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.

SOCPA - brian haw arrested and some of his display removed overnight

rikki | 21.10.2006 07:00 | Anti-militarism | Repression | London

a woman attacked brian haw's parliament square display at about 5.15 this morning. but brian himself was arrested under the public order act, in an organised police swoop, over the content of the display. it is unclear if the woman was arrested. one of brian's supporters was actively prevented from taking photographs of her.

at around 5.15 this morning, a woman approached brian haw's protest display and attempted to destroy part of it. she grabbed one of the green collapsible chairs and was waving it around, trying to demolish the washing line of bloodied baby clothes that was erected a week ago in front of his small placard. within minutes of her attack, there was a surprisingly large and efficient police response, and although the woman was apprehended it is unclear whether she was arrested. what is clear though, is that police threatened one of brian's supporters with arrest for trying to take a photograph of the woman while police were blocking the sight-line. and brian himself was arrested under section 4b of the public order act for 'displaying writing, a sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting, thereby causing another person harassment, alarm, or distress'.

brian was taken to belgravia police station and police took the 'offending' display away too.


there are several suspicious elements to this story

within minutes of the early morning incident, police arrived in three vans and two cars. this large entourage was also accompanied by several community support officers on foot, as well as several sergeants and an inspector! was the rest of charing cross crime-free at that time on a friday night/saturday morning?

the woman had grabbed a collapsible green chair that brian uses, and was waving it around while trying to trash the display. officers have removed the washing line as 'evidence' but have not removed the green chair.

although it was police from belgravia that effected brian's arrest, they were in charing cross vehicles.

belgravia station is not responding to requests from supporters for information, claiming that they do not open until 7am.

in one phone-call to the station, brian was heard in the background shouting that they weren't letting him phone his solicitor - at this point the receptionist hung up.

since police have brian's details already, any arrest under 4(b) wouldn't normally require continued detention, and it has been shown in court previously that photographs (which the police took) are sufficient evidence in these sort of cases. the seizure of the 'offending' items appears legally unnecessary.

attached is audio of an exchange between barbara tucker and police recorded earlier - you can hear the policeman saying 'fuck off' about 52" into the clip.

rikki
- e-mail: rikkiindymedia@googlemail.com

Additions

8.20am

21.10.2006 07:33

brian is still held at belgravia - his supporters have been told that he has spoken to his lawyers, but the lawyers have not confirmed that yet, so there is some doubt.

police are playing down the woman's offence, but it has now emerged that she was attempting to tear down the picasso 'peace' sign and the amnesty international 'stop torture, protect humans' sign - are police going to claim that these are offensive too?

in another example of 'guilty until proven innocent' and a small rerun of the 23rd may, police have gone ahead and used force to confiscate part of brian's display, telling him to argue it out in court later - as the policeman puts it when asked why he is taking the baby clothes "discuss that with the courts".

rikki


11am

21.10.2006 10:02

brian is still held at belgravia. there are unconfirmed reports that the woman was released after being cautioned, but other reports suggest she may still be in custody. i'll try to clarify this later.

the duty officer at the police station stated that brian's release was imminent, but that was nearly an hour ago.

police say the reason brian was taken to belgravia was because they were the first officers on the scene, but they were in charing cross vehicles.

rikki
mail e-mail: rikkiindymedia@googlemail.com


brian just released

21.10.2006 10:27

brian was finally released at 11.15. he has been told he is on bail for a public order offence.

meanwhile the custody sergeant has confirmed that the woman who attacked the display has been released after being cautioned.

rikki


Not the first agent provocateur of course.

21.10.2006 12:28

The mystery man remains a mystery.
The mystery man remains a mystery.

Readers with a longish memory will remember a similar situation where police arrested six people in Parliament Square, yet only four came to court (one was excused due to terminal illness). The sixth is widely believed to have been an agent provocateur, for despite his picture and an appeal for information having appears on blogs ever since, he has never been identified.

This was on the first day that SOCPA came in to force and it was this mystery man's jostling that caused the police to come forward and start arrests.

See  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/331285.html for contemporaneous court reports.

mini mouse


brian's attacker

21.10.2006 21:56


this is a picture of brian's attacker.

despite the fact that this woman was waving a chair around, committed criminal damage, and apparently was so distressed by brian's display that police felt it necessary to arrest him, she was let off with jsut a caution.

strangers in the night!

rikki


Comments

Display the following 10 comments

  1. ... — Sparticus
  2. This is old news! — Bring the war home
  3. please ignore "bring the war home" — rikki
  4. offensive — mike d
  5. hmmmmmmmm — tipobarra
  6. Filth Puppets — another_bastard
  7. hmmmmmmm continued — the cur
  8. Reduce the cause to the man- reduce the man to the man's troubles — twilight
  9. Anti-war movement & Blair — Brian B
  10. "Rikki, WHY WAS YOUR PHOTO SO CRAP? " — rikki
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