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.

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

Display the following 10 comments

  1. PHONEY ARREST — JACK
  2. filming — zoe
  3. NUJ — paste
  4. Nonsense arrest — nonsensical
  5. update — Barney Laurance
  6. videoing arrest case — Bob McCabe
  7. unbelievable — freethinker
  8. NUJ — Barney
  9. further update — Barney
  10. What was the outcome? — Ed teach
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