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Update: EDO Decommissioners Get Charged With Conspiracy

smzh | 17.02.2009 11:52 | Smash EDO | Anti-militarism | Palestine | Terror War | South Coast

Yesterday in Brighton magistrate's court defendants in the EDO Decommissioners Case
had charges of Burglary dropped and replaced with Conspiracy To Cause Criminal Damage.

The committal hearing of the case formally handed it over to the Crown Court.

Robert Alford who is on remand in Lewes Prison was refused a bail application to reside in Brighton.

Elijah Smith also on remand was moved to a prison in Bristol on Sunday for 'security reasons.'

The CPS said the estimated cost to EDO MBM ITT as a result of the January 17th decommissioning action was now £300,000.

There will be a further pre-trial hearing of the case on May 8th.

smzh

Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

Conspiray and the Secret Police

17.02.2009 13:03

Whenever the charge is 'Conpiracy' it is almost always a political trial.
The plod on the ground at the incident are 'just doing their job', while their Stasi colleagues higher up know that it is easier to get a conviction on hearsay evidence and that conspiracy carries a heavier sentence. I just hope the jury knows this and takes it into account.
Conspiracy is a lazy conviction, requiring no hard evidence on the part of the state.

Many ordinary plod genuinely feel proud of their job. The Stasi secret police are vile little reptiles who will do their underhand work to 'protect' any state they happen to be born in, the UK, East Germany, North Korea etc etc.

Hey Stasi, do you really think you are genuinely in the 'War against Terror' charging non-violent people who are upholding International Law? You make me cringe, and I can't imagine you having any friends, being what you are. Take a long hard look at yourself and then go and do something useful with you life.

citizen


Good luck you guys

17.02.2009 13:19

what you did was an inspiration to us all

J


hey Stasi

17.02.2009 13:27

check this out and hang your heads in shame, then go and change your life.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7893890.stm

citizen


Hang on!

17.02.2009 13:45

Hang on!
Shouldn't it be EDO/ITT being charged with conspiracy to criminal damage.
It is their weapons that are being used to commit criminal damage.
(and murder. and war crimes. and crimes against humanity. and genocide.)
The police are actively protecting the criminals.
The police are actively committing 'conspiracy to criminal damage'.
Who can arrest and charge the police?
All police should be ashamed of the badge that they wear.

I'd also like to commend the decommissions and encourage others to smash up weapons factories and uphold the laws that the british injustice system won't.

Twiggs


!

17.02.2009 16:44

they should be done with more than conspiracy they should be done with aiding and a betting war crimes and sentenced to a life of making push bikes and wind mills!!!

vex


Political conspiracy cases

17.02.2009 18:01

I'm guessing the "conspiracy" is due to not causing X amount of damage at EDO, but advocating for XXX amount of damage to occur by others against arms dealers in general? That would weigh a much heavier sentence, as it would involve "conspiring with persons unknown ... to commit criminal damage" - even if nobody smashes anything up; it still fits into that law. For example conspiring to cause millions, even billions of damage against the EDO Corporation, its affiliates, competitors or partners. If only...!

All the best to the activists - it may not go down too badly first time round!!

This isn't the first and it won't be the last -  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/419733.html

@ntispeciesist


conspiracy...and its wonders

17.02.2009 21:27

well here it is...

Spread the wink like wildflowers – ‘or sink me!’
We need the proactive resistance of mischievous hoodwinking and a cunning conspiracy ethic.

wink (wingk) v. 1. to close and open one eye as a signal or suggestion.
conspire (ken-spir) v. 1. to plan together secretly to commit an illegal act 2. to work or act together; unite 3. to breathe together (Latin: conspirare: con with, together; spirare: breathe, as in respire or respiration).

In such times as these, with warring ways abounding, how must we be if we desire to initiate and work together for peaceful calms amidst the warring storms and maelstroms?

Nonviolence is a force not yet fully known. However we need to nurture a culture of conspiracy to do so. Have we forgotten the art of the wink, the knowing lifting of the eyebrows or the kiddy codes of childhood, the eyehole shaped spyhole in the comic or paper? What of co-operation, can it at certain mystical times appear to be almost near telepathic? In a nutshell, we need a sense of embrace, affinity and caring cheek.

Let us be for nonviolent calm proactive interventions, not against stuff. Let us do and initiate, show not try to tell, act not ask. If our inspirations are for something, which at its very core is our very vision, like as if life only has meaning with it then we need to rise to the occasion earlier than usually required, be proactive, creative and love with obvious stealth and nimble sidestepping moves. Lets ensure no one ever again stands on our eyeballs, not even ourselves.

Labels like ‘protester’ and may have harmed us much, protest like complaint is negating. Nonviolent radicals’ interventional roots will need to go deep and deeper, so that we will be required to conspire, and the larger picture will need to reveal a broad conspiring of other smaller conspiracies. This is not to say everyone must do the same kind of work. Diversity can be and is often very complimentary.

Our work must be to learn to have the patience to dig for firm foundations and water the emerging of creative nonviolent initiatives. Let us create a sense of youthful, exuberant camaraderie, and crafty kind cheekiness. Where are the hidey holes for nonviolent subversives who subvert without dynamite, when they are needed.

Here’s a brief list of what aspects our conspiracy culture might take on for efficacies sake.

*Networks of support structures: safe houses along ‘an underground-style railroad’; free food programs (like Food Not Bombs); people to give, find offer hospitality or create new identities.

*People to research for nonviolent calm interventions who leave trailless movements. Different people with particular talents to take on all the many roles in a calm conspiracies.

*Intentional ‘creative’ nonviolence training is needed with an emphasis on ‘creative’ and ‘nonviolence’ as well as ways of reflecting and addressing the dominant thinking we often can succumb too. This affects our strategies more than know.

*A need-to-know only consciousness. It is simply uncouth to ask or tell what someone’s up to (unless they tell you it’s okay). Get beyond friendship cliques and work together with people that dress, look and think differently from us, or we’re doomed to suspicion and sameness and dryness.

*Learning ways to communicate and to act together, honor the all tools in the nonviolence theory toolbox for real. No more petty competition, or else the first risky step toward a general conspiracy of heart, mind and action won’t be made in good faith!

*Promote the “finely-honed and subtle, yet unmistakable artful wink that can be seen from yards, and recognised from miles away, across borders and privilege lines, over ridgetops and into the cities, a wink that makes a wish when an eyelash falls” - unknown and adapted

It seems to me that it is now especially important to do what is right quietly and persistently, not only without asking permission from government, but consciously avoiding its participation. - Leo Tolstoy, Letter to the Liberals

The goal is to make it all work, breathe together and spread the ‘wink’ like wildfire. Because in actuality, conspiracy is the imperative when it comes to really having solidarity. Winning may not be the point of it all anyway.

LHM - (Under a new guise these days)

LHM


conspiracy comment

17.02.2009 23:38

I think @ntispecieist is jumping ahead of the game.
The conspiracy to commit criminal damage is what is says on the tin, its not conspiracy with persons unknown. Its 6 defendants from bristol plus 3 from brighton, and 2 of the 6 from bristol are known to have previous in brighton. So its a conspiracy amongst those 9. Or not. Clearly the cops fancy they can prove the 9 conspired, and that the 3 from brighton weren't just in the wrong place at the wrong time. So lets see what crap the cops come up with to try to prove the 9 conspired.

Of course the conspiracy @ntisp refers to may come into play, but I'd guess it'll be further down the line if it happens, and with other defendants.

In the meantime, solidarity with all those charged. Funds are needed because legal aid is being limited to £5000 to cover all 9 defendants, and that aint gonna spread very far. Check the campaign websites and get stuck in.

bristol supporter


"Winning may not be the point of it all anyway."?

18.02.2009 17:26

What’s that all about?

Win


winning is not what its all about

15.03.2009 01:04

life is not a competition - if you do not win against another competitor so what , who cares - its being true to what is most important and that is a kind of winning and dying too. You do not have to understand this

lhm


winning is not what its all about

15.03.2009 01:05

life is not a competition - if you do not win against another competitor so what , who cares - its being true to what is most important and that is a kind of winning and dying too. You do not have to understand this

lhm


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