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Space Hijackers G20 charges dropped

Space Hijackers | 29.01.2010 23:16 | G20 London Summit | Anti-militarism | Culture

All charges have been dropped against the Space Hijackers for our G20 RIOT SQUAD action.

Spot the Cop
Spot the Cop


In the months leading up to London's G20 Summit in April 2009, the British press hyped up police warnings of an impending Summer Of Rage when public anger would erupt over the government's bank bailout. The streets would burn and anarchists would turn the newly unemployed into foot soldiers of the revolution. Thankfully the police calmed the situation by saying whatever happened they were 'up for it'.

Following on from previous projects where we parodied the police, the Space Hijackers decided to take our DSEi-busting tank out for another spin and ridicule the expectations of violence from the Police. We would tart her up as a Mad Max-styled mobile oppression vehicle and don fancy dress on April Fools Day (the date when the G20 summit and accompanying demonstrations were taking place). With Ride of the Valkyries blasting from the sound system, we drove into the city with our bicycle outriders to thrust the sword of satire at the State.

What's all this then? It seems the Police failed to see the humour in a 6-wheeled behemoth manned by the laughing cavaliers of anti-capitalism, arrested 11 Hijackers wearing blue boiler suits and started one of the most bizarre prosecutions mounted in a British court in recent years. In an utter waste of taxpayers' money, we were charged and scheduled for a four day trial facing charges of impersonating police officers, with the intent of decieving the public into thinking we were the real fuzz.

We always refuted these ridiculous claims on the part of the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service and invited people to look over the past 10 years of our work, which the police were well aware of, to see that we have a long history of parody, dressing up and winding up the powers that be.

Thankfully, after finally seeing sense, the CPS have now decided to drop all charges against the Space Hijackers and return our vehicle and belongings.

We would like to thank the Metropolitan Police for this amazing team building exercise they have put us through. At the cost of tens of thousands of pounds to the tax payer, the Space Hijackers as a group are now much more numerous, organised, brave, focussed and optimistic in what we can get away with. We look forward to their continued, if slightly fanatically eager interest in our work; getting our tank back, our compensation and using our new found team skills, to take our forms of protest up to the next more outrageous and cunning level.

We can only assume that the CPS bottled what was heading to be a very very expensive, complete circus of a trial ending in their inevitable humiliation at the hands of the Hijackers, Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors and our QC.

Michael Wolkind QC, who was briefed on behalf of all the defendants, commented " it was a great surprise when Keir Starmer, the DPP, took time off from the investigation of the death of Ian Tomlinson, personally to confirm the absurd decision to pursue this prosecution. His judgement has been exposed by the late decision to discontinue the case".

In other news, the Space Hijackers now have a whole free week which we’ve all booked off work and therefore intend to spend it causing as much chaos as possible.

Space Hijackers
- Homepage: http://www.spacehijackers.org

Comments

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Thanks

30.01.2010 02:15

ya hay spacehijackers -love what you do n why you do i

Cococo


Solidarity with other G20 prisoners/defendants

30.01.2010 18:46

Solidarity with other G20 prisoners/defendants

Excellent news for the Space team, but remember others have not been so lucky. A number of protesters are still facing charges, whilst 1 proester is currently in prison:

Mindaugus Lenartavicius XT6221, HMP Wandsworth, Heathfield Road, London, SW18 3HS.
Mindaugus Lenartavicius is a 22 year old Lithuanian national convicted of arson during the G20 demonstrations in London. He got 2 years, and has so far been inside for 10months. As a foreign prisoner he faces potential deportation, although there's a chance he may get out soon on a 'tag'. He welcomes correspondence, donations, and music cassettes with classic old skool punk. If you are not sure how to support a prisoner see this info from Brighton ABC here  http://www.brightonabc.org.uk/support.html and here  http://www.brightonabc.org.uk/writing.html

If you are still facing charges and state harassment from the G20 protests outside the Bank of England, get in touch with the Legal Defence & Monitoring Group (LDMG) at BM Box HAVEN, London, WC1N 3XX , or email  ldmgmail@yahoo.co.uk or you could try popping into Freedom bookshop and leaving a message/speak to people there (see  http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/bookshop/)

Solidarity with political prisoners!

solidarity


Cool, if you have a week off get to Ireland plz& support people highlighting

30.01.2010 19:14

the Trilateral commission who are meeting there in may 7-9th,Dublin, cheers
 http://www.trilateral.org/recent.htm
xxx
already emailed you about this,no reply, dont say HQ has lost its balls???

the trilateral is where most of the deals are made, that are signed at G20, it should become part of the democratic process& be mutualised.
Iam vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv bored at protesting G8-G20 monkeys from Birmingham,j18 to climate camp lets go4 the real deal

anyway theres the mission, the clocks a ticking

agent Red Robin