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.

Scottish Police Harass a Peaceful Protest

Alex Cabb | 15.04.2008 22:40 | Repression | Social Struggles

Five members of the Edinburgh Clown Army (1) were detained for questioning this afternoon at a peaceful and entertaining biofuels protest in Bruntsfield(2). They have since been arrested and charged with a breach of the peace, despite maintaining a friendly atmosphere.

Eye-witnesses state that the biofuels demonstration was peaceful, friendly and party-like atmosphere.

Witnesses also state that the Clowns were friendly and entertaining, creating a comical and amusing ambiance for the protest.

Witnesses say that the Clowns gave no grounds for the police to charge them with a breach of the peace.

Police moved in in large numbers, surrounding the Clowns, filmed them, and took them one by one into the back of a police van.

They were taken to St Leonards Police Station for questioning, at which point they were charged with a breach of the peace.

The protest was part of the biofuels day of action, and took place at the BP garage in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh.

People who attended the demonstration are shocked and angered by the treatment the Clowns have received from the police.

This latest move from the police is part of an ongoing campaign of harassing peaceful demonstrators over the last six months. Three environmental campaigners were detained for questioning at 7.30 in the morning last month, including one of the Clowns who were targeted by the police on Tuesday.

They are due in court tomorrow, Wed 16th, and the friends and relatives of those arrested will be turning up to support them.

Friends and relatives of those Clowns who were arrested urge the media to provide the pictures and videos that will help prove that they have been wrongfully arrested.

From -  http://scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/5536/index.php

Notes:

(1) A comical and entertaining activist group that use humour and ridicule to challenge the status quo.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_Insurgent_Rebel_Clown_Army
(2) The protest was called by Biofuels Watch to raise awareness about the negative impacts this fuel source has: calling for a an EU moratorium on agrofuels from large-scale monocultures. Agroenergy monocultures are linked to accelerated climate change, deforestation, the impoverishment and dispossession of local communities, bio-diversity losses, human rights abuses, water and soil degradation, loss of food sovereignty and food security.  http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/

Alex Cabb
- Homepage: http://scotland.indymedia.org

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Police Harras Clowns...

16.04.2008 07:37

So, this is how the Polis have decided to deal with us? Harrasment, intimidation and arbitary arrest... A friend and fellow clown was recently stopped and searched by the police here in Aberystwyth (which, for those of you who don't know is in the County of Ceredigion in WEST WALES.) The reason given by our friendly neighbourhood upholder and defender of the Status Quo (never liked that band...) for stopping her? That her car had been seen outside an MOD base. And where was this? Faslane (which, if memory serves is in Scotland and, as I recall about two hundred miles from little ole Aber!) Kinda gives the lie to the old shiboleth about the surveillance state with its CCTV and ID cards that "if you aren't breaking the law then you have nothing to fear" doesn't it? My friend wasn't even arrested at Faslane (nor has she ever been arrested anywhere else.) In fact, she's only had a coupla parking tickets in her whole life... Yet her car registration and details are now on the police national vehicle data base. Take care people, Big Brother IS watching, and he will take whatever action he can to let you know what will happen if you put even a toe over his line... I have no doubt that the Clowns who were arrested in the incident described above will almost certainly not be prosecuted and, in the unlikely event that they are, that this prosecution will probably not succeed. This seems to be the pattern that has emerged in the five years or so that we have been around. It is almost certainly a similar experience to those of other direct action groups. Perhaps someone should look into the numbers, but I think that they will find that, although the number of Clowns arrested seems to be rising inexorably there have yet to be ANY convictions or even, for that matter, prosecutions that actually went so far as a trial. The lesson we must learn is that this police tactic is an attempt to scare us and that, apparently, they are content to use the threat of arrest etc, rather than risk looking very foolish when the defence barrister asks the question of a police witness in court "so P.C. Plod... Why did you arrest this Clown?" Don't let them scare us. Let them know that we refuse to be intimidated and that we are not going anywhere! Go Clowns! Who are we? Clown Army! CIRCA forever! Sgt Sideshow salutes you!

Sgt Sideshow


Only the lonely.....

16.04.2008 14:11

Call me an old cynic but may be Plod needs some entertainment.

On a serious note, from my experience, anyone who expresses anti establishment views is now considered a threat and has the status of terrorist. This expression of views extends to groups who are part of the establishment, eg masons. I am a Police/Polis target purely due to an anti mason campaign. Say anything about masonic corruption and hey presto the cops are out to get you.

One of the worse things is for the Plod to get a car number to put on the APNR system. They can track you where ever you go then. Phone numbers are another hazard, at least a mobile enables you to change number at will.

This is indeed the surveillance society and anyone who questions authority gets harassed. Time for a strategy to deal with this.

Sgt Pepper


hello Big Brother

16.04.2008 17:58

The clowns have been charged and will appear in court in August. Whether or not the charges will be dropped is debatable. It looks like the Police just took this as an opportunity to ask them lots of nasty questions about various other (anti-)political activity going on in Edinburgh recently, as if there is only one small group of people who are anti establishment in the city. The clowns were not treated kindly whilst being held.
Anyone appearing slightly alternative and wishing to go into the clowns' hearing had to give their name and address or they wouldn't be admitted (to this "open court"). They were told different stories as to why, and as to who will now see and use their details ("they will be kept in the police fraternity").
once Big Brother is watching you, he wants to pin as many of his big file of problems on you as he can.

Pwdin


Chat with the Chief Constable

17.04.2008 09:10

The chief constable of Lothian and Borders will be happy to chat about clowning concerns.

On 12:30 to 13:30 Thursday 17th of April

Keep questions polite, but I doubt if they will be answered.

 http://www.lbp.police.uk/chat/index.asp

Starkj


Chief ain't talkin

17.04.2008 10:56


Sorry the above comment is out of date.

starkj73


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