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 - a plea from barbara tucker

rikki | 14.03.2008 01:19 | SOCPA | Repression

police tried this afternoon to arrest brian haw and remove the tents that are home to him and several supporters. they backed down in the face of legal argument, unsure that they would get away with yet another illegal act. they did however arrest 'ant' (again!) for alleged public order offence. although a minor offence, he has been held at belgravia for nine hours already and refused contact with his lawyer

in this very short and heart felt video plea, barbara tucker points out that the courts have never given permission for the police to enforce SOCPA because the act requires authorisation and conditions to be set by the commissioner, and any legal authority to delegate has yet to be proven. in the meantime, the protestors have successfully argued against the use of criminal law section 3(1) to empower seizure of banners, tents etc, showing that the £110,000 police operation in the dead of night in may 2006 was illegal.

despite having the law on their side, the peace camp suffers regular arrests and threats from the police. just last week, barbara and two others were held at belgravia for nearly 20 hours after being arrested for alleged unauthorised protest. ( http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/392412.html)

today, inspector fox tried to threaten brian haw with arrest if he didn't remove tents and banners that exceeded an arbitary 3 metre restriction. police also tried to search the tents without warrant or court order. ( http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/393715.html and  http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/393719.html)

it is blindingly obvious that if the powers existed, police would have got court orders for search, seizure or enforcement by now. instead they keep committing acts that are shown later in court to be unlawful. the fear of further such cases seem to have caused the retreat today, but the pressure and intimidation is growing. 'ant' was arrested for calling the police 'nazis' this afternoon. despite this being a minor public order offence at worst, he is still in detention at belgravia police station, and his solicitors have repeatedly tried to get news or speak to him, but the police have refused to co-operate.

there are fears for his safety.

tomorrow night, indymedia will publish footage of today's attempted seizure and ant's arrest

rikki
- e-mail: rikkiindymedia[@t]gmail(d0t)com
- Homepage: http://www.socpa-movie.blogspot.com

Additions

update

14.03.2008 15:00

ant was finally released at about 7.30am this morning after being held overnight at belgravia police station

his arm is in a sling after some rough treatment at the police station

he has been charged with a public order offence after allegedly calling the police 'nazis'

brian haw's video of yesterday's events will be posted later today

rikki


update correction

14.03.2008 17:59

ant turned up back at the square about 7.30 this morning, but was actually released from belgravia at around 3am the intervening hours were spent in hospital where his arm was x-rayed - nothing broken but bad bruising

surely if ant had been struggling he'd have been charged with resisting arrest or assaulting a police officer, so the only remaining explanation for the bruising must be assault at the hands of the police

rikki


Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Why is this an arrestable offence? — Paul Hussey
  2. Why is this an arrestable offence? — Brian B
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