The Polit hate doing their work, they're lazy, incompetent bastards, trust me, I have contacts. If they're not shit at their job its because they enjoy it and enjoying that work makes them fascists. Those who can do it well but don't, don't because they hate it. A career's a career when you've got a family to feed and they do pay well, they often have to.
Now, I have my fair share of deserved charges, nothing too serious, one or two public orders, vagrancy, one assault, one possession of stolen goods for having a road sign at a demo and countless times I've been picked up by the ironically named FIT squads, this stands for Forward Intelligence Team, the irony works of both levels.
However, in recent months Newcastle has been the scene of many student-orientated protests aimed at cuts in the public sector and in education primarily using occupation tactics and picket lines outside of businesses like Marks & Spencer, BHS, Carphone Warehouse, Vodafone and Boots to highlight the issues regarding the millions these businesses owe in tax or that their billionaire owners reap the rewards of their poorly-paid staff and those in the third world who make their merchandise earning well below a dollar a day and yet then sign an open letter supporting the ConDem cuts.
This has led to a large amount of polis interest.
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| "Mam said I was special... branch" |
Now, nobody's in charge of these protests, they work in much the same way an ideologically communist society works, through a mass consensus. Choices are made by the whole group as a group on the day without any prior planning other than a word-of-mouth transition of "be here at this time". With there being nobody in charge, the popo do of course need somebody to scape goat, usually the familiar faces within the groups, those who turn up all the time because either, they feel more ferociously passionate about the cause or because, quite simply, they can.
My case in point for this scape-goating is the arrest of three individuals now referred to as "The HSBC 3" - Facebook them. On the 18th of December last year two activists were arrested after occupying the HSBC branch next Grey's Monument in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, according to police, the arrests were made for breach of conditions applied to the march not to enter private premises. I myself was on the march and can confidently confirm that no such order was made, I'll be in touch with a solicitor.
Similarly, I myself had my details taken on Tuesday night following a demonstration outside the Civic Centre where the governor of the Bank of England was holding a dinner to speak to people about the current "economic situation". All well and good you might say, fair enough, good lad, how much were tickets? Yes, tickets. £55? Oh, well I wont be asking him owt then. Anyway, the dinner was to be held from around six with the protest heading for a six o'clock kick-off I received a tip off at six so I was late, by the time I arrived any excitement had died away, I greeted and bid farewell to a few friends and had a few pints before heading to the Haymarket with a fellow protester to get my bus. In unlocking my companion's bike from the grounds of the Civic Centre we were approached by two uniformed officers who then demanded our details on private property, in the dark. Had this been in a public place, no doubt we'd have argued the toss but PC Overkill and Sgt.Suddenlyveryinterestedinyourhobbies took our names, dates of birth and addresses and then buggared off but this had me thinking; what are my rights?
These are your rights:
If you are stopped by an officer he may search you by removing only your hat, gloves, scarf and coat, anything more intimate must be done in private (the "Pilgrim Street Hylton" in Newcastle), the officer searching you non-intimately has no right to ask you your name unless they can give you a reason for why they'd need it. The only reason they'd need you name and address is to send you a summons so unless they can tell you you've committed an offence and produce some sort of evidence you can exercise your right to shut up. Search records (which you should ask for straight away, it annoys them, they can tell you to pick one up from such and such a pig sty but asking keeps them suitably pissed) have a section labelled "description" which is for when folks don't give a name.
In short, if you are stopped and searched under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) the polisman must produce to you his name, number, station, reason for searching and the offence he believes you have committed before he can ask you of your name. If you haven't done anything wrong, don't tell them anything.
They can search your "outer clothing" as before stated under section one but again, no name need be taken, they can simply write down what you look like and draw you later. They have no rights to search "electronic media" either that is, they cannit look through your phone or iPod without an inspector's permission.
To conclude, know what your rights are before taking anything on where police confrontation or communication, however you look at it, is likely. I was stopped and accounted under s.1 for associating with a known activist, freedom of association ring any bells?
Though having a camera often helps,
Officer, putting hand on my chest: "You've been asked to wait here before leaving Eldon Square."
Me: "Why?"
"To establish where the march is going next."
"I'm not on the march."
"You've been taking photos of them all day, I've seen you."
"That makes me a journalist mate, not an activist."
-Nous
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