On TV news the other day there was a short coverage of the fact that the long-standing tents there had been removed by police but this seems to have been overlooked by the rest of the media, which is surprising.

Comment Published: September 02, 2011 07:16 by wotsit

"BRIAN HAW'S 10-YEAR PARLIAMENT SQUARE PEACE CAMPAIGN STOLEN BY THE STATE

Parliament Square Peace Campaign Day 3742: WED. AUGUST 31ST 2011

At 8am this morning a team of more than 10 government Policy Enforcement Officers led by the corrupt Sgt. David Cole stole Brian's display from Parliament Square.

The police claim that the display was removed under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) - but there is NO power of seizure under SOCPA !!!".

More:
 http://www.brianhaw.tv/index.php

Here is a video showing police removing displays and tents.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUC7AjFIVL0

Comment Published: September 02, 2011 23:14 by rikki

it appears that police have taken the opportunity while barbara tucker is in prison, to raid brian's peace camp and remove some of his historic banners and the tents. they claimed that the camp had been left unattended, and therefore in contravention of the socpa conditions, but this seems to be a spurious excuse, as brian's display was targetted but none of the other tents were similarly attacked.

to the right of brian's camp there are two large boxes and a couple of tents which are part of the 'peace strike' campaign run by maria gallestegui. maria has been the subject of a concerted hate campaign from a few of brian's supporters. they claim she is some sort of agent provocateur, but in my view this is nonsense as she was there supporting brian for years before the rift, and all my requests for any actual evidence for this have been ignored by barbara and her paranoid clique.

i am not suggesting barbara has nothing to be paranoid about, as she herself has been the victim of a long campaign of harassment and unlawful and often violent arrests over the years, but this has led to an ever expanding list of "agents of the state", starting with the police and courts, but then moving on to maria, the democracy village, all the homeless people camping nearby, this reporter - yours truly, the whole of indymedia, most of brian's previous supporters, anyone who doesn't agree with her, and the friends and partners of all of the above!

to the left of their camp, and round the edge of the square facing westminster abbey, there are now a large collection of tents housing otherwise homeless people, and possibly a couple of backpackers. a few banners make claims to being some sort of peace protest, but this homeless village has settled and grown, and various people come and go.

so, for the police to ignore the obvious socpa infringements of the rest of the tents, and target brian's pitch, was certainly a sign that the act was of course political and possibly strategic, interrupting the ten-year continuity of protest.

there is also the fact that socpa doesn't give the police any right of seizure - something being corrected in the draconian 'police and social responsibility' bill currently nearing the end of its journey through parliament (which contains many restrictions on protest that we should all be very concerned about) - so, this week's operation was quite possibly unlawful in the same way as the infamous 2006 seizure was.