The Battle of Stokes Croft (Updated)
Bristol Indymedia (imcvol) | 22.04.2011 19:04 | Policing
An eye-witness of last nights event, which is now being referred to as 'The Battle of Stokes Croft': The police tactics were unfathomable. They seemed to consist of running from one end of Stokes Croft to the other (and up several side streets), randomly charging about the place, getting more and more people involved and moving the violence into new areas that had previously been quiet. Needless to say, the ‘active’ (ie. rioting) members of the crowd simply avoided the charges and filtered around to attack the police all over again from a different angle. The police helicopter flew low overhead constantly from 9pm to 4.30am, beaming its searchlight on anyone and everyone. This was not a tactic to win any ‘battle for hearts and minds’ either. Full article
Battle of Stokes Croft: eye witness/local resident report | The Lesser of Two Evils? | The Battle of Stokes Croft | it's kicking off in stokes croft | A 1/4 Century Of Community Policy Destroyed | STOKES CROFT TAKEOVER - COMMON UNITY GOOD FRIDAY - I PREDICT A RIOT???
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A larger article - The Battle of Stokes Croft has just been published here:
Tesco has been trying to move in to stokes croft for over 2 years and has been unable to because of huge protests. They have had to move builders in under police escort and have 24 hour roof top private security. Last weekend Tesco opened and there have been non stop protests all week.
When I arrived the police would only tell me that I could not enter stokes croft for my “health and safety” and that it was to do with Tesco. Asking around there were various different explanations. Most people said that the police were raiding protesters houses throughout stokes croft. We could see across the police line approximately 10 riot vans and a riot squad entering the famous “Telepathic heights”. A house, like a lot in the area painted from head to toe in murals. One mural on the side of the block reads “No Tesco in Stokes Croft” in huge letters. Stokes croft is known in Bristol as the cultural quarters and spans only a few thousand square feet of concentrated cultural activity not dissimilar to Camden in central London.
At something like 10PM a huge crowd landed on the front of stokes croft drawn by the lowflying helicopter with spotlight and the army of police emerging from 12+ riot vans dressed for combat. Pretty soon tension peaked as no explanation would be given for the roadblocks and there was intimidation on both sides... Full Article
The uneasy face-off between protesters and Police at the newly opened Tesco's on Stokes Croft erupted tonight in open violence and confrontation. 7 Ambulances and their Paramedics had to attend to take away the casualties. A spokeswoman for Avon & Somerset Police said 20 people had been arrested for Public Order offences and Criminal Damage...
Battle of Stokes Croft: eye witness/local resident report | The Lesser of Two Evils? | The Battle of Stokes Croft | it's kicking off in stokes croft | A 1/4 Century Of Community Policy Destroyed | STOKES CROFT TAKEOVER - COMMON UNITY GOOD FRIDAY - I PREDICT A RIOT???
Bristol Indymedia (imcvol)
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Is this squatter bating?
22.04.2011 21:17
I'm often wary of crying police set up in these situations. I think people are too quick to dismiss victories, or police failures, as the police doing something sinister. However, a week ago the OK Cafe was attacked by cops in what seems like a similar situation. The cops seemed to cause a situation, then escalate as much as possible creating a public order situation.
The Tories are trying to criminalise squatting, but there doesn't seem to be much media weight behind it. Is this them trying to get some media coverage while riding on the recent media fear of the black bloc? I'm in no way suggesting people don't rise to the cops, and maybe this is just a sign that there are more of us than there used to be, and people are less up for taking the cops shit. I just think that we need to recognise this as a possibility, in case this pattern repeats.
If this is their plan, it seems to be massively back firing.
Solidarity to the Stokes Croft 4!
Fabbri
Press Association saying Tesco Met was petrol bombed!!!
23.04.2011 03:09
Title: "Police accused over arrests riot"
Published on the Guardian website:
This glaring error is in the 3rd paragraph down, 2nd sentence. I have telephoned the Press Association and complained and sent a complaint on their contact page on their website
I told them the story has been live for 24 hours and nowhere else has this been reported, because it is completely incorrect, and said that it was not only really shoddy journalism, but completely unacceptable and an outrage, considering the fact that this report would have now gone around the world.
The Guardian's report yesturday:
Bristol24/7 report:
newshound
riot kit now in the hands of the community
23.04.2011 14:42
All happened kind of accidentally from what I've heard as a result of the most amateurish policing imaginable, but then sometimes the most inspired ideas are stumbled upon accidentally.
A new national standard could already have been set from here on in where riots are marked out by protesters commandering riot kit and riot vans and fighting back on equal terms.
That would be an incredible signal to send.
Meanwhile, I've been looking online for how to stitch together a "Wombles" outifit.
It really is very good television seeing lines of padded up "Wombles" taking wombling runs at police lines.
Mixing the finest comedy with updated methods and tactics.
It's a good way of showing up the police too.
Show the nation that the police like to beat up 'Wombles'!
The bastards!
That might even be worse than killing kittens!
wombling on
were the molotov's planted?
24.04.2011 09:07
Its very obvious to me that Tesco has been working with the cops very closely to shut down the squat and indeed, get anyone arrested and battered for opposing their local tesco. This included giving false information or planting the molotovs
I am all for this protest. I noticed that most welsh and british farmers around bristol have just held the biggest sale of dairy cows and closed their farms thanks to the pressure of Tesco's and other supermarket chains.
I cannot help thinking that this raid is like a small version of the Diaz raid in Genoa 2001.
I hope this bristol cop has got good lawyers and press spokespeople. He is going to need them!
I hope this tesco burns in hell.
Nessuno
...
24.04.2011 09:15
He shold be accused of only caring about Tesco's corporate image and not caring about policing his community fairly.
Nesunp
bullshit
24.04.2011 11:33
He shold be accused of only caring about Tesco's corporate image and not caring about policing his community fairly.
Totoal Bullshit.... You havnt got a clue
Tesco were on the receiving end of violence, therefore the police are there to protect against that. If people started attacking your home, then police would protect you. This can be proven by the fact that the police protected some anarchists in newcastle from the EDL. The police don't chose sides. They have a remit to defend people/organisations/property from violence and illegal activity.
anon
Cops dont pick sides?
24.04.2011 19:43
Of course the cops pick sides, the whole reason they were brought in by Sir Robert Peel, first in Ireland in the 1810s then the rest of Britain in 1840s was to put down political dissent.
Other functions like catching murderers and whatnot are secondary, hence why they're so shit at it. Look at how much they spend on policing even fluffy reformist demos compared with pretty much anything else they do.
Think of the ruling class like an extended social network. They dont all know each other, they're not in on some massive reptillian conspiracy, but in general powerful people do tend to know one another and to look out for one another, like a police chief looking out for the boss of a corporate chain.
And just like we use spin, distortion and propaganda in our press (anyone who denies this is a fool) , so do they. They know that they way they operate is undemocratic and so they try to disguise it by claiming theyre just following the legal proceedure which is theorectically established by democratic representatives of the people (though of course its not really).
But the law doesnt really mean shit. I've seen plenty of times when there's been demonstrations and actions against companies that are actually breaking British law by selling arms to Israel or by selling goods from the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the police arrest the protesters and do nothing to the company. the companies are powerful, their owners are powerful and move in similar circles to those at the top of the police hierarchy.
I myself am an anarchist who has been protected by police against the EDL. It doesnt change anything. Once a cop gave me directions. Other times they didnt cos i looked like a stereotypical protester. Life is complex and so is the nature of power.
Individual police are just human beings with moral instincts like the rest of us and many of them try to use their powers to help ordinary people. Indeed, many laws have been drafted by politicians who genuinely wanted to help ordinary people too (after all, they rely on them for votes). But that doesnt change the fact that the reason the police HAVE those powers, and the reason laws as such EXIST is to safeguard the interest of the ruling class against the rest of us whose interests are generally the opposite.
Cobra
Tesco builds £7m police station - in return for new giant superstore
26.04.2011 05:54
But now Tesco is building a state-of-the-art police station in a city centre redevelopment that will create its biggest British store so far.
Critics argue that the West Bromwich scheme is the latest step in a Tesco takeover of our towns.
Read more:
Daily Mail
e-mail:
Mail Tesco story
Homepage:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1341537/Tesco-builds-7m-police-station--return-new-giant-superstore.html#ixzz1KZBGMQXr
Piss Off Trolls
26.04.2011 18:53
more of the same please
and on the 'wombles outfits' making the wombles kit is pretty simple, basically, we used to make 'ponchos' out of For Sale signs that we'd rip off outside of houses, open out and cut a head sized hole in the middle, insulate with foam and wear over our heads like 'ponchos'. then we'd strap whatever soft stuff we could to our arms and legs, including cricket pads, shin guards and even air tight plastic bottles (one comrade at genoa 2001 demo's wore a suit made entirely of air tight plastic bottles, even around her head)....so you dont really need to know how to sew a real 'womble suit'.......just get on it and see what you come up with......
cant wait to see the appropraited riot gear in use , perhaps on mayday?
i hope.......
Fran
Strange Occurrences in Bristol Allotments...
27.04.2011 22:38
category bristol | miscellaneous | news report author Wednesday April 27, 2011 21:55author by arty Report this post to the editors
While some may dismissively compare them to the Keystone Cops, i think we should give them their plaudits, for the"site specific" performance they put on across st. werbergh's compares well to anything the Invisible Circus may have dreamt up. Having already confiscated a white sheet, the boys and girls in blue made it perfectly clear that no film showing was going to take place in Mina Rd Park, St. Werberghs (the hippy enclave of east bristol) tonight. No, rather than watch a film about a riot it seemed they were intent on causing another one with probably the most number of police ever used to stop a film showing - half a dozen van plus dogs - the news got round that their was a police take over of st.werbs people began to arrive en masse.
In the end, films were enjoyed in the back of someones garden in Ashley Vale allotments, with the police at one stage outdoing themselves by trying to stop the film using the Criminal Justice Act trying to say it was a rave. As far as i know that was it, with police still strolling round the park as i walked home
What are they gonna get up to next? I just can't wait.
forwarded from Bristol
1 Week Later - Another Bristol Riot
29.04.2011 17:07
"It kicked off again last night, for sure. If anyone's still under the impression that this has all been about Tescos, this should make it even clearer that people are angry at the police as an institution, & ready to take the chance to fight back."
"Update on situation on Croft. Battle for the roof of Telepathic Heights ongoing. Police climbing team in attendence. Snatch squads active on the ground snatching folks they don't like the look of under the premise that they believe them to have been involved in violent disorder... Prisoners being taken to Southmead pig sty because Trinity full of last nights lot"
"The Guardian... have a link about events in Stokes Croft last night and this morning... Anyone reading this... would be left with completely the wrong impression as to what happened... Tesco was not petrol-bombed as the article claims, but people from round the country reading the mainstream media will misled over what happened and why the police acted as they did."
Photos of Police Eviction of Telepathic Heights
"The helicopter's still up, so it must still be rocking out there at 3.20am... Runing battles all the way up cheltenham road as far as the new sainsburys.. lots of horse charges met with street furniture..... and back in st pauls Burning baricades on brigstoke road. Youth of all flavours turning out to give the filth a good belt. Police obviously a bit shy in our neighbourhoods."
"The evening in Stokes Croft started with a spontaneous gathering to a sound system playing from the first floor window of the squat Telepathic Heights. People gathered outside the squat and opposite, just slightly down from Tescos (now completely boarded up and still closed)."
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