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Animal rights protesters raided for banner drop

SchNEWS | 24.10.2008 23:44 | SHAC | Animal Liberation | Health | Repression | South Coast

CIBA PUNKS - Issue 652

IN THE VIRTUAL REALITY OF THE CRACKDOWN ON ANIMAL RIGHTS PROTESTS

Banner drop against Ciba Vision
Banner drop against Ciba Vision



The British Govt’s attempts to smash the animal rights movement have long been catalogued in SchNEWS over the years, but this week it turned from the pernicious to the ridiculous as Police stretched their already tenuous use of the word ‘blackmail’ with regards to animal rights protest...

Last Tuesday (14th) some activists did a banner drop protesting against Ciba Vision, a subsidiary of Novartis, from an overpass over the motorway near Ciba Vision’s premises at Hedge End, near Southampton. Ciba Vision make contact lenses, and are a client of vivisection lab Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). The protest was just outside the exclusion zone which limits protests near the premises of a list of companies associated with HLS as named on the injunction against SHAC (See SchNEWS 581). The two were not arrested, and only had their details taken by police for a possible court summons.

But things turned serious last Friday at 10am, when police kicked the door down at the house they were staying. With a search warrant regarding Tuesday’s banner-drop, 25 coppers arrived - including Hampshire Police’s two ‘animal rights specialists’, Martin Foster and Andrew Tester - and some plain-clothes CID to do the interviewing. The two banner-droppers were arrested for criminal damage and conspiracy to blackmail – because, the police said, they had used spraypaint to make the banner, and that spraypaint had been used in other actions against HLS targets previously! Their clothes were confiscated for forensic analysis, to see if they could be linked to a recent ‘home visit’ on the manager of a HLS client which involved paintstripper on his car and other nasty surprises. As one of them said, “It’s as though police think we’re the only people in Hampshire with spray cans”.

This was the third time this same household had been raided in the past year, and police also took a computer, owned by another resident, who is currently one of the defendants in the upcoming SHAC trials (see below). A total of six computers, three printers and ten mobile phones have been taken from this household during these raids.

How can a banner drop in a public place – for all intents and purposes a legal, non-violent action - blow out into a possible charge of ‘conspiracy to blackmail’? With the evidence at hand this case would get laughed out of court - that is unless the police try to pin something on them – but this is just the latest chapter in the British Govt’s tenacious and heavy handed campaign to smash animal rights activism in this country.

Said one of the arrestees - “If they take what is legal protest, and use it to arrest people, it forces protesters underground because if they put their faces to actions – even legal ones – they risk having their house raided and being dragged into court cases with possible prison sentences. The Police are the biggest recruiters for the ALF (the name used for covert, anonymous animal rights actions).”

“Any animal rights activist saying ‘I will continue to protest until they stop’ is now seen as tantamount to blackmail. But what is happening to SHAC and other animal rights groups is going to happen to other types of campaigns.”

TRIAL & ERROR

Rumbling in the background to this weeks incident is the first of two SHAC trials, which is currently into it’s third week and is due to last over four months, ending in January. The second trial begins then, but it may be affected by the results of the first. Eight have been charged - two with blackmail and the others with ‘conspiracy to blackmail’. Since then, four are on remand and three have pleaded guilty.

But what is all this ‘blackmail’ thing about? Since 2001 SHAC have published the names of companies doing business with HLS, and initially sent them polite letters saying, ‘Do you know what HLS do? Please stop dealing with them.’ Since then there have been demos and ALF-style actions against some of them.

It turns out that some of the companies involved did stop working with HLS. Many did so after being visited by police, who told their management that now they were on the SHAC website they needed to beef up security - warning staff of dire threats to life and limb and advising them to check under their cars for bombs. These companies include those making cages, other torture equipment, and supplying transport and other services to HLS, as well as clients using HLS’s ‘research’ on animals.

The police and prosecution are alleging that, by hosting the names of companies that work with Huntingdon Life Sciences, SHAC are giving a nod and a wink to ALF-style attacks. Yes covert attacks have taken place against HLS related targets – including paintstripper on cars, phonecalls and letters to directors’ homes and more – and people have been prosecuted for various offences in the past – but these attacks against HLS (and associated companies) are not being linked to the SHAC defendants in this trial. Instead re-publishing public information and writing to companies about animal abuse inside HLS’ labs is made to look like a scene from a Mafia movie where the don says “...we wouldn’t want any nasty accidents to happen to you on your way back from the animal murdering lab, would we now.”

This trial is just the latest court case involving animal rights activists, coming after the recent Sequani trials which saw Sean Kirtley banged up for four years for running a website (See SchNEWS 634). In May 2007 police made 32 arrests across the UK in ‘Operation Achilles’. 700 police were involved as homes and animal sanctuaries were raided, with police seizing computers, mobile phones and cash in what a popular weekly direct action newsletter described as a ‘fishing expedition’ (See SchNEWS 586).

But while HLS are being protected by the bootboys and laws of the British state, they are in fact in a tenuous state. They took a loan from the British Govt in 2001, and are battling to repay it. Novartis are being targeted because they are a major client of HLS, which HLS would sorely miss, and their status on the New York Stock Exchange is another weak point for them. If they get kicked off the NYSE before 2011 – as has happened in the past due to the international efforts of SHAC - they will go into liquidation.

That animal rights activists are portrayed in Britain as ‘extremists’ or ‘terrorists’ is deeply ironic seeing as they are about protecting animals from torture.

* See also www.shac.net

SchNEWS
- Homepage: http://www.schnews.org.uk

Comments

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This is the trial where 3 have already pleaded guilty?

25.10.2008 09:51

This sort of 'puff' piece dos no good at all - Who is it intended to fool? Those that are close enough to know the facts know its lies those that aren't can see that it makes no sense.

The fact is that the SHAC campaign used lawful and unlawful tactics to achive its' ends - this caused a police investigation and prosecution. When faced with the posecution case three of the most active in SHAC pleaded guilty to Blackmail. This action establishes the Blackmail as a matter of fact - those remaining now need to show that they were not part of the already admitted criminal conspiracy.

As to others being raided we shall have to wait and see - some cases get dropped others lead to prosecution.

Jacob


Banners = Conspiracy

25.10.2008 11:13

It's absolutely disgusting that someone can have their house raided for just doing a banner drop! They even made sure they were outside the injunction zone. The fact that the police manged to get a warrant to raid and search on such ridiculous grounds shows how far this country has come in stopping freedom of speech and attempting to stop legitimate protest.

The activist who said that the police are driving activists underground is totally correct. When even legal protest gets your house raided and you arrested and your belongings taken, what is left to do? Give up?! When you strongly believe in something, especially when you're trying to stop the senseless torture and murder of other living creatures, how do you just stop fighting?

It's hard to believe that the cops were granted the warrant because spray paint has been used in illegal actions against those associated with HLS. Bricks have been thrown through windows before - oh no! There are hundreds of them at my house!

In reply to Jacob, yes, three people pleaded guilty in the SHAC trial. Whether or not you believe they're guilty, it's irrelevant to this situation. These 2 activists did a banner drop! That's hardly conspiracy to blackmail. Does everyone who does any kind of protest - demos, banner drops, leafletting - with the name SHAC on their placards or leaflets have to worry about getting raided now too?

I hope the activists sue for this!

J


Thats just silly!

25.10.2008 13:10

What on earth do the Police think they are doing?

Nobody on earth would be stupid enough to use the same paint on a banner as they had used to damage a bank ATM!

I hope they sue!

Disgusted


ends justify the means?

25.10.2008 13:17

not really cricket but i do note:

home visit, paint stripper.

would be more difficult to justify if they weren't involved in a group which did this sort of thing.

it's a bit like me moaning about getting in trouble at school for something i didn't do when i was the naughtiest kid there.

paint stripper must be a horrid chemical. how is it made? it's production & use probably cause nasty pollution which hurts/kills wildlife.
and spray paint isn't much better.

reason


intimidation

25.10.2008 13:27

first off, i'm in no way condoning what these sickos do in the labs or those that support them.

but when intimidation/coercion tactics are used to scare people into your way of thinking you are using the tools of the criminal state and it's one of their specialities.

you cannot fight fire with fire. it's far better to get someone to stop what they're doing & say 'you know what i think they're right' and make that decision of their own free will than to force or scare them into it. after all, isn't that what humans do to animals & the state does to us?

reason


Jacob = Troll

25.10.2008 14:17

Jacob is just the pro-animal abuse troll that regularly comments here on animal rights stories.

These prosecutions are politically, not criminal. If the powers that be want to shut you up they will abuse any laws to do it. Everyone doing something worthwhile can be regarded as breaking some law if you spin it right.

Presumably anyone who has pleaded guilty has done so because they are cynical about the prospect of justice, not because they feel they have done anything wrong.

Anyway, this story is just about someone having their home raided just for displaying a banner - that is clearly an abuse of power. In any sane society the police and politicians responsible for authorising this would be arrested, charged and imprisoned.

anon


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Get off the case of the Makah Tribe, ALF coven...

25.10.2008 16:36

..or your karma will be fuked up.

Have some respect for the First Nation of America.

Furthermore seeing as some of you jerks tried these sorts of tactics and other on me due to me merely giving solidarity to the Makah Tribe on the internet, (oh and calling that stupid ****, 'Jo', who writes for Schnews, a communist ALF peice of dogshit), well, you've started a 'respect issue' that has lead to at least this:

 http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.org.earth-first/browse_thread/thread/8c07b7cdc192d6c1#

Take care you disrespectful bunch of racist perverts, take care.

King Amdo


They have never been convicted of direct action!

25.10.2008 19:35

Where is the proof that either of them have even taken part in direct action?!
Neither of them have any convictions for any ALF activity.
They are two activists who are known to be involved with SHAC - thats the end of the line.
They go on demonstrations which are lawful, and therefore they are in the limelight for the police.
If the police only go for people who liase with them and openly go on lawful demonstrations where does this leave us?! People who have been convicted of serious criminal damage costing tens of thousands of pounds have spent less than a year in prison, others who have organised a legal campaign end up spending five years or more behind bars. how obserd it that.


Also.. People who plead guilty to something does NOT mean they actually did it. If you plead guilty at the first chance you will get 1/3 off your sentence (which if it is a big charge could even be 1-3years or more off!).
Two words: Circumstantial evidence

Some with a brain


all activists must unite to subvert socpa?

29.10.2008 02:16

should all activists unite to make a mockery of socpa, which affects all current & future protesters?

reason


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