The Independent Police Complaints Commission has now upheld a second complaint against the rambo Chief Supt. Kevin Moore, ex-Divisional Commander of Brighton Police, who branded the decision of the demonstrators to start the march in Palmeira Square 'anti-Semitic' because of the apparently large no. of Jewish residents nearby.

Moore was oblivious to the fact that the suggestion to start off at Palmeira Square had, in 2002-3 been that of the Police themselves! When I put this to Moore in a conversation I secretly tape-recorded, his response was that he hadn't been in Brighton at the time! Presumably Police computer records don't extend 4-5 years back.

In fact the last thing on the organisers of the march's mind was the ethnic/religious complexion of Palmeira Square and its environs (which incidentally is also the centre of an equally large if not larger Arab community). It's more a question of imperial politics hiding behind 'anti-racist' justifications. As the IPCC has noted, the demonstration was marching away from the local synagogues not towards them.

In my assault claim against Sussex Police, 7 police witnesses still stick to the 'anti-Semitic' line, which is going to be interesting when they get into the witness box! The same police witnesses also refer constantly to the demonstrators at EDO-MBM, the bomb factory that disfigures Brighton, associating them with the pro-Palestinian/Lebanese demonstrators. It is also interesting that they seem obsessed by certain individuals prominent in EDO (it seems a crime to them to be associated with EDO!) accusing them of ‘being capable of violence’ whereas, of course, any violence has been solely that of the Police themselves.

We believe Sussex Police should apologise for their behaviour on the demonstration, and not only Sussex Police. Former Brighton & Hove Council Leader Ken Bodfish and ex-Chair of the Police Committee, as well as being the author of the New Labour wipe-out at the last local elections, instructed his PA at a Police-Public meeting at the Brighthelm in 2006 to remove leaflets we had placed on chairs condemning Sussex Police's behaviour owes us an apology. That is if he can remember the time of day it is.

Sussex Police have not accepted the decision of the IPCC and are giving ‘words of advice’ to Chief Supt. Kevin Moore. We have called on the Chief Constable to make a public apology but we aren’t going to be losing any sleep over whether they do!

Tony Greenstein
Brighton & Hove Unemployed Workers Centre
4 Crestway Parade, The Crestway, Brighton BN1 7BL
Tel: 01273-540717 Fax 01273-540797