Protesters occupy runway at East Midlands Airport

well done to all who took part

you're great.

love

westside

At around midday 24 people were arrested at the scene of the memorial service for 'suspected offences under the Aviation Security Act'. The runway has now been cleared.

brilliant stuff. inspiring.

westside/brum

Well done to all concerned, must have seemed a scary thing to do in this age of airport paranoia, nice one Plane Stupid! It seems there's an upsurge in campaigning and action on climate change stuff. It's brilliant and inspiring....more of the same! Let's keep the pressure on....the time is now!

This was a briliant action challenging activity that is a major contributor to climate chaos

Hopefully the local group are there to support - the worst thing ever is to be released from the local nick and be alone

Just out the nick and back home. Full 36 hours while they searched addresses. All charged with Trespass, Public Nuisance and Entering a Restriced Area (Aviation Security Act 1982). Sky cameraman who attended action also arrested and footage confiscated. This is perhaps one of the reasons why we got so little mainstream media coverage - no footage, no story! Four hours of occupation, two and a half of them spent with only three police officers present! Security was embarrassingly bad. It had seemed like a very scary thing to do beforehand but was in fact surprisingly easy. Will do full write up soon, off for a well earned kip now.

'while they searched addresses'? Are you saying they raided and searched peoples houses after the action?

I just wanted confirm that most if not all the houses of those arrested were raided or searched and a great deal of trivial artifacts were taken as evidence. Some of this evidence includes people's personal phones, cash cards, rail tickets and lots more and it is not clear how or when they can get any of this stuff back. Many of the police searches failed to leave the receipt of what had been taken in the absence of the occupiers making it difficult to know what is needed back.

.... in the Netherlands on June 2 a similar action was held. Activists of Friends of the Earth Netherlands occupied a taxi-runway for several hours, protesting against the expansion of Schiphol airport and the legislation making this posisble.
Pictures are at:
 http://www.milieudefensie.nl/verkeer/activiteiten/fotogalerij/bezettingschiphol/view
The activists are now convicted to 40 hours of service-duty but are appealing their sentence. The verdict is rather new in the Netherlands because previous comparable actions at Schiphol have mostly resulted in fines or conditional fines only. The judge said that he was taking into account the ' changed situation in society' after the 11 september attack in 2001.

Two years ago, the same group ' adbusted' a mega-wrap advert of British Airways in the city of Amsterdam. The advert says ' London is closer than you think' and the adbust added to this: ' A climate disaster too. Tax on flying now!'.
The pictures are at:
 http://www.milieudefensie.nl/verkeer/activiteiten/fotogalerij/adbustba/view

Following the plane stupid action at East Midlands airport on Sunday 24th September 2006, 25 activists were arrested and detained at a number of police stations around Leicester. A sky reporter was arrested at the scene and his footage of the action was confiscated before it could be broadcast.
9 females were held at Leicester Central, 16 males at Coalville (a disused overspill station normally for football hooligans and asylum seekers) and a sky reporter was held at Loughborough,

The police response was outrageous. Armed police raided a Baptist minister’s house, waking and interrogating his son. This was followed by another raid and more questioning a few hours later. For more see  http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=158338&command=displayContent&sourceNode=158321&contentPK=15531397&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch
Many other homes were also raided and equipment and other possessions seized, many of which it seems have no relevance to the incident but have stopped people going about their personal lives. All activists were held for 36 hours with 5 minutes access to the outside ‘exercise’ yard and ‘vegan’ food which contained milk and egg. The police refused anyone their ‘right to one phone call’ throughout the 36 hours under anti-terrorist legislation.

All activists have been charged with aggravated trespass, causing a nuisance to the public and entering a restricted zone with some also charged with criminal damage. Bail conditions include not going within 500m of any uk airport and not to associate with co-defendants. As the females were released into the centre of Leicester, they were told by the releasing officers that their bail conditions applied immediately, they would be released 5 minutes apart and if they were seen communicating would immediately rearrested for breaking their bail conditions. Community safety policing – hmm?

Everyone is bailed to appear at Loughborough Magistrates Court on Friday 6th October 2006 at 9.45am. Please come in solidarity and show your support.

They did indeed search peoples houses. During the 36 hours for which they were held the Leistershire constabulary arranged for the houses of nearly everyone involved to be searched. In various cases, where the other residents of the address were out, this involved the local police force literally kicking in the door in order to gain entry. Personal items such as computers, diaries, (and I mean personal diaries, not organisers) and photos (in one case ripped off the wall) were taken. Along with this, the home of the Reverand was raided by armed police under the Terrorism Act!!!! It looks as though the police have decided that they will stop at nothing to rid themselves of us pesky tree huggers.

just to add, not only has some really personal stuff been taken without reciepts, but stuff that was given reciepts was taken when they were trying to get evidence to charge us with conspiracy to cause public nuissance and conspiracy to cause criminal damage, neither of which we were actually charged with. yet so far nothing has been returned.

also, we were let out in the middle of the night having had money, phones and train tickets taken with bail conditions not to speak to each other, miles away from our homes!

Nice one guys, met some of you at the camp, wish I was on the action with you. Shame about lack of media coverage, have to work on that. Basically wanted to say that this tactic is a good one and will probably become quite popular. Looking forward to the Plane Stupid day of action on the 6th of November now we know what to expect. Let them break into our homes, they wont break our spirit. They will probably come up with some evil law that really punishes this sort of thing so we had better do it loads while the penalties are less. Rock on to an aviation free world!

The following article in the Observer on 8th October 2006 shows how far down the road to a police state the UK has gone:

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Angry parents say air protest girls were held in solitary for 36 hours

Rob Sharp
Sunday October 8, 2006
The Observer

Police have been widely criticised over the arrest of 25 protesters involved in a peaceful demonstration at Nottingham East Midlands Airport last month. The parents of three families have attacked the way the police treated their children, who were among those charged following an occupation of the airport's taxiway for four hours on 24 September. The protesters were part of the 'Plane Stupid' campaign targeting the aviation industry's contribution to the pollution causing climate change.

Frances Rickford and her former husband, Brendan Martin, claim that their two daughters - Rose, 21, and Ellen, 18 - were held in solitary confinement for 36 hours after their arrest without being allowed to make a phone call to inform anyone of their situation.

They say the girls were released at separate times late at night on 25 September after they had been held at a police station at Euston Street, Leicester. The pair were told not to talk to one another as a condition of their bail, it is alleged. Their money, keys and mobile telephones were confiscated.

'I was particularly horrified at how the girls had been released in a way that seemed almost calculated to put them in the way of harm,' said Rickford.

Rose told The Observer: 'It was a peaceful protest against climate change. Short-haul flights create a significant proportion of the fumes, and East Midlands' airport is exclusively short haul and freight flights.' She added that her computer, which police seized from shared student accommodation near York, where she is a student, has a crucial 15,000-word piece of coursework on it.

Others have complained about the way the police searched their premises in the wake of the arrests. Anna McKay, a lawyer whose 17-year-old son Toby was also one of those arrested, claimed she was telephoned at work to be told by police that they were searching her house in Crouch End, north London. She claims investigators could have caused up to £1,000 damage when they broke down her door, despite the fact that she had contacted Leicestershire officers several times with her contact details.

She said: 'It's not the kind of offence that you would have thought would warrant that kind of action. My current response is that they weren't justified. The professional thing to have done would be to have telephoned me and asked me to come home.'

Her sentiments are echoed by Andy Freedman, who claimed his house was searched because of his 20-year-old daughter, who he did not want to name. Officers were let into his house in Stroud, Gloucestershire, by a neighbour holding a spare key to the property. 'I was shocked that my personal property was removed,' he added, saying that he needed a computer that was seized for his work as a college lecturer.

It is claimed that as many as 1,000 passengers were delayed by the protesters, who breached a perimeter fence before holding a sit-in on the taxiway between two cargo holds. All 25 now face charges of aggravated trespass, causing a public nuisance and entering a restricted area of an airport without permission. Five are also charged with causing criminal damage.

All 25 will face trial at Leicester Crown Court.