Legal and practical advice for revolting students and supporters

Don’t forget those students and youth arrested so far!

Hot on the heels of the effective mass protests on 24 November across the UK, a further ‘national day of action’ against students fees increases & cuts across public services has been announced – Tuesday 30 November, meet 11am at College Green. Details here, here, and on Yuk-Facebook (for Bristol).

 

Revolting youth take central Bristol

Here is a fine report on the 24 November Bristol protest, and here a statement from the successful occupation of Bristol Uni student union. Meanwhile the occupation at UWE continues. Here is an interesting comment on the violence on demos debate. Here is a good article on the recent history of the policing of protests.

Calls for solidarity and support with arrested students after London protest

(Urgent update 15/11/10: News coming in that the excellent FITWATCH website quoted below has been taken down by the police and suspended for 12 months, for allegedly ‘attempting to pervert the course of justice’! FITWATCH was set up to resist and monitor the behaviour of the police’s Forwards Intelligence Teams (as in FIT), who harass campaigners and stick their cameras in people’s faces in a threatening way. This means you cannot access FITWATCH’S excellent advice on the link below, but you can now read it here, here and here. Solidarity with FITWATCH, they do great work.)
Update 17/11/10 – FITWATCH website back up!

At least 57 students have now been arrested since the national student demo and storming of the Tory party HQ at Millbank near Westminster last Wednesday 10 November.

So far the media have been disappointed to find all those nicked are bona-fide students, and not clandestine anarchist rioters. At least 10 arrested are under 18 years old, and probably from FE colleges. There is no doubt the numbers arrested will escalate as the cops trawl the vast amount of media and cctv footage, along with the photos people have put up foolishly on social network pages & websites.

Video on Gaza demo in London

Received by email: Thought you might be interested in this video about police repression during and after the gaza protests in London. As am sure you know, many people were repeatedly brutally attacked by the police in their own homes. Its only five minutes, so doesn’t go into much detail, but it is punchy and should help to make people more aware of what happened in the past year… Would be good if you could publicise it too, as original attempts at publicising it went flat when the youtube link was stopped..:

For the video click here.

More info on NoMoreIsolation blog.

Judiciary backs the State and finds Smellie not guilty

The judge gave her verdict on Wednesday at Westminster magistrates court, in the non-jury trial of Sgt Smellie, the Met police TSG riot cop accused of assaulting a woman at last years G20 protests. Smellie had backhanded, and then hit twice on the leg with his metal baton, Nicola Fisher, the woman concerned. The question revolved around whether or not his baton strikes were excessive, as his backhander was deemed appropriate even by the prosecutor.

District Judge Daphne Wickham found no evidence had been provided to show use of the baton was not measured or correct. She said: “It was for the prosecution to prove this defendant was not acting in lawful self-defence. The prosecution has failed in this respect and the defendant has raised the issue of lawful self-defence and as such is entitled to be acquitted.” The judge said Sgt Smellie had a “mere seven seconds” to act when Ms Fisher ran in front of him hurling abuse at a vigil held on 2 April to mark the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at a previous demonstration. (from BBC report).

Smellie in court, but G20 Bristolian found not guilty

Sgt Smellie, a riot cop in the Met’s Territorial Support Group (TSG – fully trained riot thugs), has been up in Westminster Magistrates Court all week so far on a charge relating to the anti-G20/police brutality protests on 1 and 2 April last year in central London around the financial district. Smellie is charged with ‘common assault by beating’, which relates to his violent assault on a woman on 2 April when protesters gathered in response to the death of Ian Tomlinson the day before.

Training for Cop watching

Many abuses of police powers occur because we let them. Legal observation and police monitoring are effective tools in tackling such abuses and can make a real difference from collating the data necessary for effective legal challenges to providing and collecting witness statements for those arrested. These actions have both challenged the way protest and the streets are policed and kept innocent people out of prison.

Memorial event for Ian Tomlinson victim of G20 cop violence

(Update: Pictures and report of the memorial event are here.)

The Ian Tomlinson Family Campaign have called for a memorial gathering on the 1st anniversary of his death, at 11am on Thursday 1 April. People are asked to gather at the spot where he died in the City of London, just moments after he was violently assaulted from behind by a cop in riot gear. Please meet at Cornhill, by Threadneedle St, London EC3V (Bank tube), at 10.45am, so a minutes silence can be observed at 11am. One year on from his death, no cop has been held responsible.

14th Annual International Day Against Police Brutality in Montreal

100 Arrested, Undercover Cops Forced Out of Protester’s Ranks
by Gord Hill

As a Montreal police helicopter hovered overhead, speakers at the 14th Annual Protest Against Police Brutality denounced the 43 police-related killings in the city since 1987, including the 2008 shooting of 18 year old Fredy Villanueva in Montreal’s north end. According to a call-out by organizers, the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COPB):
“These ‘peace officers’ abuse their powers and sometimes even kill innocent and unarmed individuals without the least worry of being punished, since they know the system is there to protect them. This situation has a name: impunity.”

Updated guide to public order situations

We are a prisoner support group, and that includes people on remand. Its fairly slow, unglamorous work, but it has to be done (so come on down!). In an ideal world, the one that will exist shortly after the social revolution, there will be no political & radical prisoners who need our support.

Until then we think its a good idea for people to do their best to not end up arrested by the police, and sent to prison. Which means people need to prepare a bit before going off on protests and actions! This following guide is an updated version from December 2009, published on the Manchester EF website: