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Police Stop Strawberry Fair

ACAB | 23.03.2010 11:13 | Culture | Free Spaces | Repression | Cambridge

The annual Cambridge Strawberry fair has been cancelled for this year, after police appealed the decision by councillors to grant it a licence to run in 2010.

Not enough rules for the cops
Not enough rules for the cops


As an urban75 report shows, the event has been stringently policed for years. The free fair, which has taken place on Midsummer Common on the first Saturday in June since the early 70's was billed £1 500 for policing of the event last year. This included using dog sniffers to check all rail passengers arriving in Cambridge for drugs, irrespective of whether they were attending the festival or not.

In 2009, the organisers of the Big Green Gathering were forced to cancel the event 36 hours before it was scheduled to start, after threats of an injunction from the council and police. The BGG Company was bankrupted as a result.

The Kingston Green Fair, which ran from 1897, was brought to an end by bad weather in 2008. An attempt to set up a smaller Kingston Green Kids fair was thwarted by the local council citing safety concerns in 2009.

ACAB


Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

eye, All Coppers Are Bastards

23.03.2010 11:55

The police really are all bastards. Some people say this is a discriminatory view but if you are a member of an organisation who's policy is to be bastards then you are a bastard. If you go on a protest they attack and arrest you. If you go to a festival they harass and threaten you. We can't let them get away with this. They had got away with too much already.

Fairer deal for all as summer bash gets it right
 http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Fairer-deal-for-all-as-summer-bash-gets-it-right.htm

"Justin Argent, event chairman, said: "We spent a lot of time listening to feedback from residents' groups and in response, we had more than 25 per cent more toilets and around two-and-a-half kilometres of fencing to prevent fair-goers from spilling into the surrounding streets.
"We're really delighted with the result of the plan we developed and are very grateful to the council and police for their support in implementing it.
"The police and council had licensing teams out across the city on the day monitoring alcohol sales, and all trains to Cambridge were alcohol free.
"Sadly, there are always going to be complaints when you run an event the size of Strawberry Fair, but we were able to provide an effective combined response to all issues that were raised with us through our residents' hotline".

Cambridge police have previously spent millions of tax payers money on the investigation of social workers for failure to prevent homeless people from taking drugs. The police are not impartial, they are a political actor, the jack boot of the state.

the jack boot of the workers


Reclaim your rights

23.03.2010 17:33

People are planning to turn up anyway! Bring instruments, friends, and food. The police wont stop the people of Cambridge and beyond from having fun and enjoying a community run event.

Don't let the police push you around, defy all authority!

Strawberry yoghurt


self-sabotage

24.03.2010 10:43

Facebook event for all those who want to tell the police who they are and how they're connected - d'oh!

You don't need it boys and girls....

But hey, easier to create a Facebook event than actually organise anything!!

johnny givinemitall


fister

07.04.2010 15:48

Yeah the police realy are bastards, esopecially the ones who hijack websites like this one to try and catch so called activists out, bit like that scene in kill bill when uma thurman spanks the naughty triad on the bottom and tells him to go back home to his mother.
Further more i suppose there are suckers born every minute who think they can change issues in a legitimate way by banging on a computer keyboard everyday.
you lot get the politicians and system you deserve, even if you were given freedom for a day you wouldnt know what to do with it so why bother with your stupid agitprop and campaigns, eat your chicken/turkey drumsticks and drink your fuckin lager, get fat and dream about the proletariet revolution thats never going to happen why because you are a bunch of bone idle lazy unimaginitive fuckwits who need controlling.

fister
mail e-mail: fisterville@fisterorg.co.uk


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