 and HX38 told me to either leave or join the demo. I listened to their arguments, but decided to continue walking next to other demonstrators. They then started to drag me away from the march. I didn't know where they were taking me, and I lay down to stop them moving me. Lots of cops got involved, trying to drag or lift me, presumably with little or now idea where they were supposed to be taking me or for what reason. I got out my camcorder and took some video of the cops from the ground.

Some marchers came over and protested at my illegal detention, and apparently an inspector arrived and ordered the cops to let me go, which eventually they did.

I re-joined the march, now to the left of the tape, and continued to Trafalger Square. By this time a message had apparently gone out on the police radio, to the effect that I should be nicked. I was alone when I got there, and met some other cop, who demanded I go for a chat with him. I haven't been brought up to go off for private chats with strange men, and refused. He then arrested me quoting section 25 of PACE, which is about arrest powers, and eventually mentioning section Five of the Public Order Act 86. I sat down, hoping to attract attention to this totally unjustified arrest. As more cops got in on the act the arresting officer scarpered, leaving two hapless coppers to hold me while waiting for a van & book me in to Charring Cross police station. I tried to hand my camera to a friend, but of course the cops wouldn't let me.

At charring cross, I was charged with 'on 20 march 2004 at haymarket', us[ing] disorderly behaviour within the sight or hearing of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby', contrary to section 5(1)(A) public order act 1986. No-one has told me what this behaviour was supposed to have been, or what was disorderly or distressing about it.

A cop claimed to believe he would find evidence of the offence on my video, and I was made to hand over the tape.

I'm due at Bow street at Ten this morning (Wednesday) to plead not guilty, and to demand my tape back. I should also receive the cops' statements As the section five charge is relatively minor, legal aid is not available for me to pay a solicitor, so I'm going to have to run my own defence. I'll post an update soon.

Barney Laurance

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

PHONEY ARREST

24.03.2004 02:39

Will people please come down to support this guy at his day in court. The scum are gettin away with too much abuse of peoples rights.

JACK
mail e-mail: TOO EASY


filming

24.03.2004 08:35

are you in the NUJ? if so they should be able to help you. what were you planning to use the footage for? if you do this kind of thing regularly and the footage you produce is used in films, programmes, news reports etc of any kind, you may well be able to join. they will give you a press card which is _supposed_ to be recognised by the chief of police and hence protect you form this kind of harassment.

it is often helpful when filming on demos/actions etc to have a friend whose job for the day is to look out for you while you are behind the camera and help deal with bolshy cops etc. it is also helpful to have some idea of the laws they can and can't use against you, and to make sure that you ask, audibly on camera, exactly what they are harrassing or arresting you for, and keep recording to get any answer (or lack of answer).

really wish you luck in court, let us know how it goes - on the evidence here, this is very out of order. I hope your footage is good evidence for your case!

zoe


NUJ

24.03.2004 10:10

NUJ membership (paste from their website):

 http://www.nuj.org.uk/inner.php?docid=146&PHPSESSID=9a621664784c80465498fdf1db415dd6
----

Who can join?

All journalists – staff and freelance -- including writers and reporters, editors and sub-editors, photographers and illustrators, editorial designers and artists, in newspapers, electronic media, magazines, books, broadcasting, PR and information; or as advertising and fashion photographers, advertising copywriters or editorial computer systems workers.

If you have any questions about joining or your eligibility for membership, please contact the membership department on 020 7278 7916, or email  membership@nuj.org.uk.
-----

The union welcomes student journalists into a special class of membership, and it offers a reduced subscription for the first year to those upgrading to full membership as they begin their professional careers. Around 3,000 students join the NUJ every year.

Two kinds of students are eligible to join: those on vocational courses, and those on other courses who are working on student publications and intend to become journalists.

There are hundreds of journalism courses in universities and colleges, and hundreds more "media studies" courses. The union is in the process of validating as many courses as it can, and it offers advice to prospective students on the value of courses.

Student membership costs £10 for the duration of the course. For this student members receive a student press card and free delivery of the Journalist magazine.
-----

if this accreditation helps in stopping harrassment it would be useful for many IMC-ers to have, no?

paste


Nonsense arrest

24.03.2004 13:48

This sounds like a complete nonsense arrest. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine who was simply filming the cops harassing me on a fluffy leafletting "demo". Charges were dropped before getting to trial although it did go to pre-trial review. Legal aid was granted in this case though so might be worth a try.

If it was the cops that were supposed to be harassed, alarmed and distressed (poor dears) then there's very little chance of the charge sticking. They are supposed to have a higher threshold than normal people.

The arrest itself sounds dodgy because S5 is supposed to be non-arrestable. They could really only arrest you in the following circumstances (taken from the legal advice website  http://www.freebeagles.org/) :

(1) They cannot establish your name or they think you have given a false one, OR
(2) They cannot establish an address suitable for the service of a summons or they think you have given a false one, OR
(3) They have reasonable grounds to believe arrest is necessary to prevent you from doing any of the following:
(i) causing physical injury to yourself or any other person, OR
(ii) suffering physical injury; OR
(iii) causing loss of or damage to property; OR
(iv) committing an offence against public decency, OR
(v) causing an unlawful obstruction of the highway

Anyway, good luck, and do think about complaining or even suing for false arrest when the case is dropped!

nonsensical


update

25.03.2004 00:46

I pleaded not guilty, and I've now got copies of the police notebooks. It really dosn't look like the prosecution have a case, but I'm back in Bow St Ct at 10am Wednesday 7th of April the if they insist on going ahead.

I'm in Horsefery road the week after, but that's another story.

It looks like I may be able to get a solicitor. I still need to work on getting my tape back ASAP.

Barney Laurance


videoing arrest case

27.03.2004 20:48

I'm sorry to hear you had such a problem. I was at Hyde park and was walking against the march on the sidewalk both video taping and taking pictures. I have approximately 15 to 20 minutes of video and 30 digital pictures. Some of my pictures are of cops. I made no effort to obviously tape any one person for any extended period of time. I was an American tourist there on vacation. I don't know if that made a difference. I wish you luck.

Bob McCabe


unbelievable

28.03.2004 21:44

something similar happened to us, later that night. a guy we was with was attacked then arrested. my friend was taking pictures of the assault. She put the camera away before 3 brave coppers wresteled her bag from her and seized it. Dont want to say too much because she's still pursuing it, and trying to get the (disposable)camera back.

reckon they were officially tasked with intimidation that day.

gd luck mate

freethinker


NUJ

02.04.2004 08:59

No, i'm not in the NUJ. I was planning to watch the footage myself, and then post some to indy if it was any good and I could get the digitizing process worked out. I don't do this sort of thing regularly and my footage hasn't been used for anything. I'm not on a journalism course, and think part of the point of Indymedia is to reduce the need for the journalist role.

Being with a friend is always good on demos. (and not on demos). As i'm pretty well known to the cops, I doubt that an NUJ card would convince them to be much nicer too me. I also don't like the idea of seeking a personal privilige from the cops. I'd rather make my demands or take action in a way that other people also can, and in a way that if enough people did the cops would not be able to stop others.

Barney


further update

07.04.2004 22:44

I was in court again this morning. My solicitor had only got round to writing to the CPS yesterday, so they claimed not have had a chance to consider the arguments against persuing the prosecution. I've been denied legal aid, so it looks like i'm running my own defence now.

The trial will be on 17 June, from 10am at bow st.

I spoke to the prosecutor, and she hadn't been told anything about the police taking my videotape, which is sort of woryinging. I've writtent to the cops today to demand at least a copy of the tape. Hopefully they haven't 'lost' the original.

Good luck to freethinker's friend and the guy they were with.

Barney


What was the outcome?

25.06.2007 08:30

Hey - what happend in court?

Ed teach


Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

London 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

London IMC

Desktop

About | Contact
Mission Statement
Editorial Guidelines
Publish | Help

Search :