yesterday's arrests - parl square democracy villag
[London] | 27.05.2010 23:22 | London
ten people were arrested in the actions yesterday at parliament - they were all held for nearly 24 hours, but were all released after court appearances
on wednesday afternoon, democracy village activists stormed parliament. most were caught entering the grounds, but one man, 'peaceful warrior', managed to avoid the armed police and the dogs, and scrambled up the scaffolding at the side of big ben and dropped 'troops home' and 'peace' banners. he managed to stay up there for around five hours.
meanwhile, others used a huge 'soldiers home now' banner to blockade the front gates, and staged a sit-down when police tried to move them away. after a couple of hours, several vans of police reinforcements arrived, and nine arrests were made, as well as the big ben protestor.
they were held overnight at charing cross police station, but then 'peaceful warrior' was released without charge, while the other nine were charged with 'obstruction'.
in court today, they mostly refused to enter pleas, claiming that the facts of the case were true, but that they didn't regards what they'd done was a crime. the judge appeared to interpret this as a 'guilty' plea and fined them each £100, but then told them that as they'd spent the night in the cells, this was equivqlent to payment, and so they were all free to go.
only one of them, a foreign national, had their dna taken, and none were given any paperwork, so they are unclear whether they now have a criminal record or not.
this is all the information i was given by one of the arrestees, so if anyone has more or different, then please feel free to make an addition or contact me to make a correction.
original report at http://london.indymedia.org.uk/articles/4874
there have been no 'unauthorised protest' socpa legislation threats or charges. it is believed the camp is authorised by a blanket 'peace strike' authorisation based on a notification by maria gallestegui (who was one of those arrested yesterday)
the democracy village has to be the most exciting protest and occupation seen in central london for some time, and they are calling for more people to come and join them and promote the very publicly popular message of ending british troop involvement in afghanistan.
they hold consensus decision-making meetings every day to plan actions and to organise the camp. they need help with technical communications, some equipment including leisure batteries, and food or other donations are always welcome if you can't support the camp with physical presence.
they are currently under threat of eviction by the gla who 'manage and maintain the land', and while there is a risk of tens of thousands of pounds costs, there may be some grounds for a legal challenge.
[London]
Original article on IMC London:
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/4888
Comments
Hide the following 5 comments
so...
28.05.2010 07:47
interested
points for clarification
28.05.2010 08:35
If the district judge / magistrates directed guilty pleas then the defendants have been convicted and it will go on their records. However, they could possibly argue, if they were to appeal, that their prosecution was discriminatory, given that 'peaceful warrior' and others from the Democracy Village who have presumably carried out what the authorities would normally consider to be more serious offences (criminal trespass on a designated site, SOCPA s.128) have not been prosecuted.
Regarding potential court costs of any legal challenge, perhaps Liberty, Public Interest Lawyers, Peacerights, etc would be willing to bear the costs, if Legal Aid is not available?? Worth a try.
dv
War is Insane
28.05.2010 16:47
When balanced, I don't feel any more for the pain of the dead British soldier than for the dead Iraqi - in fact the most emotional pain is to do with the genetically damaged Iraqi kids - thats true horror. The demo should be an anti war protest - not this popularist game of 'troops home' I think. And no blody hammer and sickle banners please! Have some sense and stop displaying these communistic totems of even more abuse and horror. This is why I don't like your consensus, why I dont like this protest scene - because you accept these symbols of hate and horror, because you dont act with true honour or whatthefukever and just say ''no we're not having that bullshit here and if you don like it communist idiot you can fuk off'' and you shouldn't need to have some sort of weird meeting to do this! You're weirdos. Fuked up weirdos. Unfree. Likewise the toleration of animal rights extremists. This fuked up consensus is never ever ever going to go community wide. Its always going to be a very very small minority thing.
If its really a democracy village then perhaps the aim could be much wider - covering corruption in Parliament, the mismanagment of the economy by pyscopathic politricktion, eco earth crisis etc etc. Or is it being called 'democracy village' because you feel its an experiment in real democracy type thing because you have meetings every day to decide what to think? Weirdos. From my experience of living at this sort of weirdo camp, (Donga clique), I would say what you are doing is communalising before you individuate fully (in pyscological terms). You're not truely free as anarchistic individuals, more like communistic skitzos or cult victim weirdos...this scene that you are doing in general, this protest type scene is very very different in this way from the hippy travellers 'peace convoy'..site meetings would be very rare..people would kinda know what to do...it would happen, perhaps thinking about it now, due to magic...it was very very deep magic, much deeper and less ego than what you do in the protest scene. You'd never ever see a hammer and sickle flag on a convoy site - it would be absolutely farcial. How do you get to this deeper level?..mmmm, well we were taking rather a lot of cannabis and pyscotropics...and it was real, definitely real and not illusion or anything. Wheras, for example, now I would say that the Rasta Salassi is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ type trip is not true and is illusion. This is despite the fact that it 'works' in terms of magic and consciousness...a thesis doesn't have to be true to produce a seemingly sound consciousness.
Going a bit deep there.
Om
interested
28.05.2010 17:54
Brian says we (and Maria) are police spies/stogges and thinks the whole thing is a set up to justify removing him from the square
so
Settle down.
29.05.2010 08:10
Brian says we (and Maria) are police spies/stogges and thinks the whole thing is a set up to justify removing him from the square "
I can understand where Brian (Barbara?) are coming from with that. Its easy to see the village as something they have no control over so Barbara is going to see it as something to do with the state but we have to be honest here.
Accusing absolutely everybody of being a police informer serves to do nothing other than whittle away your underlying support base. Brian has lost a lot of support because of Barbara. Many of his key supporters have gone because of this woman.
Exactly how does reducing your presence in Parliament Square to just a small handful of individuals constitute effective action against the entire Government?
This is the problem with Brian. His contribution has been amazing, as has his sacrifice, but he is also very easy to forget too. Pressure on Government to act in the interests of peace is not likely to come about through something that is that easy to forget. He may be a sight outside the Parliament building but beyond that place, he is largely invisible.
Campaigns are not won with low profiles.
Barbara Tucker needs to understand that the cause of peace is not all about her, or Brian, it is about the country as a whole moving in one direction, together.
Nor is it about anarchic tendencies, what you think of the police, the army or the media. It is about consensus toward peace.
Those folks in Parliament Square are doing the right thing. They represent a message which can be amplified around the world. But this message will fail to amplify if keyboard warriors here continually undermine that message by smothering it with their own personal hangups.
If you undermine the message, you undermine the cause, if you undermine the cause, you consolidate the war and those who wish to continue fighting it.
Criticism of those folks in Parliament Square, is to side with the warmongers. Please try to remember that unity is strength. That works both for those engaged toward peace, and those who are currently, and previously, engaged in the killing.
If you have some issue you are not happy with, get up, go out and let people judge you and your opinions face to face, if you have the courage!
Reasonista