Police vs. Brag
BRAG | 23.10.2012 03:34 | Free Spaces | Policing
The police in the UK claim to be neutral enforcers of the law – disinterested machines dedicated to the violent enforcement of the will of the state. This would be contemptible enough, if only it were true. The thugs in uniform that House of Brag has encountered over the past week have not only persecuted us in the absence of any accusations of law-breaking but have actively ignored strong evidence of violent law-breaking which clashed with their anti-squatter agenda.
To take a step back – House Of Brag (HoB) is a small collective of idealistic queers and allies seeking to create a non-commercial space for queer people and activists to organise, network and socialise. A week and a half ago, we squatted a long-term abandoned council-owned building in South-Central London and opened up The London Queer Social Centre with a cafe, free-shop, work-shop, stage, library and events spaces – all free to use for anybody. For context, it may be worth making clear that we have not had any late or loud parties or done anything that could be considered anti-social or a disturbance in any way.
To take a step back – House Of Brag (HoB) is a small collective of idealistic queers and allies seeking to create a non-commercial space for queer people and activists to organise, network and socialise. A week and a half ago, we squatted a long-term abandoned council-owned building in South-Central London and opened up The London Queer Social Centre with a cafe, free-shop, work-shop, stage, library and events spaces – all free to use for anybody. For context, it may be worth making clear that we have not had any late or loud parties or done anything that could be considered anti-social or a disturbance in any way.
Our first interaction with the police happened on the second night of occupation, the owner of the business renting a unit next door to ours came in the night with heavies and weapons and smashed the outside windows, threatening to kill us if we did not vacate. HoB phoned the police. When the officers showed up they clocked us for squatters immediately and so rather than take a statement, accused us of criminal damage. We told them that we had not committed criminal damage but had successfully filmed those who had. Being presented with video evidence of the accusations they were bandying around, the officers immediately lost interest in this claim and informed us that they couldn’t wait for the law to be changed so they could ‘come in there and drag you out’. Clearly then, we were on our own – so far, so bad.
The next day, we found that our water had stopped. Hours of investigation by us and a plumber friend failed to resolve the situation so we were reduced to transporting water across the road in tanks and buckets from the out-door tap of a kindly neighbour who, of course, said we could take the water that we needed to drink and cook and clean. This regime continued for a few days until our neighbour called by looking quite harassed. It transpired that the uniformed thugs had been round to her house and threatened her, claiming ‘neighbourhood disturbance’ and instructed her to build a box around her outside tap to stop anybody drinking water for free.
Fortunately, we have now resolved our water crisis (with flushing toilets and everything!) but are all pretty disgusted and angry at the bullying, under-handed tactics employed by the cops to persecute us. This is not the end of it. Already we have been informed that the place in which we are living and working is to be taken away from us. Abandoned for years, the council would rather see it rot than house human beings and serve the community. Only the absurd logic of property fetishisation could lead to the establishment spending so much money to harass us and try to crush our endeavours. We are going to fight back. Stay tuned for updates…
The next day, we found that our water had stopped. Hours of investigation by us and a plumber friend failed to resolve the situation so we were reduced to transporting water across the road in tanks and buckets from the out-door tap of a kindly neighbour who, of course, said we could take the water that we needed to drink and cook and clean. This regime continued for a few days until our neighbour called by looking quite harassed. It transpired that the uniformed thugs had been round to her house and threatened her, claiming ‘neighbourhood disturbance’ and instructed her to build a box around her outside tap to stop anybody drinking water for free.
Fortunately, we have now resolved our water crisis (with flushing toilets and everything!) but are all pretty disgusted and angry at the bullying, under-handed tactics employed by the cops to persecute us. This is not the end of it. Already we have been informed that the place in which we are living and working is to be taken away from us. Abandoned for years, the council would rather see it rot than house human beings and serve the community. Only the absurd logic of property fetishisation could lead to the establishment spending so much money to harass us and try to crush our endeavours. We are going to fight back. Stay tuned for updates…
BRAG
Homepage:
http://houseofbrag.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/police-vs-brag/
Comments
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white privilege sucks, and i weep for you
23.10.2012 12:50
i only wanted to raise your attention to a matter of privilege. this could be an opportunity for you, a positive thing, a chance to learn. you'd have to allow it to be though.
here's the thing. people of colour, especially working class and/or queer people of colour, generally don't call the cops when we feel threatened. generally the cops threaten us way more than they do you, white folk, and we wouldn't call our enemy out to help us when we are fearful now would we.
cops kill people of colour. routinely, and with impunity.
once in a blue moon cops kill a white person (RIP Harry Stanley, Ian Tomlinson, et al). when they do large numbers of white people get very upset. white (ie mainstream) media report on it. it means something. it still sucks, but hey it is a big deal and you white folks take note of it.
people of colour getting killed, well unless it's a musician you happen to have danced to, or unless people of colour smash up your shops in response to the death, pretty much it is not news. if can't be really, otherwise there'd be a death every week (minimum) on the front page of every newspaper, and that is not sustainable now is it.
meantime you and your (predominantly) white queer friends are feeling oppressed. you write a blog post about it. you make no mention of your privilege or of the reality for your peers of colour in relation to police oppression. your peers of colour take from this that a) you aren't aware and/or b) you don't care.
we don't bother to support or get involved with your project as a result. you continue to think you are part of THE queer scene in london. you continue to only be part of the WHITE queer scene in london. your peers of colour continue to die at the hands of the cops. you continue to party.
and so on.
queer of colour
keep on
23.10.2012 15:34
rasta
reply from brag blog
23.10.2012 22:42
It felt like a question of pragmatics at the time.
Being fresh to squatting, we called some more experienced friends, who were unfortunately too far away to be immediate help, and they advised us that if we were genuinely terrified, we could call the cops.
It was a deeply problematic decision, with mildly problematic results. We had extensive conversation on the matter after the fact, particularly in relation to our Safer Spaces Policy. It is not a decision we would repeat, particularly now we have a bigger support network in the area.
Why your comment wasn’t approved IMMEDIATELY; no-one who had been there at said incident had checked the word.press, and therefore didn’t feel entitled to/weren’t sure how to respond to your comments.
Definitely, there’s a lot in terms of a thinking thru of how spaces imagine themselves as safe or inclusive, but actually fail to recognise the subtle ways in which they erase difference. I don’t think we’ve really even begun that work in earnest.
Equally tho, making assumptions about other’s racial demographic based on a text-account in no way aids that work. Making harsh judgements and critiques of queer people who were victims of violence, and how those victims responded to a really recent violent incident seems to, at best, lack in solidarity and be problematic, at worst, it silences me and my decision, claims to speak for my skin colour and the kinds of decisions “us folks with darker skin” can or can’t make.
Anyone CAN make that decision, whether we SHOULD make that decision is another discussion, in which identity definitely needs to hold the floor
m
Good response
24.10.2012 09:57
It's not the first time squatters have called the cops when faced with violence and won't be the last. It will always be a tough and shitty call.
The dumping on them about their 'white privilege' seemed particuarly a case of how arguments about race and oppression get mangled up and made a mess of when accompanied by the usual patronising taking of the both the political moral highground and the creation of a self-rightious political parameter of who is right and thus who is wrong and deemed worthy of dismissal. The tone of the comment leaves no space for anyone to learn anything. When someone tells you 'here's the thing', you know you have been silenced from the get go.
The author of those comments also seems to have some amazing capability to know what all 'white folks' think, feel and do about oppression. Maybe they should talk to the many white folks who were active in the Colin Roach Centre or the Hackney Community Defence Association in the 90's just to get some polish again on their telepathy.
They also seem to think people of colour don't call the cops when faced with violence. They should get out more from political view of life and see that thousands of people of colour call 999, report crimes to the police, visit police stations everyday. Do you think all people of coiour are like you like you thought all queers are just white folks?
Pez
Comment error
25.10.2012 11:42
Pez