UK Indymedia | film by rikki of saturday's london freedom of assembly protest

film by rikki of saturday's london freedom of assembly protest

rikki | 14.01.2008 09:23 | SOCPA | Repression | London

around 200 people arrived in trafalgar square and began a roam around the socpa zone. later in the afternoon the peaceful protestors were attacked by territorial support group officers, and brian haw was injured in a targetted attack

Video mp4 quicktime file - video/mp4 16M

full story at

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/389308.html

this is an mp4 quicktime film and is 12 minutes and about 15 Mb

mp4 can be viewed on pc windows, mac, or linux systems, with vlc player which is downloadable free for any platform from videolan

for those that must, i'll post a wmv version next

Additions

Why was Brian arrested?

14.01.2008 11:00

From the video it is clear that Brian was arrested for using a swear word which the police frequently use themselves against protesters. Yet another example of one law for us and no law for them.

Doug

where were the FIT?

14.01.2008 12:33

was anyone else confused by the total absence of forward intelligence teams at saturday's demo? it's too early to claim a victory for fitwatch methinks - haha

whether this has anything to do with the missing FIT is anyone's guess, but there have been major changes in the very recent past in the organisation of policing in the designated area. in fact, if you prefer cock-up to conspiracy, it's just possible someone simply forgot to book them!

belgravia police station now covers the patch, but at the same time many of the original charing cross mobsters have turned up at belgravia and are now wearing CW (city of westminster) lapel id badges.

this was mentioned in the film by barbara tucker, and there was the strange evasive interview with the ex-cx cop on the march.

the lack of FIT also might have some bearing on the arrest policy on saturday. at first, policing was very low key, with just a few officers facilitating the marchers in an almost model public order capacity. there were no warnings given about possible socpa breach, and none of the ubiquitous designated zone maps were handed out. reports from those arrested suggest it was very late on in the day (and even in some cases only at the station) that socpa was mentioned as a possible charge. obstruction, public order, and breach of the peace seemed to have been the initial excuses for arrest.

it was at downing street that things really turned nasty without warning, when about twenty tsg (territorial support group - riot squad) started pushing people out of the road. some of the pushes were quite violent, and it was during this phase that the attack on brian haw occured. normally these sort of police actions are always backed up by police photographers (who can then pick and choose what to show the courts in subsequent prosecutions and/or complaint hearings). it was perhaps because of the lack of FIT that some officers were emboldened to behave particularly unlawfully. thankfully there was a lot of citizen journalism going on and hopefully cases will be brought against some of the thugs who had no reason to act so violently.

btw, if anyone knows the guy in green trousers and brown hoodie who was arrested at downing street, can they put in him in touch with me? i have footage of two officers trying to calm down the officer who was punching him in the head while he was on the ground. it may be useful to him. all my footage has been copied and the copy is in the hands of a solicitor.

rikki

FIT were there

14.01.2008 12:41

There were some CO coppers there - but they seem to be giving the blue tabards a miss at quite a lot of events - that may be down to www.fitwatch.blogspot.com.

No cameramen though

Steve Discombe

Comments

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Re: where were the FIT?

15.01.2008 15:14

The FIT were probably too busy scrutinizing Hizb ut-Tahrir's poetry:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/389420.html

hug-a-jihoodie

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film by rikki of saturday's london freedom of assembly protest

Additions

Why was Brian arrested?

wmv version

where were the FIT?

FIT were there

Comments

Re: where were the FIT?

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