Police station targetted in Bristol

orwell | 31.07.2006 14:01 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Repression

Last night, Trinity Road Police Station in Old Market, Bristol was decorated with the words “Justice for De Menezes, No State Terrorism, Stop Killer Cops”.

One year on from the killing of Jean Charles De Menezes, mistaken for a “terrorist” by trigger-happy officers. Following a year of lies, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced that there will be no prosecution for De Menezes’s killers. The officers who blasted seven shots into the innocent, defenceless mans’s head will run free and the police chiefs calling the shots have now been given total impunity. This is just the start, setting a precedent for “shoot to kill” terrorism carried out by the state as it steps it’s own agenda – the “war on terror”.

Don’t expect any results from the endless enquiries and investigations. Just like the Hutton enquiry was to the Iraq war, they will be nothing more than an elaborate cover-up to protect state violence.

This could happen to any of us, our lives mean nothing to the murderous, authoritarian politicians and police.
This was a small action to show our rage and contempt for a police service which is always allowed to walk free.
We are sick of the daily violence of the state and its hired thugs.
We don’t forget all their victims, and cannot quietly accept the police state being built around us. You may disagree with our tactics, and that is fine. But find a way that suits you. Fight back in any way you can.

orwell

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

I don't disagree.

01.08.2006 11:58

It needs to be said and if painting on walls is the only way then go for it!

Itsme

Missed

01.08.2006 13:18

Yeah, coz Avon and Somerset police are directly responsible for policing London and for the mess ups that caused the Stockwell shooting. Oh - wait - no - hang on, that was the Met.

I'm sure you'll reply that they "all-seem-the-same" to you... but that's the kind of dumb logic used by, erm, the Metropolitan police.

Norville B

graffitti regional playoffs ?

01.08.2006 18:50

"I'm sure you'll reply that they "all-seem-the-same" to you... but that's the kind of dumb logic used by, erm, the Metropolitan police."

If your only complaint is the location of the protest then I think you are wrong. Police are police, you don't differentiate between different divisions of corporations. Although the stencil shown would obviously be better on the Blair twins bedroom windows it seems over-the-top to suggest the artist travels to London to register their protest. Now that you can copy the stencil, why not follow your own advice and spray it on a Metropolitan police car ?

To take your argument to it's extremes then say there was a Union Carbide office in your hometown. Would you think it unreasonable to demonstrate their against their unpunished murder of 20,000 in India ? Union Carbide India is a separate division from your local Union Carbide after all.

The truth is we must act locally on global issues and so it is at least as valid - and more affordable and environmental - to protest at the most local representative of the organisation or policy we oppose. The MET killed de Menezes but the shoot to kill policy was national and the first judicial murder could have occurred anywhere, they do occur everywhere.

Good graffitti in my mind should be artistic, political or thought-provoking, or just plain risky to do. That stencil qualifies in all three aspects.

In Scotland we have our own game with stencils but its based on quantity not quality. You get one point for a policecar. You get three points for an defence workers vehicle. You get five points for an army recruitment vehicle. You get a hundred points for a nuclear-convoy vehicle. You get one hundred and fifty for a war-plane. You get five hundred points for a Trident. We bet who can get the most over a set time period and we boast who has the most overall - I can't boast as I'm only on nine points. We don't award points for buildings yet but I'm going to suggest we do and ten points for a police-station sounds fair, though I'd have loads if we counted arms-factories too so the others might not agree.

I think we should have a graffitti league based on the different IM regions. We could agree the points of each worthy target and start from scratch, and to get the points you have post proof here.

worry

01.08.2006 19:38

how about "most policemen are not killers "?

most cops aren't killers

01.08.2006 22:28

The trouble is the ones that aren't killers refuse to arrest those that are, and so are we could finish your slogan " Most cops aren't killers but those who cops are killers go unpunished so all cops are accessories to the murder of De Menezes". Bit harder to spray though.

Murder requires more than they had

05.08.2006 16:23

The officers in question believed the guy was about to detonate himself, if that is the assumtion you are working did they still commit murder as you put it... and really the police dont exactly have a regular habit of shooting innocents, so is it not entirley feasable that this was an accident due to poor information management.

Sam