Police 'Abused Power' by Barring Anti-War Protesters
http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2412471
By Jan Colley, PA News
The police were guilty of an “abuse of power” in barring three coachloads of protesters from a demonstration against the war on Iraq, the High Court heard today.
http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2412471 By Jan Colley, PA News
The police were guilty of an “abuse of power” in barring three coachloads of protesters from a demonstration against the war on Iraq, the High Court heard today.
Counsel for about 60 of the 120 passengers who were prevented from attending the vigil at RAF Fairford in March said that the action taken by Gloucestershire Police was unlawful.
Michael Fordham said: “We submit both by reference to well established common law and also by reference to human rights law, as it now is in domestic law from October 2000, that that police action was an abuse of power.
“We submit that the the police stepped well outside the legal parameters on their powers and that the action taken was unjustified.”
He told Lord Justice May and Mr Justice Harrison, sitting in London, that the three coaches from London were intercepted in a lay-by in Lechlade at 12.50pm, searched and items were seized.
At 2.15pm, the decision was taken to return the coaches to London non-stop under police escort because of the view taken about preventing violence by hard-core demonstrators.
Mr Fordham said that both the action of turning away and of forcible return were unlawful.
“This was a case of a preventative restraint, not because of anything that had happened but because of something that was said to be anticipated.”
He said that he did not accept that there would have been a breach of the peace on arrival at Fairford.
Nor did he accept that there were no steps which the police could have taken to consider the different passengers and to seek to differentiate between them.
He said that the operation at Fairford, which was used by American B-52 bombers, was the largest and most complex police operation ever undertaken by Gloucestershire Police.
“The day was very important to them and very important to those who wished to go to Fairford to exercise their rights of assembly and expression.”
The protesters were utterly opposed to the US-led military assault on Iraq and wished to exercise their deeply-held beliefs through peaceful protest.
Mr Fordham said that the police regarded their operation as a great success in achieving their strategic objectives of preventing violence and facilitating peaceful protest.
Gloucestershire Police, which are contesting the judicial review proceedings, argue that their officers were not only entitled to take the action they did – they were obliged to.
The case is expected to go into tomorrow with no immediate decision.
Comments
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The Right To Protest Denied
15.01.2004 19:00
Several police officers from the Met's F.I.T. stated that the occupants on all three coaches were members of the WOMBLES group, which was a total lie, and the coaches were turned around and during the journey back to London several occupants tried in vain to get the drivers to pull over at service stations so people could use the facilities.
The police stopped them from doing so and even though the driver attempted to slow the second coach down to turn off into a service station he was prevented from doing so by the police who had covered the doors off the coaches with their own squad cars and vans.
I am not a member of the Wombles but have friends who are, but this shouldn't have been an excuse used by the police to prevent those occupants on the coaches from lawful protest at Fairford.
From what I noticed on that day when we were stopped, everyone cooperated with the police fully.
What the police did on the way back to London was unlawful due to not one person being placed under arrest on any of the coaches so why haven't we sued the police for false inprisonment, forcing the coaches to drive at high and dangerous speeds, endangering our lives by covering the front and rear doors of all the coaches so no one at any time could get off.
Should this review be successful at the High Court everyone on those coaches should contact their lawyers and sue all the police forces concerned in this operation, those who gave the orders should be made accountable for their actions.
Patrick
e-mail:
Notorious.Heckler@btopenworld.com
Decision made four hours early
15.01.2004 20:56
The police officer instructed that we should not be arrested, as he did not consider that we posed an 'imminent' threat to breach the peace. It is difficult to see then how our being turned around, let alone kidnapped to London, could have appeard either necessary or lawful. In the event there appear not to have been any weapons or dangerous instruments discovered on the coaches or any passengers.
Simon Freeland QC and others will attempt to justify the police behaviour tommorow.
Fairford Coach Action has more information -
would-be protester
more info on legal proceedings
16.01.2004 00:05
rikki
Police Evidence Confirms Our Suspicions
16.01.2004 11:57
The thing I remember was thinking
a) if they're filming each of us in such a detailed manner then we're propably going to be allowed to continue to fairford, it was just they wanted to film the clothing, shoes etc of each person so they could identify individuals at a later stage.
b) then i thought, like many people, that because the searches were taking such a long long time that the real intent was simply to delay us sufficiently that we would miss the bulk of the demonstration. The searches lasted for around two hours, and given that the coaches were already running a little late, this seemed to ring true. I remember one person asked a police officer if this was the intent and got a reply that , yes it was 'unfortunate'. While they had a good number of police in the immediate area, they had very few tasked to do the actual searches. The same person was also told that people were being searched on individual officers discretion - well the police evidence yesterday proved this to be a lie.
So now we have the proof that the whole thing was planned in advance and even that the return to london was pre-planned - this was again something we had become suspicious of given that it was such a big operation (returning the coaches to london along the motorway). They clearly overstepped their powers. I also remember chatting with people and calls being made to solicitors etc and being told that the police may have been in their powers to arrest people there and then, but not to return us to london under this bloody non stop convoy escort.
coach captive
Police Intelligence + FIT
16.01.2004 12:53
Wow! if they really said this (and I'm not saying your report isn't true) then it's utterly AMAZING! Esp as other reports have said that other police intelligence (is that the intelligent intelligence then?) had reported that the occupants were a mix of individuals and others from several different groups.
Maybe the Forward Iintelligence Team team took that banner I remember from some past demo: "We Are All Wombles" a bit too literally?! I mean they can't seriously have believed this.
Anyway, it's clear that the police are talking quite a bit of rubbish in respect to this case. Let's hope common sense prevails.
TIT
No Differentiation Indeed.
16.01.2004 14:09
Pete
e-mail:
-
so you're saying...
16.01.2004 16:55
I seriously think that you are misguided. You cannot stereotype all anti-war campaigners as trouble makers! A lot of the protesters at the anti-war demo's happened to be students. Are they all anarchists waiting to riot? Did you not stop to think that they might actually be against the war, so if they were allowed to protest properly that they wouldn't have done anything illegal?
Most riots are caused by the police - FACT. They infiltrate groups and encourage them to do illegal activities, or the police arrest someone for absolutely no reason - leading to mass disapproval and eventually a riot.
I am guessing that your name is irrelevant, but i do think that you are probably just someone trying to cause trouble.
Before you start justifying the illegal acts of the police, try reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the UK's laws which follow it.
fredrico
e-mail:
musteatvegan@yahoo.co.uk