UK Promoted Newswire Archive
Palestine Today 11082011
08-11-2011 16:06
SOAS protest trials collapse after video shown
08-11-2011 02:55
Video and photo evidence that came to light at the last minute directly contradicts police statements causing the collapse of cases brought against three demonstrators at an event addressed by David Willetts at SOAS in June.
Two more cases collapsed at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on Monday, 31 October when police offered no evidence against student demonstrators following the acquittal of a third protestor the previous week.
Aaron Peters and Ashok Kumar, both PhD students, had the cases against them dismissed after dramatic video and photo evidence was presented in a related case against Simon Behrman on 27 October.
The footage and photos found on the Internet by Kumar's solicitor, Matt Foot, directly contradict the witness statements of six police officers. "Five arrests were instigated by primarily one police officer who basically lied,"* said Peters in an interview with this writer.
The arrests were made at a demonstration against David Willetts, the universities minister, who gave an address at an event on the campus of the School of African and Oriental Studies on 13 June. The 2010 Higher Education Act, enabling universities to charge fees of up to £9000 per year, became law under the direction of Willetts.
Scotland Yard told this reporter: "Between 100 and 150 people attended a demonstration and additional police officers were called to attend after a number of protestors entered the building to gain access to the buildings' basement."
In a video clip uploaded to YouTube on 20 August, police constable Paul McAuslan who is clearly identified by his shoulder ID number, "PC 138 EK"*, is seen initiating a physical altercation with a demonstrator before pinning him to the ground amid outcries from fellow protestors.
Guy Aitchison, who is a friend of Peters and Kumar, was in court on 31 October and tweeted: "The officer in question had said he was assaulted by Ashok. The video showed it was the other way round." Scotland Yard did not comment on the video and photo evidence in its statement, confirming only that it had not offered any evidence against either Peters, Kumar or Behrman.
Peters and Kumar were charged with obstructing and resisting PC McAuslan in the execution of his duty, however Peters says Kumar was initially charged with "assaulting a police officer"*. Behrman was charged with the more serious offence of Violent Disorder under Section 4 of the Public Order Act.
Peters believes he has good grounds for bringing a case against the police for malicious prosecution and said he and the other acquitted parties will be seeking legal advice in this matter.
Palestine Today 11072011
07-11-2011 16:45
occupy lsx march to parliament - report & pics
06-11-2011 00:55
several hundred people took part in a march to parliament this afternoon. but a huge police operation ensured they couldn't exercise their democratic duty to protest outside the democratic heart of the nation. however, with non-violent persistence the protestors got close, ending up outside the house of lords, a stone's throw (not that any were) from the square.
click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
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more than a thousand people gathered outside st paul's early this afternoon, and listened to a succession of speakers from many fields and from many nations. city of london police handed out a notice stating that they would prevent any attempt to march to parliament, but perhaps due to a combination of negotiation, the sheer weight of numbers, and maybe the realisation how bad the PR might be, they relented and several hundred people followed a large "occupy LSX" banner and headed west along fleet street and the strand.
policing at this stage was fairly light and good-natured. some people played football while weaving in and out through the front line of police. along the strand, more police joined the sides of the march, but at trafalgar square TSG appeared from side streets and several vans and lines of police completely blocked the access to whitehall.
there was a little bit of scuffling at this police line, with attempts to push through it, but the crowd remained generally peaceful and soon withdrew, looking for an alternative route to parliament.
moving west along pall mall, they took a left down the steps to st james park, and broke into a run. police panicked and poured into the park, forming arbitrary lines, stopping some people, while others walked nonchalantly past. one particularly crazy bunch stood in a line among the autumn leaves with batons raised, halting the progress of some protestors while others strolled past each end of the line.
the crowd found a well-formed cordon at birdcage walk, and after some short remonstrations, they changed direction heading up towards the palace and then doubling down petty france. again as they neared parliament square they were met by police cordons on storey's gate and victoria street, so they again avoided direct confrontation and headed towards millbank, eventually approaching the square once again in front of the house of lords along st margaret's street.
at this point they were met by just a single line cordon, but again, the principle of non-violence was adhered to, although there were easily enough demonstrators to push through. soon though, more vans arrived and blocked access, and police re-inforcements from both the met and city of london were soon deployed to effect a powerful cordon pushing protestors back along the road, threatening arrests for 'unlawful protest' (section 132 of the about-to-be-repealed serious organised crime and police act 2005). at the rear of the crowd, a looser cordon was occasionally letting protestors leave, although there were apparently a few SOCPA arrests too.
by about 6.30, the crowd had been dispersed, with some ending up in trafalgar square and others returning to st pauls.
interestingly (and if you know anyone that was arrested, please pass this information on), earlier in the week,
chris coverdale, the long-time war law activist, put in official notifications to the charing cross events team for two protests in parliament square this saturday afternoon from 3pm, with numbers between 1500 and 15000. as, under the SOCPA legislation, the police must by law authorise protests that are notified according to the law, it was in fact the police who were behaving unlawfully in preventing people from attending the protests in the square, and anyone who was arrested should know that the two protests chris coverdale notified were under the banners of "democracy village" and "make wars history". assuming you followed good practice and gave 'no comment' interviews to the police, then this information could be of great value to your defence.
chris is contactable at ccovers{AT}gmail[d0t]com - i strongly suggest arrestees or their representatives contact him for more details.
as people left the area, one activist decided to protest the continuing closure of parliament square to the public and he jumped over the fence and stood with a peace flag on the grass. in what must surely count as the most crap arrest of the day, no less than eight city police approached him across the grass and arrested him for allegedly breaking an injunction, and for "aggravated trespass".
the definition of aggravated trespass involves "the intention of disrupting, or intimidating those taking part in, lawful activity taking place on that or adjacent land."" now, given that the only people taking part in any 'activity' in parliament square were the security guards (euphemistically named "heritage wardens"), and as their lawful activity involves making sure members of the public don't go on the grass, it seems to me that the activist was actually facilitating their work and engaging them in their lawful activity (in fact stopping them from simply sitting around wasting taxpayer's money), so the charge of 'aggravated trespass' is spurious, laughable, and possibly even malicious. on the subject of taxpayer's money, it also seems a total waste that eight police were deployed to arrest a single demonstrator who was not only completely peaceful, but was also carrying a 'peace' flag.
the bbc local news tonight mentioned that protestors from LSX marched to parliament square this afternoon, but somehow overlooked that they were presented from doing so by a ridiculous overblown unnecessary police operation costing huge amounts of money. what planet are these news editors on?
Occupy Oakland General Strike interviews
05-11-2011 16:41
Sheffield Occupied!
05-11-2011 16:40
This Week in Palestine Week 44 2011
04-11-2011 17:37
A visit to Plebs' College and photos
03-11-2011 18:51
Palestine Today 11 031 2011
03-11-2011 14:58
Two Dramatic Hours at Occupy Bournemouth
03-11-2011 13:14
Report on Solidarity with Julian Assange at High Court Extraditon Appeal Ruling
03-11-2011 10:08
Members of Catholic Worker communities, Anonymous, Veterans for Peace, anti-war, freedom of information and Occupy London activists gathered outside the High Court/ London in solidarity with Julian Assange on Wed. Nov 2nd.PHOTOS
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64728140@N02/sets/72157627913790749/with/6307021382/s.
Occupy Patriarchy! A feminist critique of the protests
03-11-2011 08:55
A post which appeared on Scotland Indymedia entitled “Open letter from Glasgow Women's Activist Forum to Occupy Glasgow” is the latest addition to an increasing number of articles which draw attention to inciden
Photos from University occupation
03-11-2011 02:46
Why we occupy, our statement.
02-11-2011 23:59
University of Birmingham Occupied!
02-11-2011 23:44
We have just marched into University of Birmingham Corporate Conference Centre. Our actions are not disrupting education or learning but rather those working to destroy public education in the interests of private profit.Palestine Today 11 02 2011
02-11-2011 14:59
Natural Gas Drilling Rig Stormed by Anti-Fracking Protesters
02-11-2011 07:29
This morning nine people, from the national anti- fracking network from Frack Off, have halted work at Cuadrilla Resources drilling site in Hesketh Bank, Lancashire. They ran on to the Fracking site early this morning and scaled the drilling rig using climbing equipment. They aim to sit on top of the drilling rig for as long as possible to stop the drilling.Feeding the 99%
31-10-2011 18:26
Palestine Today 10 31 2011
31-10-2011 14:36
Reclaiming the Night in Oxford!
31-10-2011 10:06
report and videos from 2011 Reclaim the Night march
