Skip Navigation | Sheffield IMC | UK IMC | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

UK Indymedia UK Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia

Preventative Arrest Used Against Anti-Racists in Leeds

Leeds activist | 20.01.2011 16:36 | Anti-racism | Policing | Repression | Liverpool | Sheffield

Reporting on the abuse of civil liberties by West Yorkshire Police.

On the 31st October 2009, the English Defence League, on a roll after a series of rallies in British towns and cities, descended on the West Yorkshire city of Leeds. After their customary session of heavy drinking, the EDL mobbed together in City Square to chant racist abuse and make Nazi salutes, the footage of the event can still be found on YouTube. Then, in what has also become typical of such events, they broke through the lines of police supposedly containing them, and ran around part of the city centre, frightening shoppers, and abusing and spitting at any non-white person they could find.

In official reports to the press following the EDL’s visit however, West Yorkshire police were keen to play down the event, presenting a low number of arrests as evidence of a well-policed and relatively trouble-free event. Another interpretation of the low arrest figures would be that the police had in fact let the EDL run amok, or at least treated them with kid gloves. In fact, of the seven people arrested in connection to the event, at least three of them had nothing to do with the EDL, and they were at neither the EDL’s rally nor the counter-protest that was held that day – one was arrested on sight in a central Leeds shopping arcade, while two were arrested the previous evening.

In the run-up to the EDL event, one could perhaps understand West Yorkshire police being nervous, the group had already gained a track record for chanting racial abuse and for fighting with the police, as they had in Nottingham only shortly before. Bearing in mind that West Yorkshire has its fair share of convicted racists and organized neo-Nazis one might have expected the police to pay them some attention. Yet, it was not the likes of Leeds fascist Tony White who West Yorkshire police were interested in, White appears to have been able to attend the demonstration without impediment, and is seen prominently in video footage from the day. Nor was notorious neo-Nazi ‘Wigan Mike’ Heaton, who would shortly afterwards be arrested on terrorism charges and is now serving a lengthy prison sentence, be prevented from attending the event. Likewise the numerous other hard-line fascists and convicted soccer thugs who regularly attend EDL rallies, all it seems were welcomed by West Yorkshire police.

In stark contrast to the police’s apparent ‘softly, softly’ approach to the extreme Right, it was anti-racists who the police chose to target. On the day itself, the policing of those opposing the EDL was certainly very different to that of the fascists, and in fact the police operation against perceived anti-racists began before the day itself.

In the run-up to the 31st October, West Yorkshire police visited a number of suspected political activists to ‘warn them off’ from attending the lawful anti-racist demonstration planned for the same day. At least one anti-racist also received an early morning call from a large number of burly policemen who told him in no uncertain terms that he “better not” be attending the anti-EDL protest.

Early in the evening of Friday 30th October, a middle-aged man was sat at home watching a film with a female dinner-guest when the front door was suddenly smashed in by a large force of police in riot gear. Armed and accompanied by dogs, the police handcuffed both parties and dragged them away to different police stations. There they were stripped of their clothes and held incommunicado. The home of the man arrested, a life-long anti-racist, was ransacked, and his computer and various other items were taken. The pair were held throughout the day of the EDL demo, and released without charge in the early evening. Around the same time, another suspected anti-racist who had been arrested on sight in Leeds city centre, was also released from custody.
Though none of the three have yet received an apology, no charges were ever brought against them, and they are now taking legal action against the police.

It seems apparent that the targeting and arrest of these people was a politically-motivated attempt to deny them the opportunity to attend a perfectly legal counter-demonstration to the EDL by unlawfully keeping them in custody. As such it is a gross abuse of power by West Yorkshire police. So however, are their attempts in the run-up to the event to intimidate suspected anti-racists from protesting, and if we are to ensure that these ‘police state’ tactics are not repeated, they need to be fully exposed and actively challenged.

Leeds activist

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

If you want to help or get advice

20.01.2011 16:50

If you or anyone you know was visited at home by members of West Yorkshire Police prior to the English Defence League rally in Leeds in October 2009, and were told or warned not to attend by them, or if you were intimidated by them in any way, please take the time to contact Michael Oswald at Bhatt Murphy solicitors –  m.oswald@bhattmurphy.co.uk – who you can speak to informally and in confidence.

Andy


Why ruin a good day out....

20.01.2011 20:05

...for the cops members of the EDL by policing it heavily..... If they were to spit on "pakis" in public whilst in uniform people might object... They prefer their to keep the racist stuff done in uniform for the cells down at the cop-shop.....

free thinker


Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Sheffield Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Sheffield [navigation.actions2016]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2015]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

Sheffield Actions 2013

G8 2013

Sheffield Actions 2012

Workfare

Sheffield Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

Sheffield Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Sheffield Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Sheffield Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Sheffield Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Sheffield Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Sheffield Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Sheffield Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Sheffield Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech