Yesterday an empty and poorly maintained building in the Sherwood area was squatted by a group of people in need of housing with the aim of providing a space for many others in a similar situation.
With some experience of squatting in Nottingham over recent years I went along to help tidy the place up and be around for the first few hours.
The place was relatively secure within the first half and we set about tidying the place up. Section 6 notices were place in the windows and were readily visible.
The first sign of any trouble was 3 Community Protection Officers who began knocking on the windows. In general I am amused when I see these people as I understand their powers to be relatively limited. I was surprised by their behaviour though. One demanded that I open the door or he would 'let the dogs in' which I think was a clear attempt at impersonating a police officer. Another seemed to corroborate this by displaying a badge with the Nottinghamshire Police logo (which actually read 'Nottinghamshire Police authorise this person to act as a Community Protection Officer') in response to my questioning if there were any police officers here.
The CPOs were relatively easy to deal with and soon backed down. A real police officer turned up soon after and they all began to behave themselves a little. This police officer asked to talk to someone not through a window so I went outside a back exit and talked to him around the front. He acknowledged that the building was in disrepair and he could not be confident that we had forced entry so it was he agreed a civil matter. He was in the process of contacting the owners and we should expect them to try and get us out etc. etc.
Shortly afterwards two of the owners arrived in an expensive 4x4, noticeably with ladders on the roof rack. We began to worry a little. The police were still here at this point, though the officer I had spoken to had left and was replaced by another. The 3 CPOs, presumably with less pressing commitments were all in attendance. I listened to the officer give a little speech to the owner where he said "I agree that the law is ridiculous, but as it stands you're not allowed to enter that property by force and remove those people" He used the 'I'm obliged to tell you this' style and even used the phrase "you do what you want".
It was around this point that another van pulled up and 4 people got out, also involved in owning the property. These were 3 younger men and an older patriarchal figure. All looked very menacing. The owners began looking for points of entry into the building, partly speculating as to how we'd got in, but also serving the purpose of finding points which they themselves might enter through. The police looked on. A couple of our friends had turned up outside to observe what was going on and the police actually went over to them to suggest they left as the situation was getting dangerous. They stayed.
As an aside, it seemed strange to me how the situation could be dangerous as the law was clear and police officers were in attendance and could easily call for backup.
The next thing there was a loud banging noise as one of the owners started kicking in a door. We all quickly went to the front and tried to make it out of a front window which unfortunately wouldn't open wide enough. We then made it out a side door with owners and the police/CPOs in persuit. We made it down onto the street to look back and see all 6 of the owners crew, the 3 CPOs and the police all together in a crowd on the front. All of them had entered the building together and come through and out the door we had exited through.
Fortunately there were no injuries and we all left quickly and everyone made it away safely.
The place was relatively secure within the first half and we set about tidying the place up. Section 6 notices were place in the windows and were readily visible.
The first sign of any trouble was 3 Community Protection Officers who began knocking on the windows. In general I am amused when I see these people as I understand their powers to be relatively limited. I was surprised by their behaviour though. One demanded that I open the door or he would 'let the dogs in' which I think was a clear attempt at impersonating a police officer. Another seemed to corroborate this by displaying a badge with the Nottinghamshire Police logo (which actually read 'Nottinghamshire Police authorise this person to act as a Community Protection Officer') in response to my questioning if there were any police officers here.
The CPOs were relatively easy to deal with and soon backed down. A real police officer turned up soon after and they all began to behave themselves a little. This police officer asked to talk to someone not through a window so I went outside a back exit and talked to him around the front. He acknowledged that the building was in disrepair and he could not be confident that we had forced entry so it was he agreed a civil matter. He was in the process of contacting the owners and we should expect them to try and get us out etc. etc.
Shortly afterwards two of the owners arrived in an expensive 4x4, noticeably with ladders on the roof rack. We began to worry a little. The police were still here at this point, though the officer I had spoken to had left and was replaced by another. The 3 CPOs, presumably with less pressing commitments were all in attendance. I listened to the officer give a little speech to the owner where he said "I agree that the law is ridiculous, but as it stands you're not allowed to enter that property by force and remove those people" He used the 'I'm obliged to tell you this' style and even used the phrase "you do what you want".
It was around this point that another van pulled up and 4 people got out, also involved in owning the property. These were 3 younger men and an older patriarchal figure. All looked very menacing. The owners began looking for points of entry into the building, partly speculating as to how we'd got in, but also serving the purpose of finding points which they themselves might enter through. The police looked on. A couple of our friends had turned up outside to observe what was going on and the police actually went over to them to suggest they left as the situation was getting dangerous. They stayed.
As an aside, it seemed strange to me how the situation could be dangerous as the law was clear and police officers were in attendance and could easily call for backup.
The next thing there was a loud banging noise as one of the owners started kicking in a door. We all quickly went to the front and tried to make it out of a front window which unfortunately wouldn't open wide enough. We then made it out a side door with owners and the police/CPOs in persuit. We made it down onto the street to look back and see all 6 of the owners crew, the 3 CPOs and the police all together in a crowd on the front. All of them had entered the building together and come through and out the door we had exited through.
Fortunately there were no injuries and we all left quickly and everyone made it away safely.
And.....
09.05.2008 16:10
anon
oh well
10.05.2008 06:56
oh well
Further evidence
10.05.2008 07:44
Interesting to see such a concrete example of this attitude filtering down to constable level.
Another slap in the face of those who persist in asserting that we live in a democray where elected representatives determine the law.
It also the attitude that means , in Nottingham, a caller to the police claiming to have seen "an asian with a gun" or "long haired person outside offices of international arms dealer" gets a rapid multi cop response but they'll have to finish theor coffee and donuts before even deciding to respond to your grandmother ebing attacked.
Gerrard
Not all police do this, always carry a camera!!!
10.05.2008 11:27
Squatting is not easy it needs organisation!, nor a free ride in my experience I maintained empty eyesores neglected by dodgy landlords like for example Forest Lodge building on Forest Recreation evicted of community & metal+wood workers who had maintained the grade 2 listed building. The council then internally vandalised their own building, smashing windows,toilets, water pipes etc. Building is rotting but council whitewash it to keep the tourists happy. Council had promised they would let groundkeeper live at the building this was about 5 yrs ago,valuable taxpayers building has been neglected since.
Green Syndicalist MEMBER IWW,ICA,
hmmm
16.05.2008 22:12
Police behaviour is disgusting but not surprising. They've always been very reluctant to enforce any laws against people who hire goons to attack squats - I have even heard of them ignoring serious assaults, GBH and wanton destruction of people's property, and arresting people who've just been beaten up. In theory they can get done for misconduct. In theory. (It would however be very difficult for them to make anything stick on people who defended a squat against an illegal entry, especially if violence was used against the squatters - but then the squatters would need enough people to actually fight off the goons - this is usually how it works across the channel)
hmmm