Film making now illegal (?)
SCPlayer | 28.04.2002 09:17
On Friday afternoon the Anarchist Historical Re-enactment Society (or AHRS – pronounced “Arse”) staged a re-enactment of the attack by police of the Womble 7 on Oxford St last Halloween in the style of the Surveillance Camera Players. They were attacked by police.
Two minutes after two of the players donned white overalls, and just after the mock police had began batoning them, a real police car came out of nowhere, two cops jumped out, grabbed a woman in a white overall and proceeded to shove and pull her around.
They came up with several spurious reasons for attempting to detain us, including claiming we were causing an obstruction and suggesting that we might be intending to storm a nearby bank (which was closed).
The five of us ran down some side streets and, when we thought we’d lost the cops, return to Oxford St. We rounded a corner, to come face to face with 12 more cops and two paddy wagons so we legged it once more. One of the slower players was grabbed by a cop who then radioed in to find out if she’d actually done anything wrong!
When he found out she hadn’t she was let go and we re-grouped outside Niketown [where there was another story:
We started giving out copies of the Mayday Collective’s spoof paper, the Hate Mail, when Nike security started getting agitated and calling for backup. One of them came out with a camera and began photographing us. A random guy in a suit came out of the store and took a paper from us – and when he did Nike security grabbed him and bundled him over into a corner. Then they stuck a camera in his face and took a picture – at which point the guy went mad and took out his BBC press card! The journo called his Producer, the called the cops on the Niketown security, and they called the cops on us. Soon after the police arrived (again) we all decided to leave.]
For more information on the Womble 7 trial, check out
They came up with several spurious reasons for attempting to detain us, including claiming we were causing an obstruction and suggesting that we might be intending to storm a nearby bank (which was closed).
The five of us ran down some side streets and, when we thought we’d lost the cops, return to Oxford St. We rounded a corner, to come face to face with 12 more cops and two paddy wagons so we legged it once more. One of the slower players was grabbed by a cop who then radioed in to find out if she’d actually done anything wrong!
When he found out she hadn’t she was let go and we re-grouped outside Niketown [where there was another story:
We started giving out copies of the Mayday Collective’s spoof paper, the Hate Mail, when Nike security started getting agitated and calling for backup. One of them came out with a camera and began photographing us. A random guy in a suit came out of the store and took a paper from us – and when he did Nike security grabbed him and bundled him over into a corner. Then they stuck a camera in his face and took a picture – at which point the guy went mad and took out his BBC press card! The journo called his Producer, the called the cops on the Niketown security, and they called the cops on us. Soon after the police arrived (again) we all decided to leave.]
For more information on the Womble 7 trial, check out
SCPlayer
Homepage:
http://www.wombles.org.uk
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looking forward to mayday
28.04.2002 11:50
Sunday April 28, 2002
The Observer
Senior Ministers in Italy have sprung to the defence of seven police officers arrested for allegedly participating in the beating and humiliation of anti-globalisation protesters in Naples last year.
The seven were arrested on Friday, sparking a revolt by around 100 of their colleagues, who handcuffed themselves together to form a chain around the Naples police headquarters in a bid to prevent the suspects' removal.
Gianfranco Fini, the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the right-wing National Alliance, warned that it would be 'very grave' if there was insufficient evidence to justify the arrests.
Claudio Scajola, the Interior Minister, issued a statement expressing solidarity with the officers, praising their professionalism and spirit of self-sacrifice.
The arrested men are accused of committing physical and psychological violence against demonstrators arrested after protests at an international conference on electronic government.
The officers are accused of kidnap, violence and causing injuries after the unauthorised arrest of young people in hospital emergency rooms.
The indictments are based on the testimony of 85 alleged victims who described being beaten, stripped naked, insulted and forced to kiss an image of Benito Mussolini, Italy's wartime dictator.
The police violence in Naples has been described as a dry run for the repression of anti-globalisation demonstrations at the G8 summit in Genoa four months later. Many protesters were injured and one was shot dead by a young Carabiniere.
UN