Recent days have been fairly traumatic for the residents and supporters of the JB Spray factory Squat after a local organisation decided they wanted to use the space.  The future of the beautiful building, which has been a long term home for many, is now uncertain.

At around 8pm on Monday 2nd April, one of the residents of the JB Spray returned to their home to find it had came under attack.  As one of the residents went to let another in through the outer gate, 8 unknown people emerged from the garage at the back of the yard and 7 more appeared on the street.  They had tools such as hammers, sledge-hammers and axes.  Due to the fact that one of the residents was letting another in at this moment, the doors were open, which allowed this group access to the building.  Not much was said but the menace of the situation spoke volumes to the two residents who experienced this initial situation.  They left as soon as they could to go find help from friends and fellow squatters.

Meanwhile, some of this unknown group of people entered the building and started looking around in the dark, starting on the ground floor and working their way up, looking around in people's rooms and in the communal areas.  They did not take anything.  Whilst inside they encountered more residents in the darkness.  Again there was not much communication.  Some were putting on a lot of front.  There was one guy who was a bit older than the rest, perhaps in his mid to late forties, who spoke to one of the residents, asking their name and suggesting that they would be going away now and coming back at a later time.  During the time that they were inside, two more residents returned home to find this large group of people on their doorstep.

The group (about 15 people all told) then melted off into the night, some in a white van.  Soon after they left a group of friends and supporters, many of whom were ex-residents and current squatters from other squats arrived on the scene.  Almost immediately after arriving, the same white van pulled up outside and drove slowly past then stopped and reversed back.  All they said of note was "What are you doing here?" to which the reply was "We live here."  to which they replied "We'll see about that..." before they drove off.  Efforts were immediately focused on barricading in the yard to make it more difficult, or at least noisy, in the circumstance that the group returned.

The residents and those supporters who could stay over that night maintained a nervous vigilance with a strong undercurrent of fear about what might occur during the night.  As it went, nothing else happened that night.  There was a feeling during the night and the next morning that the people who had turned up would probably not attempt to do anything during the normal working hours of the day, as there is a busy building site opposite the squat.  As well many people were assuming, or at least hoping, that whatever the group of people had come for, they had been deterred by the fact that there were actually people living in what could appear, without much investigation, to be an empty building.

This turned out to be more of a hope than a reality because at around midday on Tuesday 3rd April the attcking group turned up again in force and with tools including hammers, sledge-hammers, axes.  This time there was no open door for them so instead they smashed and hacked their way in through two large old double doors that are not in day to day use.  The residents just about managed to get a message out, but it was very unclear what the situation was.  When fellow squatters and friends arrived outside the situation remained very unclear.  They found the gate open as well as the in-use front door, but could not see anyone.  While continuing to scout out the perimeter, one of the residents hung out the third-floor window and shouted down repeatedly to "come back later" and that "everything is fine".  Not convinced the people outside continued to wait, and while doing so a man walked past on the phone and carrying a bicycle lock.  As he walked past it became clear he was talking on the phone to his people who were inside the building.  It was this man, in his mid to late forties, that had spoken to and left an impression on one of the residents the night before.  We asked him what was going on, to which he replied very calmly that they would be leaving soon and that he would come and explain shortly.  We followed him to the gate which he quickly closed and locked with his bicycle lock.  Another person was in the yard who came to the fence to talk to us.  He was not giving much away except to make out like he knew the people who lived there and that we were the ones who were not welcome.  When we persisted in asking him what was going on he eventually said, in a half-joking way, that we would "have to talk to the manager."  At this point one of the residents came out and again said "everything is ok" and to "come back later." The resident seemed nervous and it was strange that he would only repeat the same couple of things.  At this point the people outside realised that they might be making the situation less safe for the residents inside.  Feeling powerless to act and worried about making the situation worse they decided to leave for the time being.

Soon after they left the police arrived in numbers.  It is unclear as to who called them, though the assumption is it was some of the builders working on the building opposite.  It definitely was not any of the residents or supporters of the Spray.  The organised group who had invaded the Spray came outside to meet the police and about five people were arrested.  The residents were told they would be "allowed to stay."  (Too right, obviously, as it would have been an illegal eviction.  It is not the police's prerogative due to the fact it is a civil matter and, besides, there is no current possession order on the building.)

Supporters returned to their friend's squatted home while the police were there but were not allowed in as it was a crime scene and they were waiting for the Crime Scene Investigation team.  On the way over we spoke to a resident on the phone and it turns out this attack had been an attempt to start a weed growing operation in the building. It was also discovered that one of the residents had been hit round the head with a hammer and had been taken by paramedics to hospital.  All in all the unknown group came across as a very confident but also quite amateur group.  The fact they chose a building which was people's home and that they chose to break in during working hours when there is a busy building site opposite are both very bold but seemingly poorly informed decisions.

There is now a lot of uncertainty about what will become of the JB Spray.  While the police were on the scene we also saw the well known (from previous eviction attempts) manager and employees of Portable Buildings Limited, who are representatives of the owners of the building.  This incident will certainly have brought the building back to the forefront of their minds, and given them a good idea of exactly how many people live there and what the security is like.  Though the police were very well behaved, their presence is always a worrying one.  The association of them "being on our side" is potentially very damaging and a fallacy because we know for a fact that tomorrow they will be against us, whether its their prerogative or not.