Excuse me, Mr Arms Dealer, is that blood on your hands?
someone somewhere | 14.09.2001 13:39
On Wednesday morning the corridor between Custom House DLR Station and the Excel Centre was blockaded by a group of activists to prevent delegates from entering the arms fair. It took the police approximately 30 mins to remove the activists who were handcuffed to form a blockade, while other activists handed out leaflets stating 'do not panic, this is a peaceful protest...' No one was arrested.
On Thursday morning activists stopped a DLR train full of delegates heading to the fair at Royal Victoria station. They had handcuffed themselves to the train and were removed by police before being arrested. The passengers were leafletted by the activists before being sent off the train by the police. There were many delegates on board. This made them late (and angry), therefore disrupting the arms fair.
Two other activists swam across the dock towards the Excel centre, having painted anti-arms slogans on their bodies. They got about halfway across before being caught and brought back to shore, but not arrested.
On Thursday evening a big dinner party was held for the delegates at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in central London. A group of protesters in a mini-bus were followed by the police for 2 1/2 hours all over London finally arriving at the hotel which was itself swarming with cops. Activists stood outside the hotel shouting slogans like 'would you kill your own children?' at the arms dealers as they entered the hotel. They tried to stop several cars from entering but the police roughly moved them away. The police made the activists move away from the hotel entrance by dragging them 20m along the pavement. They were then detained for breach of the peace and made to stay in a pen further from the hotel entrance from which they continued to shout at the arms dealers until they ahd all gone inside. They were released by the police with no arrests.
On Thursday morning activists stopped a DLR train full of delegates heading to the fair at Royal Victoria station. They had handcuffed themselves to the train and were removed by police before being arrested. The passengers were leafletted by the activists before being sent off the train by the police. There were many delegates on board. This made them late (and angry), therefore disrupting the arms fair.
Two other activists swam across the dock towards the Excel centre, having painted anti-arms slogans on their bodies. They got about halfway across before being caught and brought back to shore, but not arrested.
On Thursday evening a big dinner party was held for the delegates at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in central London. A group of protesters in a mini-bus were followed by the police for 2 1/2 hours all over London finally arriving at the hotel which was itself swarming with cops. Activists stood outside the hotel shouting slogans like 'would you kill your own children?' at the arms dealers as they entered the hotel. They tried to stop several cars from entering but the police roughly moved them away. The police made the activists move away from the hotel entrance by dragging them 20m along the pavement. They were then detained for breach of the peace and made to stay in a pen further from the hotel entrance from which they continued to shout at the arms dealers until they ahd all gone inside. They were released by the police with no arrests.
someone somewhere
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Big thanks to the local community...
14.09.2001 18:30
We were just going for a walk in the neighbourhood in of Canning Town, not far from the ExCel building, where the arms fair was going on. Suddenly a police van appeared behind us. There were so many of them around, it didn't bother us in the beginning, just one more, we thought. But then two policemen ot off the van and run towards us - less than 10 metres away from them by then - while the van blocked our way in front of us. 'Where are you going?' and without waiting for an answer, grabbed one of us and stopped him. They demanded all his personal details, booklet in hand. He asked 'under what law'? The policeman answered 'Under MY law'.
The rest of us made our way out of there. People were on their doorsteps courious about what was happening the whole day - they don't usually see policemen around even when needed - and as we were trying to find our way back avoiding more police, a group of kids asked us what our problem was. We told them what had happened and that we were trying to avoid the police. The mother of the kids, when she heard this, invited us inside her house until police weren't around.
A big thank you to the community, especially kids, for the amazing support we had on the day.
some one else
Police harrassment
15.09.2001 19:30
The van was searched on two occasions. Upon finding a spray can inside (for banner making), the entire group of around 10 or 11 people inside were arrested for "conspiracy to commit criminal damage"!
Not only were we followed most of Thursday (more than 2 1/2 hours as reported above), but also all day Friday, and most of the week before, according to those I spoke to (although I wasn't with them then so I can't say for sure).
Whenever we left the van on foot, we were followed by an escort of 4-8 cops, even following us into the community cafe at one point. On several occasions, we were photographed, again and again, despite me saying "You've already got loads of me, how many more do you need for your files?".
The rough treatment on Thursday night has already been mentioned. The cops wanted us to move further and further from the main routes of the delegates, and since we wanted to stay put, we sat down and resisted. We were then forcibly dragged down the street.
I was put in a wrist lock and frogmarched into the area they had so graciously allowed us (sarcasm alert). Apart from struggling against the cops' grip, I didn't see anyone hit back against them, hardly surprising as we were completely peaceful protesters, a fact which seems to escape the police time and again.
I won't dwell too much on that incident though, as it has already been covered by a previous contributor, above. I just wanted to illustrate some of the tactics used against us by the police during the protests.
Genoseize Therat
e-mail:
genoseize@hotmail.com