Bristol Police raid squat looking for riot suspect(s)

ABC | 17.08.2011 18:27 | Repression

Bristol police, in conjunction with the media circus, have began a repressive operation against those suspected of involvement in the recent disorder.

Police with more than ten riot vans, and evidence gathering unit, raided a squat on Park Row this afternoon looking for a man. The cops were looking for and trying to seize computers, mobile phones, hammers, gloves, paint, anarchist literature and Indymedia-related material. This suggests that it was connected to the recent attack against the Bristol Evening Post offices on the night of Thursday the 11th August. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the corporate media are part of the repressive tools of the capitalist system, they are nose to arse with the British politicians and ruling class.

The reason for the attack on the Evening Post is pasted below :

" Thursday night despite heavy police presence in the city centre and across Bristol we smashed all the front bottom windows and some of the higher ones at the Evening Post headquarters and decorated the front with paint bombs. The paper has estimated 20,000 pounds damage.

The media demonises those who choose to resist and fight back, opening the way for more repression again us all. They attempt to divert our attention away from the real everyday thugs and looters - the cops and capitalists, who routinely get away with large-scale theft and murder. This is part of the divisive strategy of rulers to get us fearing and fighting each other and taking sides with authority against rebels. This action was made by people who are not fooled. They do not understand our anger as an unstoppable force that will not be stopped by batons or bullets - we fight with all means for a future of complete liberty we have yet to know.

When the gloves come off and the social war has never been clearer, the class enemy reply on corporate media to be used as just another weapon against us all who want something better for our own lives and those yet to come.

Let's see the bosses and politicians scrabble to be seen with brooms on the streets - it's their mess come back to bite them, the lines are drawn: this is what Big fucked Society looks like."

Against state repression, solidarity means attack!

ABC

Comments

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yes comrade

17.08.2011 21:17

stalin would be proud of you

comrade vortkorfman

@Comrade

17.08.2011 23:43

If you haven't forgotten, Stalin was not an anarchist, and barely a communist. In fact, people like us were the ones who tended to end up in gulags, where it was not windows but the actual bodies of innocent people that were crushed and broken. If all he did was break a few pieces of glass, Kronstadt would have been a laugh. As a matter of fact it wasn't, and I'd appreciate if you remembered that fact, before comparing those who risk their liberty to remind us that people should be put above property and profit, to a greedy and viscous dictator.

Compassion first, capital second!

Anon

The NUJ

17.08.2011 23:44

What, exactly, do you think the NUJ did or could have done in relation to this? Unfortunately, we don't own or control the media. Bash the corpoate owners all you like, we do all the time, but please leave us out of it. Or, if you've got a complaint about journalists acting unethically, then got to the Ethics section of

http://www.nuj.org.uk

Donnacha DeLong
mail e-mail: donnacha.delong@talktalk.net
Homepage: donnachadelong.info

fuck journos

18.08.2011 00:51

well, after all it IS journalists that write this shite in the first place ,right? So don't cry later on that some people have enough of your lies.

anarchist

Shitty little rag with proto-fascist tendencies

18.08.2011 02:00

Any journo that feels comfortable taking cash from a paper that publishes diatribes like this:

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Selfish-rioters-tracked/story-13126741-detail/story.html needs to be taken out of their comfort zone. Cameron might as well have written the article himself.

And LOL at their report on the attack on their own premises:

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Group-claims-responsibility-attack-Bristol/story-13141399-detail/story.html

"The paper will continue to say what the majority of Bristolians are saying – that the rioters and looters have brought shame on themselves and on the city – and we will continue to help the police to catch those responsible."

Journos actually help frame the debate, and so to claim they are merely reflecting it is disingenuous. As a self proclaimed extension of the police it isn't surprising there are people hostile to the paper and its staff.

Norton's Nemesis

NUJ

18.08.2011 09:09

The NUJ statement doesn't just stand up for their members - it stands up for their members' employer. The attack on the Evening Post building wasn't an attack on journalists, it was an attack on a building. But the NUJ statement calls for harsh punishment:

"If it emerges that the damage to the Post and Press building was connected to coverage of the riots, I hope that the law will take into account the importance of having a free press that is able to report on its community without persecution."

http://www.bristolnuj.org.uk/2011/08/12/bristol-evening-post-targeted-by-vandals/

Northcliffe

18.08.2011 12:11

Does this:

http://www.bristolnuj.org.uk/tag/northcliffe/ look like the NUJ supports the owners? Really? An attack on a building in which journalists work is an attack on the people who work there, not just the people who happen to own the building. The NUJ wants to bring an end to Northcliff (and Newsquest, Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror) domination of local media and give local communities a greater say in their media.

Donnacha DeLong
mail e-mail: donnacha.delong@talktalk.net
Homepage: donnachadelong.info

Donnacha

18.08.2011 13:54

You asked:

Does this:

http://www.bristolnuj.org.uk/tag/northcliffe/ look like the NUJ supports the owners? Really?

As you ignored the post where the NUJ was claiming that Northcliffe operates a free press, and calling for kneejerk justice against the perpertrators, here it is again:

""If it emerges that the damage to the Post and Press building was connected to coverage of the riots, I hope that the law will take into account the importance of having a free press that is able to report on its community without persecution."

That looks like unquestioning support for Northcliffe from the NUJ to me. Where is the critique of Northcliffe in that statement?

You also said:

"An attack on a building in which journalists work is an attack on the people who work there, not just the people who happen to own the building."

Care to explain how?

"The NUJ wants to bring an end to Northcliff (and Newsquest, Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror) domination of local media and give local communities a greater say in their media."

Really? The NUJ is about mediated news through paid journos, who as shown above are quite capable of giving vitriolic opinion without any attempt at balance. And pretending that it reflects a majority view without admitting that it helped frame that view.

Your argument seems very similar to the Daily Mail readers who troll this site

Norton's Nemesis

Free press

18.08.2011 14:34

A free press is based on journalists capable of doing their jobs without interference - either by owners such as Northcliffe or by so-called political activists who attack the building in which they work. We hammer owners when they interfere in the freedom of their newpapers, whether through direct intervention or through swinging cuts to capacity that achieve the same ends.

"The NUJ is about mediated news through paid journos, who as shown above are quite capable of giving vitriolic opinion without any attempt at balance"

Once again - the NUJ does not control the media. However, we do try to ensure that our members behave ethically and responsibly. I said at the start, if you have a complaint about them not doing so and breaching our Code of Conduct -

http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=174 , then contact our Ethics Council -

http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=25 .

The union is putting on a public meeting tonight in London -

http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=2213 - to discuss the very things you're concerned about in the coverage. I'm the President of the NUJ and here's my take on things:

http://donnachadelong.info/2011/08/10/riot-criminality-is-a-product-of-consumerism-and-social-breakdown/ - not quite the corporate line, eh? Standing against physical attacks on journalists or their workplaces does not equate to defending the bosses who are doing just as much to destroy local media in the UK.

Donnacha DeLong
mail e-mail: donnacha.delong@talktalk.net
Homepage: donnachadelong.info

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Mark Stone's successors have been hard at work I see

18.08.2011 20:27

These people are either incredibly stupid or utterly, irredeemably infiltrated. Or both.

This is why I won't touch activism with a bargepole - let the cops round you fools up first then the real resistance can begin.

anon

stop dramatising..

19.08.2011 07:42

From what I read it was the premises that had been attacked and in quite symbolical way- so please stop turning into a drama and talk about "physical attacks" on journalists because nothing like that happened. Unless of course report doesn't tell us something and there had been indeed journos actually hurt there and I don't think it happened because there would be already a countrywide outcry about that. So spare us your drama and better start thinking why people hold journos in such disregard. Free press? Not for a long fucking time!

anarchist

Premises

19.08.2011 12:16

I quote: "Standing against physical attacks on journalists OR THEIR WORKPLACES [emphasis added] does not equate to defending the bosses who are doing just as much to destroy local media in the UK."

And have a read of this if you think the NUJ is supportive of the dreadful state of the current local medai -

http://jonslattery.blogspot.com/2011/08/uk-riots-wheres-journalism-on-causes.html

Donnacha DeLong
mail e-mail: donnacha.delong@talktalk.net
Homepage: donnachadelong.info

attack journo scum

20.08.2011 11:49

they are the enemy. laughed my tits off at the vids of BBC journos having there cameras took off em by rioters in London.
watch out media scum or you might end up like Socrates Giolias. ;-)

anarchist

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anarchist squatters

20.08.2011 14:42

>>>>> attack journo scum
they are the enemy. laughed my tits off at the vids of BBC journos having there cameras took off em by rioters in London.
watch out media scum or you might end up like Socrates Giolias. ;-)

comment should be titled "attack anarchist squatter scum"
They just consume. They just take off others. They take, take, take and don't give anything back. Always good laugh to hear a squat getting rolled over, should learn to pay their way rather than trying to get stuff for free of the backs of other hardworking people. You'll the scum, and you wont have a state pension soon so best pull your finger out.

scumhater

anarchist?

20.08.2011 15:01

Don't make me laugh, you're obviously a childish nihilist. Anarchists support freedom of speech even of those they disagree with. Physically attacking the media is a favoured tactic of the extreme right - nice company you want to keep. Don't hate the media, be the media.

Donnacha DeLong
mail e-mail: donnacha.delong@talktalk.net
Homepage: donnachadelong.info

thanks for the heads up

20.08.2011 15:51

You are the media

donaancha

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