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Section 60 in Euston Station

indy | 01.05.2001 11:48

Section 60 is being applied near Euston Station, 12.47 pm.

As around 1000 people were gathered outside Euston Station heading west from King's Cross, section 60 has been applied. Police have cordened the area, blocking all the streets and letting people out ONE BY ONE, after searching for weapons in people's bags and clothes.

indy

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

section 60

01.05.2001 12:15

anyone searching the police for weapons?

jonny

How to start a riot

01.05.2001 12:19

Euston:
Surely there is no better way to start a riot than coralling hundreds of hitherto peaceful demonstrators into a confined space and letting them out one by one, with what can best be described as semi-legal justification. (Section 60, supposedly a weapons search but usually an intelligence gathering operation.) Do we need any more proof that, after weeks of propaganda through the mainstream press, it is the police, not protestors, (most of them, anyway) who want fighting to break out?

Graham
mail e-mail: Graham.Gamblin@uce.ac.uk

Police presence

01.05.2001 12:39

What would Graham Gamblin expect the police to do after the last turn of events? Leave the protestors to it and mop up afterwards if the troublemaking element kick off? Think of this from the perspective of the people working in and around the areas where the demonstrations are taking place -would they feel safe if there was little or no police presence? I think not.

If the peaceful protestors have peaceful intentions surely they should understand the police are required to protect the majority if they suspect there is a possible danger, however unfounded this suspicion may be. If they aren't carrying weapons then surely they have nothing to hide?

Dave
mail e-mail: davemcqueen@snatch.org

get real

01.05.2001 13:04

oh come off it. do you know how intimidating it is to be cordoned off by the police? i think not. and think about it from the point of view of people without any intent to cause violence, penned into the square by the police and not allowed to leave, even though they have committed no crime at all. if that's not enough to frustrate and distress a large group of people then what is?

and as for people working and living in the area, surely the police's hype and talk of 'rubber bullets' and 'cs gas' are enough to make anyone scared. the fact is that it's a pretty shallow intimidation campaign, with an aim of preventing everyday people from showing their support, and allowing them to marginalise and dismiss the protesters as 'crazy hippies'.

the reason more people don't turn up for these events is because of the police, not because of the cause or the people involved in it.

bob

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