barbara tucker was carrying on her solo protest outside downing street this afternoon. as she did on wednesday, ( http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/06/343251.html), she carried a copy of her police notification with her. she was approached by 'diplomatic' police first, and they called officers from charing cross. once again, ignoring barbara's notification they said they were 'notifying' her to the crown prosecution service for likely summons for holding an 'unauthorised' demonstration. as this has been threatened more than thirty times before, she was furious at this repeated police harrassment, and demanded that her statement be taken (swear words and all). but officers then tried to arrest her under a public order section 5, and wrestled the poor woman to the ground in front of horrified tourists, twisting her arm so badly behind her back that she thought they were breaking it.

they carted her off to charing cross, but then refused to let her sign any statement and instead of processing her, escorted her outside. she demanded to make an official complaint against the officers who had assaulted her, especially in view of the fact that they seemed to be dropping any proceedings against her, throwing the whole arrest into doubt.
eventually her assault complaint was taken and the marks on her arm photographed.

back at downing street, steve, who had been subject to assault by other charing cross thugs last sunday ( http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/06/343058.html), was holding a banner asking for witnesses to come forward. but in the bizarre universe of the serious organised crime and police act ban on demonstrations, an officer from that very same police station decided that this was in itself a protest, and told him he would be reported for the offence. as per last week, steve refused to give his details , believing he was not doing anything illegal. but constable burnett would not listen to reason, and decided to arrest him. thankfully, this week officers decided not to handcuff him, and so he got into the police van and was bundled off to the station.

latest report is that he is still refusing to give his details. of course the police must now have access to this information because he gave his full name and address in court last monday after his assault and arrest, but they were refusing to let him out until he complied again.

he is due in court in the morning relating to last week, but it looks like he might be there anyway after another night in the cells.

again, it seems that if you carry on a lone demonstration in the socpa zone, it is impossible to know how you will be treated. perhaps, like wednesday ( http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/06/343251.html) you will be allowed to peacefully continue your business. or perhaps, like steve last week and barbara this week, you will face injury at the hands of violent bullies in uniform. and if you try to collect evidence of your assault, the police might just come along and spuriously arrest you again to prevent you from doing so.

while the courts and judges still have the power, i am confident that these unjust assaults on liberty will be evntually exposed for what they are, deemed unlawful, and that freedom to protest will win through. but blair is talking about summary justice and doing away with even more civil liberties. if you want to know what this really means on the streets, look no further.