Mass Arrest of 114 Climate Activists in Raid

IMC UK Features | 13.04.2009 12:32 | Climate Chaos | Sheffield

114 people were arrested in a 2am police raid on a community centre and school on Sneinton Dale, Nottingham, early on Easter Monday, 13th April 2009. It is believed that a demonstration was planned at the E.On powerstation at Ratcliffe-on-Soar as a spokesperson for the company claimed that it was the "planned target of an organised protest". The Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station is the 3rd largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK and has been previously targeted by activists.

Similar to past police actions, some of the homes of those arrested have been raided while they were held in custody. It has been confirmed that at least 6 homes have been raided in Nottingham and personal paperwork and computers have been seized. A school located next to the community centre where people were arrested was also broken into and smashed up by police. Those arrested have now all been released on bail without charges and to re-appear in court in July.

Legal advice for activists: Police powers to search premises.

Meanwhile, four Dutch activists from Earth First! forced entry into E.On's head office in Rotterdam and occupied a director's office to have a 'serious chat' about the planned construction of a new coal fired power station.

More coverage: on Nottinghamshire Indymedia

Photos: [ 1 | 2 ]

On the newswire: Statement of solidarity with the Nottingham 114 | Climate Action 114 Media Blog | A Conspiracy too far? | Solidarity for the Coal Conspiracy 114 | Bristol Rising Tide and Westside Statement of Solidarity for the Ratcliffe 114 | Climate activist searches (raids?) still happening | Mass arrests for thought crime | Nottingham's Climate Criminals | 100+ people arrested in Notts for conspiracy this morning | Climate Protest Busted!? | Mass arrests in Nottingham on Easter Monday

This police action is reminiscent of the arrests of climate change activists in April 2007 when they were on their way to protest against the M1 widening. While the protestors were held in custody their homes were raided and computers were taken. A year after the arrests the M1 case was thrown out of court.

Corporate Coverage: Climate Action 114 Media Blog| Police arrest 114 people in pre-emptive strike against environmental protesters | Hundred held over ’power protest’ | 114 held over power station protest | 80 power protesters arrested | Police arrest more than 100 in dawn raids to halt environmental protest | Don't let the police intimidate you | Police Arrest 114 People At Power Station | More at 'Climate action 114 media blog' |

IMC UK Features

Comments

Hide the following 47 comments

From The M1 to G20 and now Nottingham is britan in a Police State?

13.04.2009 13:24

What does it say about the state of this country when Commander Bob Broadhurst, the officer in charge of policing the G20 protests, can describe the behaviour of his officers as "restrained and proportionate"? Please excuse us while we just fall off our chair laughing - we are not sure whether that's police doublespeak or simply an outright lie. And we are not sure which is worse, particularly as the evidence for blatant police provocation continues to stack up.

When 4,00 people converged around The City of London to take part in the G20 Meltdown on April 1st, and voice their concerns over the current economic and climate situation, many did not foresee that the protests would not become something altogether more frightening and unsafe. Not unsafe due to violent protesters but because of the methods and tactics employed by the police force who surrounded us. Since that day, the general public now are more than familiar with the term kettling, and the protesters are all too aware of what it means to be kettled. The issues which arose from that day have centered on one thing: the British’s polices misuse of power, and riot - inciting tactics for dealing with protests - however peaceful or non violent the protest may be.

http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/fact-they-killed-ian-ian-tomlinson/

And what does it say about Britain when it has become 'acceptable' police policy (under precisely which law, please?) to kettle peaceful people in for many hours with no access to food, drink or toilets, and certainly without even the decency of a simple explanation (let alone the slightest bit of consideration or common courtesy)? The police know these tactics wind protesters up, which is, of course, why they do it - it gives them a vaguely legal pretext for wading in, given the slightest excuse (or no excuse at all in some cases last week).

http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/hillsborough-disaster-unanswered-questions/

How can anyone justify the actions of a police force who chased peaceful protesters across the City, leaving them in fear of their lives? Or that the police pushed, shoved, punched, dragged, abused and insulted us for no reason other than that we were there? Or the simple fact that the police don't seem to give a flying fuck that someone actually died out there (RIP Ian Tomlinson) - an innocent man who got caught up in events and battered by the police. As of yet, there are far too many unanswered questions (which are probably unanswerable too - you can guarantee that any official inquiry will end up as a complete whitewash), but what is oh so patently clear is that the police utilized what my friend Martin described with withering sarcasm as "their usual tact and restraint."

http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/pathologist-in-police%E2%80%99s-pocket-r-the-met-guilty-of-perverting-the-course-of-justice/

We must not and we cannot let them get away with this. We cannot let them scare us off the streets. This country has a fine historical tradition of political protest (long may it continue), and we have an ancient and well-defined right to demonstrate - but we also realise that with rights come responsibilities. Our responsibility is to protest peacefully and positively, and the responsibility of the police is to respect that under the law. We can all see that they're not keeping to their side of the bargain, but we cannot afford to sink down to their level. We must be stubborn, and show them that getting rid of us will be much harder than they thought....

“It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime.
What better place than here?
What better time than now?
All hell can’t stop us now…”
Rage Against The Machine – ‘Guerrilla Radio’

http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/test/

http://underclassrising.net/
Homepage: http://underclassrising.net/

News from bridewell,

13.04.2009 15:05

Police have, reluctantly in some cases, freely in another case, confirmed that "some" people have been detained, and are being held at bridgweel policy inforcement agnecy, also known as bridewell police station. Interestingly this building complex is also the magistrates court.

Parked outside the building were also two marked vehicles, which her majesties court service informed us belonged to "Global Solutions" and were "transit" van types, which looked just like police vans in marking, just without police written on them. They did have the identification on the roof, in the same way as many "governement" vehicles do.

Some of the kidnapped people have legal advice from solicitors, some do not, no names were given, and one member HMCS a supivisor who told me he wasnt allowed to give his name, was advising all people leaving not to talk to us.

Police present showed a mixture of attitude, some being policy enforcement agents, and some seemed actually interested in what was going on.

No one has been held on terrorism charges, as far as I know, and they should all be out within 12 hours.

Hope you find this interesting and enlightening!

freeman-in-training

From The M1 to G20 and now Nottingham - Confirms Britan is a Police State

13.04.2009 15:14

Britain has been a police state for centuries - time to stop using recentl examples to debate whether we are or are not living in a police state.

Were the suffragettes, black and slave liberationists violently repressed?
Has any social change been made without violent repression?
Is government by definition a means of social control?

Governments use police violence and state repression to 'control' the people, as a state won't last; without a violent police force, with a passive police force or without a police force.

Therefore;

1. All governments are state's because they must utilize violence to control the people
2. All state's are police state's as they must utilize violent repression to control the people

Governments were established to socially control the population using violence. They haven't changed, they are just becoming increasing recognised by people who ignore(d) history.

veg@n

Of course its a police state.

13.04.2009 17:04

Why do people keep asking the same question as if Britain is teetering on the brink of becoming a police state? It has been a police state ever since the anti-terrorist laws were introduced. Just because it is played down by the corporate media doesn''t make it not so. The police serve to distance and protect the government from political dissent.

Wotsit

"tribal groups" use violence badly also, its bad whoever it comes from

13.04.2009 17:05

we need more mass democratic involvement, they cant arrest everyone, the prisons are already overflowing. Police have shot themselves in foot with this, the longer they hold them, the more publicity they get & compensation.
Eon must be giving the police some real pressure & "trying" to corrupt senior officers etc. Has anyone Simpson been down yet, I will try to contact Heppel MP, theres also EMRA with its minister behind rock city above the hotel too:) as well as the eon offices.
Theres geothermal in granite & deep disused mines,wind,hydro etc& even advanced fusion possibly if we dont live in a more democratic & less chaotic system-society.

Green Syndicalist

PA report indicates an odd offence

13.04.2009 17:06

The Press Association report[1], on which all of the mainstream reports seem to be based, says the protesters were charged with "conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass" apparently there is no such offence, - there are two separate offences, "conspiracy to commit trespass" and "aggravated trespass". More misinformation from the police?[2]

[1]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jT-HSAx2B0H32ViE7PKXehjnBNGg
[2]

http://cockspiracy.blogspot.com/2009/04/churnalism-and-conspiracy-to-trespass.html

Richard Rothwell
mail e-mail: richard@caliban.org.uk
Homepage: http://www.cockspiracy.com/

E.on

13.04.2009 17:12

It was E.on, the companies, they are putting agents in the protest movements and then funnelling the info to the cops to stamp down on any dissent. Probably in Indymedia as well.

Peter

Wotsit: were past social movements not violently repressed then?

13.04.2009 17:47

"It has been a police state ever since the anti-terrorist laws were introduced."

It's a fair enough guess, but it implies that all past social movements (pre-21st century) did not suffer violent repression at the hands of a police state. By stating what you did, you are claiming that freedom fighters of the past merely suffered opposition by government, but not the violent repression that we see today against revolutionaries. If they did, then they would of also been living in a police state - thus it not being a matter of anti-terrorist legislation, but of history long long before then. If you simply go through history you will read about the violent repression that was infact was present, just as it is now.

Throughout history revolutionaries and radicals have consistently tried to pin-point when Britain entered a police state (whether analysising the past or present). This is the same illusion as the right / left debate, as it excludes an alternative theory. Whilst a third political answer is anarchism, the third political question is not are we in a police stare, when did we enter a police state, but; "Was government always a police state"?

i.e. - "Did governments ever not use violent policing tactics to control populations?"

Governments = States = Police States
It's theory and logic for social control.

veg@n

Permission to fart sir!

13.04.2009 18:34

Government is a system of governing, by any method of control the people will not , have not or are incapable of stopping. A police state is the modern equivelent of a military state, where the bribed soldiers slap around the public, so that they do as they are told by the people who place themselves as superior in the origional anthropological war over territory.

Having your head up yer arse, in no way makes it a happy hippy utopia.

pinkynperky

nothing new to us muslims

13.04.2009 22:59

we've been the subject of dawn raids, beatings, torture, being held without trials, yes hundreds of us in the years since 9/11. started around the 10th september that year and has not stopped yet.

where have you lot been?

not supporting us that's for sure.

now you suddenly get freaked out, now that its white folks like you.

we haven't done anything wrong, there is no evidence on majority of us becase we haven't done anything but they label us terrorists and lock us away without access to lawyer without bail or trial.

smells like institutional racism is alive and well in this movement, from where i am standing.

a fed up muslim

Dear fed up Muslim

13.04.2009 23:29

Dear fed up Muslim, you only have to look at the mobilisation in support of Hicham Yezza and Rizwaan Sabir to see that your claim of racism doesn't hold water. We are all under threat from so-called anti-terror laws, and at a time like this we need to concentrate our fire on our real enemy - the police and state.

Vasquez

Join forces & fight back on Sat 18 April

14.04.2009 00:12

Movements should not be bickering amongst ourselves about which has been attacked and repressed the most! The state want nothing more than to divide and rule us!! We have real power when we stand up and fight together. All movements should stand in solidarity with one another - anti war, environmentalist, animal rights, anti capitalist etc etc. By so doing we can take on the government and win!!

Jacqui Smith MP is the Home Secretary. We`ve got her to blame for increasing police violence, aggression and ever more draconian tactics. Whilst her husband sits at home watching porn movies (payed for by the tax payer), she drafts yet more laws which will further reduce our rights and freedoms. Are you going to let Jacqui Smith get away with it????

Take the fight to her Redditch constituency, where a mass demo will hurt her and the fascist Labour government the most!!

Saturday 18 April, 12 noon, Redditch Town Hall

See original call out for this national demo

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/04/426961.html

Solidarity

Well done to all those involved

14.04.2009 00:46

Obviously the raid has got more attention then the action could possibly have.
I received several reports that tomorrow (today) there are going to be some unusual police activity.
None of them are substantiated, but judging from my guts, there are going to be some "surprises".
The enemy has raised the bar in the last few weeks and the new "cold war" has just got colder.
There is no security culture amongst activists in the UK, the man knows a lot more then the police, who are just "pawns" in his game.
Some of us will have a glorious CV after this with an almost guaranteed public job, others. Those of us who do not wish to become politicians will be fucked off royally.
Times are changing fast. The game has become a lot harder for us. Some of us have already been rendered "out of action" whereas others are completely unknown to the men.
These are scary times to be politically active but challenging too.The risks have been doubled, tripled and quadrupled, but so have the potential gains.

While there may have been a "police informer" in there, there are a lot more ways in which the police could of found out, 114 mobile phones of people of "potential risk to public order" all converging on one place could of been another clue.Phone and email tapping, "known individuals", facebook, and even psychological analysis/manipulation could have been used and are used against us.

While it is time to be careful, it is no time to stop. I recommend caution in the days and weeks to come in order to examine the new political situation that is developing.

That said, don't stop! If "the men" escalates so must we. If the men uses "black ops" so must we. I predict some police operations, that will cost very much probably even more lives. I predict political assassinations, "disappearances", torture, and much more. But also I predict the men is going to make many mistakes along the way that will leave it more vulnerable then ever before.

The men is clever, but we have at our disposal the most brilliant minds of humanity, and have had in the past 100 years. If we are clever we can get past these times with more gains for the movement then ever before.
fear not the men, for he is but a system, the intelligence services are but morons with good grades and nothing in the way of independent thought. The bureaucracy will shoot itself in the foot, and us, we will gain points towards humanity.

Fight on you rebells, for a new dawn awaits those still standing.

Person unknow (or is he)

so what's going on? any info?

14.04.2009 02:54

So by now most/all of the people should be released. I appreciate the need for caution in making public statements which could be incriminating (e.g. declaring/denying there was going to be an action), but is there going to be some kind of announcement about what the raid was for, how the 114 were selected, what they were accused of / questioned about / charged with?

The mainstream media is spreading a story (presumably from the police) that the people are from Climate Camp (wrongly termed a "group") and were thought to be planning to shut down Ratcliffe power station.

I've seen these kinds of actions before and they do NOT involve 114 people. The Spring Into Action shutdown involved less than a dozen people in the actual lockon (11 people charged, one report suggests only 5 actually locked-on).

Whatever it was (if it was anything), was not a public action. There had been no calls for action, no public plans for a protest. Nothing that would have attracted twice the usual Sumac crowd to one place at one time. If the plan was for a lockon then only a few people would need to know about it.

So how did they end up with 114? And how does 114 arrests equate to 6 addresses?

Did they arrest people who were going to do solidarity protesting outside, and people who were doing legal support and press releases etc? (This would explain why we've heard nothing from them since last night)

Have they rounded up other random people who they think "might" have been involved? Everyone at Sumac for instance?

scared

"tribal groups" use violence badly also, its bad whoever it comes from

14.04.2009 05:42

Green Syndicalist

veg@n

14.04.2009 06:30

OK point taken but I maintain that the anti-terror laws are more overtly Police State than much of previous legislation which does not involve war and they include imprisonment without trial, infringement of human rights of free assembly and expression including censorship, shoot to kill, etc.

Wotsit

Greens are now definitely intelligence targets

14.04.2009 06:47

That just about does it for me. I am no conspiracy fan but I am now absolutely certain that the state-we-are-in is targeting green activists with spooks and wiretaps. How else could they have had this preemption in place before the event.
They justify it because of 'disruption' to a majority by a minority. There is never any talk of the disruption the majority is causing to us minority. I am pretty pissed off that direct action is now being emasculated. Brown you fascist imbecile, you just got me off my seat ready to take action.

Sapper
Homepage: http://usofc.wordpress.com

Reason for arrest - police didn't want to be policing a prolonged demo?

14.04.2009 08:53

Is it now valid to arrest protesters purely because their protest may cost more to police than making pre-emptive mass arrests?

From the BBC News website, quote from Supt Mike Manley from Nottinghamshire Police:

"It is not for me to comment on the motivation of the protesters but we know from experience that such protests can lead to prolonged policing operations, putting police, protesters and staff at risk."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7997598.stm

Easy going lawman

Re: PA report indicates an odd offence

14.04.2009 10:00

"The Press Association report[1], on which all of the mainstream reports seem to be based, says the protesters were charged with "conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass" apparently there is no such offence, - there are two separate offences, "conspiracy to commit trespass" and "aggravated trespass". More misinformation from the police?[2]"

No, more misinformation from blogs.

"Conspiracy to Commit Trespass"

This is nonsense, the relevant charge is Conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass, which is a combination of Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 (the statutory offence of conspiracy), and Section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (the statutory offence of aggravated trespass.

"1. The offence of conspiracy.— [(1) Subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, if a person agrees with any other person or persons that a course of conduct shall be pursued which, if the agreement is carried out in accordance with their intentions, either—

(a)will necessarily amount to or involve the commission of any offence or offences by one or more of the parties to the agreement, or

(b)would do so but for the existence of facts which render the commission of the offence or any of the offences impossible,

he is guilty of conspiracy to commit the offence or offences in question.]"

http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?parentActiveTextDocId=793250&ActiveTextDocId=793254

"68. (1) A person commits the offence of aggravated trespass if he trespasses on land in the open air and, in relation to any lawful activity which persons are engaging in or are about to engage in on that or adjoining land in the open air, does there anything which is intended by him to have the effect—
(a)of intimidating those persons or any of them so as to deter them or any of them from engaging in that activity,
(b)of obstructing that activity, or
(c)of disrupting that activity.
(2) Activity on any occasion on the part of a person or persons on land is “lawful” for the purposes of this section if he or they may engage in the activity on the land on that occasion without committing an offence or trespassing on the land.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale, or both.
(4) A constable in uniform who reasonably suspects that a person is committing an offence under this section may arrest him without a warrant.
(5) In this section “land” does not include—
(a)the highways and roads excluded from the application of section 61 by paragraph (b) of the definition of “land” in subsection (9) of that section; or
(b)a road within the meaning of the M1 Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993."

http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?parentActiveTextDocId=2156203&ActiveTextDocId=2156302

streetlawyer

Global Solutions police/E-on involvement

14.04.2009 10:08

"Global Solutions provide specialist materials, equipment supplies and services to the oil, gas, chemical, marine and energy industries around the world.

Focusing on key environmental, safety and production areas, we deliver cost effective solutions that achieve results.

Global Solutions actively seek out innovative technology and help to develop and transfer it to new market places, taking a practical approach to ensure its suitability to solve specific problems."

http://www.globalsolutionsuk.com/

Is there a story here

mark

Don't vote for Mary!

14.04.2009 10:15

Mary Whitehouse lives!

pinkynperky

???

14.04.2009 11:00

Streetlawyer tends to have quite a conservative reading of what the letter of the law lets the state do... This is one of these cases where they're bending things a lot. It's technically possible to combine the concept of "conspiracy" with any specific offence (aggravated trespass, criminal damage, etc) but then there's all kinds of grey areas - not least the need to prove joint venture of all the 114 or however many are charged. They tried it before with "conspiracy to commit criminal damage" at the EDO protests but never dared bring it to court.

I can't help thinking that if it was just as simple as that this raid is full-on legal then they'd have been doing it for years, since 1974 or whenever, whenever they got a whiff that people might be planning any kind of protest that wouldn't be 100% legal (if they can have "conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass" then they can have for instance "conspiracy to form an unlawful assembly" if people plan a protest without informing police, or "conspiracy to commit a breach of the peace", etc).

They're trying to push their success with inventing a political use for "conspiracy to blackmail" to criminalise protest even further. But they may well not dare try to make it stick, the raids themselves are the means to intimidate. I suspect the main target is to make afraid the kind of people who do support demos outside occupied sites or do legal support etc, by implying that just supporting a protest action is illegal by extension (as "conspiracy" with those involved in it).

fuck pigs

Re: ???

14.04.2009 12:59

> Streetlawyer tends to have quite a conservative reading of what the letter
> of the law lets the state do...

No, I try to state what the letter of the law is, I'm fully aware that this has little to do with cop law, but it's better than the pub law that many people post here.

> not least the need to prove joint venture of all the 114 or however many are charged

Not necessary, only needs to joint between person A and person B, or person A and person C etc.

> "conspiracy to form an unlawful assembly" if people plan a protest
> without informing police

Not actually an offence outside the SOCPA zone, and yes they could do that, in theory.

> or "conspiracy to commit a breach of the peace", etc).

Not even a possible offence, in England & Wales.

streetlawyer

???

14.04.2009 13:52

I'm saying there's a big grey area as to what's legal and what's not... Cops seem to make up the law as they go along, and sometimes judges and/or juries let them, sometimes they don't. The exact same legal defence will work in one case but not in an apparently similar case. So it's a kind of game or context - there's two narratives in each case, usually neither side has perfect fit with the law or with requirements of proof, and it's a question of who can make their interpretation more appealing. Because of the authoritarian climate, police are pushing their luck. They're playing a grey area inbetween where they can actually bring a prosecution with a good chance of conviction, and where they are so obviously in the wrong that they can be sued and are likely to lose. They can't make a strong enough case to actually prove everyone guilty, but they've got just enough of a leg to stand on that it would be hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they've done something illegal either.

Not sure why "conspiracy to cause a breach of the peace" wouldn't be a real offence, since "breach of the peace" is a real offence? (it might have to be an "arrestable" offence to use conspiracy, but the law was changed to make everything "arrestable"). And there's some kind of offence of demonstrating without informing police under the Public Order Act 1986, plus there was some kind of common law unlawful/disorderly assembly offence before then... and these were just the ones that came to mind, how about "conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct" or "conspiracy to cause an affray" or "conspiracy to cause harassment" etc etc... I say again, if they could do it and be sure it was legal, they'd have been pulling this pre-emptive crap since times immemorial.

It's similar with this PACE house search thing - it's been on the law books for 25 years but it's only been interpreted this way pretty recently. It's obviously abusive (the raids are punitive and intimidatory, not seriously seeking evidence) but the police have come up with an excuse. So if they ever had to defend it in court, everything would come down to whether the magistrate or jury was convinced that the police were really looking for evidence or whether they saw that the raids were abusive and looking for a pretext. The specific statute might require the police to reasonably believe they will find useful evidence; but if it doesn't, the magistrate or jury might infer such an assumption, under prompting from the activists' lawyer... but they're relying on the climate of fear, which makes the idea of activists "conspiring" and keeping sinister evidence of their conspiracies in their homes potentially plausible to judges or juries... if they had tried the same thing earlier, they may well have got into big trouble, yet the law hasn't changed an inch in the meantime.

fuck pigs

lawyer stuff

14.04.2009 14:43

just a point about the 'conpiracy' charge, this happened to us and it seemed to give the police easy accesss to warrants to search property/seize stuff etc as, because its viewed as a a more serious offence they only needed a senior officer to authorisethe search, the case was dropped but they sure picked up plenty of intelliegence thanks to the searches.

philphee

Re: ???

14.04.2009 14:56

> Not sure why "conspiracy to cause a breach of the peace" wouldn't be a
> real offence, since "breach of the peace" is a real offence?

It isn't, you can't be charged with it, only arrested to prevent one. (Different in Scotland) Read Steel v UK (1999) 28 EHRR 603

Or:

http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights/the-rights-of-suspects/police-powers-of-arrest/arrest-at-common-law-for-breach-of-the-peace.html

> And there's some kind of offence of demonstrating without informing
> police under the Public Order Act 1986

No there isn't, it's only an offence not to inform the police about a procession, not an assembly, and this only applies to the organiser, it does not make the procession itself unlawful (cf. Critical Mass, Kay v Commissioner). More pub law.

> plus there was some kind of common law unlawful/disorderly assembly

Before 1936, yes.

> I say again, if they could do it and be sure it was legal

Precisely!

streetlawyer

Actually...

14.04.2009 17:56

...(in response to 'fuck pigs'), there was a 'conspiracy to commit criminal damage' EDO courtcase last summer with a jury. Smash EDO won : )

Smasher

Slash their budgets

14.04.2009 22:27

Does anyone else think that the pigs have too much money to throw around, when they're pulling stunts like this?

dispossessed

Police infiltration is very worrying

15.04.2009 00:47

I know it is not very popular to increase the level of paranoya amongst activists but this is serious shit if some one amongst all those involved with what ever this protest was about has been feeding the cops information all along so that they knew all about it in advance. You have to ask why would some one ever do such a despickable thing. So either the cops had planted one of their own undercovers amongst all the protestors (quite hard to do I would think as cop mentailty should stick out a mile) or the cops would have to have some very serious control over an existing protestor to make them grass others up like that. One can only conjector about what sort of control that could be but when you consider how many protestors have had their property searchd in raids prior to this latest event then statisticaly, one of them is likely to have turned up some thing pretty strong like child porn, past or existing membership of BNP or similar, some past sex crime or dealing in class A stuff. Sort of thing that would either put them away for some years or else turn them into a taboo amongst other protestors. Which hunts sound very negative but then even more negative is 114 people arested and each of them having their homes searched. The inteligence that the cops can win from such a huge trawl as this is quite scary. One has to hope that people for any future actions are chosen very very carefully.

Observer

From Animal To Earth Liberation & Repression

15.04.2009 02:42

Looks like UK animal liberationists will be taking a step back from the frontlines of the repression from now on, allowing for earth liberationists to absorb its full potential. These raids definitely trumps the 30+ houses raided and shactivists arrests in May 2007. Not quite topping the international nature of the raids, as they were also in Netherlands & Belgium (see

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2008/shac for more info), but for the UK - wow.

As an animal/earth liberationist for a few years now (I see them as one of the same) - I have to say these raids mark the turning point of repression, shifting from just animals on the frontlines, to animals and their environment in the state's firing line. It was the expected next step ideologically before matching the repression against anti-arms campaigners, then onto anarchists and anti-capitalists et all. (read Netcu Watch between 2006-2008 for more info).

I think this is due to the innate animal instinct to defend yourself, and your environment - your water, soil, air, food, natural elements and fellow species. Whilst capitalism, war and oppression (for example) pose a severe threat to many animals and the environment (and should be resisted with as much action), its the threat to the environment itself which affects every single one of us - whether we want to believe it or not.

As so, it's Mother Earth whom has already and will continue to be no.1 topic, preceding the previous top topic of war. I haven't included the economic meltdown in this (as its clearly no.1 topic at the moment), as I am discussing in a longitudinal sense. By this, I simply mean what is perceived, by average or otherwise, as 'top topic' or 'top concern' by the public.

As for why these raids were executed, IMO it was:
* 75% for intelligence gathering, for the future of radical green activism
* 25% to prevent direct action and the further spread of it, of which
* 10% focussed on pacifying the population using a fear-mongering green wash

Thank fuck for reality though - the ALF are alive and well and the ELF will be making a major comeback very soon given that the repression continues to thrive, which is obviously will.

Finally though - we're starting to actually take our planet and its population seriously!!
This is evident by the repressive attacks on our so-called 'right to protest', similar to the attacks liberationists throughout history suffered as a result of making social change.

*** Note ***
It has been discovered that humans are biologically animals (and always have been), thus we are all earthlings

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6361872964130308142

Green veganarchist
Homepage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_anarchism#Veganism

not necessarily infiltration

15.04.2009 05:56

Not necessarily infiltration. It could have been someone being careless around mobile phones, someone talking in a bugged building, using a bugged vehicle, it could even be intelligence on a certain number of known activists converging on one site. If they came by car, maybe one of the cars is bugged; if they came by train, maybe the police are checking known activists on rail station CCTVs.

They would always have tried to bust protests a bit like this (i.e. surveillance/infiltration) but it would probably seem less spooky because they would have jumped later. Ten years ago, if they had this kind of prior information they would have flooded the protest site with police, and arrested people as they entered the site.

Infiltrators?

15.04.2009 18:44

The Sumac centre will be the most bugged building in this country!!

Leek soup...

Community policing, or how to make friends and influence people

15.04.2009 20:57

Thanks 'easy going lawman' for the quote from Supt Mike Manley from Nottinghamshire Police:
"It is not for me to comment on the motivation of the protesters but we know from experience that such protests can lead to prolonged policing operations, putting police, protesters and staff at risk."

This is clearly a stupid excuse, but we live in a stupid age.
If the intention was to minimise risks a far simpler, safer and more cost effective solution would have been to sent a couple of local bobbies along to say "sorry guys you've been rumbled". Knowing that the game was up, and perhaps supervised by a squad car or two, the protest would have had to have been called off, all with no disruption to the local community or criminal damage to the school by rioting cops. But of course that would not have facilitated the harassment of peaceful, non-violent protesters, nor the fishing expeditions that followed.

As for Sumac - if it ain't bugged it ain't trying hard enough! These days everywhere and everything can be assumed to be bugged, but if sensible paranoia inhibits anyone from getting on with the necessary work of stopping any of crap that is going on, then 'job done', the forces of darkness can just get on with raping the planet unopposed. So keep on with the job in hand, but take care and where appropriate keep one eye looking over your shoulder.

Perhaps proposing something on this scale was a bit audacious, but time is short and it ain't gonna get any easier. At least here's 114 more people who won't be looking back in too few years time asking "why didn't WE do something to tackle climate change whilst we still had the chance?"

An even easier going lawman

Of course it fucking bugged!

15.04.2009 21:40

Jesus, if they haven't bugged these sort of places, where do you think they do plant bugs and what are those bugs for?
Lets assume that places like the SUMAC center are bugged, it's a safe assumption, if you want to talk about something you don't want them to know go to the pub. (And not the same one every time too).

Come on people use your heads, we know what's the inflated budget for anti-terrorism is all about, terrorists????

Knowing a place is bugged is very useful, it can be used to feed them false information, it can be used to subvert Intel, but it can't be used to plan serious actions which can put people in trouble. if the planning of this was in fact made in the Sumac, then it is everyone involved who are to blame.

For fuck's sake YOU ARE THE STATE'S NUMBER ONE ENEMY, and don't forget this for a second!

I say this again and again, we are the most tapped on sector of society, activists that is. there is no maybes, no buts, no legal reasoning, it's just is. what the state can't be seen to do, private contractors can.

For all the street lawyers and such, there is more to "law enforcement" then the law!, all these quibbling, might help in court, but it is no means to base a strategy on, the state is above the law! the cops are above the law!,the feds are too, the corporates are above all of them.

if they can't bring you to court, they will find other ways of controlling you, in fact, they probably would regardless. we can beat them, but not if we continue to be so fucking stupid, so fucking naive.

The evidence they will present in court WILL NOT INCLUDE the evidence they cannot disclose how they retained. if there was an informer they will not expose him in court, if there was tapping used they will not present it. the state is a vile entity whose sole purpose is to preserve itself, nothing more.
that makes all of us under serious threat.

So for the love of god, and the movement, be fucking careful, think, assume you are being watched everywhere rather then not, look out, look for strange cars parked around you,under covcers and such, leave your phones next to an amplifier to hear the traffic, talk in places where it is difficult to isolate your voices in, think about when you take the battery out of your phone. if you all walk to a meeting place and then all take the battery out at once, that is more incriminating then not at all, leave your phones at home when possible, think think think!

It's time for us all to take a step back and think carefully, we must perfect the art of intelligence subverting, it's been done before. and could be a great tool against the state, but not without thinking about everything.

If you are reading this or writing here, you know for a fact it is already been taken down by them, they are using statistical analysis to try and find who wrote this, which in this particular instance is fine, but think about it, use unusual words, proxify everything, write everything down, then rephrase everything to not point at yourself, think paranoid, always, but don't let this make you ineffective, just think about these things.

We can use the state's instruments against itself, and we must because we do not have an inflated budget, we cannot tap police stations, corporate offices, and such, but they do all of the time. think about who are your potential enemies and what are their interests, is it BAA? if you were active against the Israeli occupation, would the Mossad be after you? E-ON?Huntington? etc. what are the interests of every one of those, and how can you play them against one another? there are also all sorts of cartels, and associations, or governments and particular corporates, remember that guy in Plane Stupid? how many companies do you think are using the services or this one corporate spy company? probably many, there are probably others like it, and probably the MI# are too when they can't be seen to do something.

think like a fucking terrorist for god's sake, think like a spy, think like a rebel, not like a stupid kid playing games, please! make it hard for them,together we can make it impossible for them!

That said, part of the art or Intel Subversion is to make them look at you more then others, sometimes it's useful to have them identify you as a potential target, rather then other people, think about it, and act accordingly, I am pretty sure that having too much of the police effort directed at certain individuals have made it impossible for them to plan for the real thing

Anon

Anon

15.04.2009 23:28

I was refering to the human kind, as in GRASS...

Leek soup

shop around a little

16.04.2009 04:29

It could very well have been a grass this time.
I do get a bit carried away sometimes with this game.
The fact is, we don't know yet, but we can guess some of the tool they'll be using

http://www.spycatcheronline.co.uk/spy-phones-c-52.html

If you only intend to do fuffy stuff then there's no real reason for this.
If you are serious, well assume these.

Anon

Giggles!

16.04.2009 12:10

Anon, the equipment on this site is mostly "cheap rubbish" that won't help you in the slightest, digital algorithms springs to mind... The best counter surveillance is to keep within the law!

You know the saying Anon "a little knowledge is dangerous?" I think we can safely apply this to you!

The majority rules and we say "break the law deal with the consequences."

Leek soup

Climate Rush?

16.04.2009 13:18

"Climate Rush comment on Sneinton arrests over planned Ratcliffe...

A group called Climate Rush said they had been planning a non-violent protest at a power station - but were arrested before they could carry it out..."

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/homenews/Group-claim-responsibility-planning-power-protest/article-897366-detail/article.html

memoryhole

climate rush message of support

16.04.2009 14:24

in response to the above comment, climate rush did not say this, they sent a message of solidarity with those arrested "These arrests were made in close proximity to e-on’s biggest coal fired powerstation at a time when the government is ignoring warnings from its own scientific advisors and buckling to corporate demands for a new generation of dirty coal plants. If these are peaceful protestors willing to risk their liberty to put a halt to this reckless and unjust policy and the consequent environmental catastrophe, then we have nothing but admiration for their courage and conviction, and we hope the police exercise their duty of care whilst the protestors are in their custody."

If the paper is reporting otherwise then it is making things up.

rusher

planning to shut down Ratcliffe

16.04.2009 15:42

I like all the comments on this article. Anyone smart enough to write any of these comments is smart enough to close down Radcliffe, or at least smart enough to persuade a couple of mates to help them try.

The best way of showing solidarity with an intercepted action is to carry out the intended action. Because this case overlaps several causes then a rolling protest at the plant is possible, like the Faslane 365 idea. That'll cost this police force heavily and make them think twice about escalating things again in future. You don't have to be a green to take direct action against police repression, while incidentally closing down a power station.

The police always infiltrated but they used to let protestors rest together and even direct us to the demo the next day, not now. So sleep apart and then converge. Think about smaller groups more often.

wellwisher

Misguided posts and misinformation.

18.04.2009 16:07

Somebody tells us that the police claim to have obtained a press release but who is to say it is real or was seen and agreed by those arrested or accurately reflect the alleged plans people have been arrested for. Bearing in mind that a bunch of people are accused of conspiracy it would be great if people didn't publish rumors or speculation about what people may or may not have been doing nor what the police may or may not know.

Amazingly, despite being an anonymous open publishing site better known as a platform for disinformation than for accurate news, indymedia media posts do appear in court cases and are read and quoted by cops and journalists so please please please think before you post and those of you who admin this site, please please please take responsibility for ensuring that comments containing dangerous speculation etc are quickly removed.

bbs

counter survelience book

19.04.2009 14:28

this is a good book on survelience if anyone is worried about it:

http://tinyurl.com/cwt8by

tod

practical security for activists

25.04.2009 21:10

Check out the booklet at www.activistsecurity.org for loads of tips on surveillance, counter-surveillance, preparing for actions and all that stuff. Small affinity groups are the way forward - still plenty of people out there who are still free...

2 Quick Things

29.04.2009 09:39

1. Re. nothing new to us Muslims (13.04.2009 22:59) by a fed up Muslim: “where have you lot been? Not supporting us that's for sure. Now you suddenly get freaked out, now that its white folks like you.”

And you seriously believe what you have said here? If you do than it is a clear indication that you don’t get out enough (or) you are definitely hanging out with the wrong white people. Either way, it appears as though you don’t have a firm grasp of the general history of radical politics … maybe do some reading and start mixing with some solid groups / organisations, then you won’t be so isolated from what is really happening. And finally, this is indymedia that you are posting on, not some wack yahoo forum. So just remember how out of context and generally silly these kinds of comments actually look when you post them here.

2. Re. Police states in general

OK, this is just my view, gun me down if you think I’m off point here, but I agree that we are in a permanent state of police oppression / repression / suppression … through out the world. The state cannot exist without the cops … well I think of them more as wardens i.e. Society is one big prison. Thing is, the activities by the police are authorised by the state on the basis of threat / potential threat and the scale of police activities are in context to the scale of the threat/s. So as an example, as the Anti-Apartheid Movement grew, the scale of activities by the South African police increased. But let’s look at how protest culture on a global level in the new millennium has grown, particularly what was sparked off by the 1999 WTO protest / riots in Seattle. And as the protest culture, globally speaking, is growing so is the state response, globally speaking … what is happening in the UK is an international phenomenon. So putting this all together, what I’m essentially saying is that states are sh*tting themselves more and more everyday.

DJB

DJB is correct

06.05.2009 12:57

Two streams are occuring - one is the State and the Corporatist Control of the State and Societies, the other is an awakening amognts millions of indoctrinated people from the shackles of their conditioning, the former attempting in what ever way it can to block the latter, violence abroad, survillance at home, troops abroad, cops at home. The latter is driven by nature, by our innate nature, and is emerging as a powerful reality check.

The UK Government is currently carrying out a review of Home Ecuation on the spurious grounds that children who are Homeschooled are more vulnerable to abuse.... They understand that many people are questioning the basis for the current Education System and are crafting alternatives.

This is a direct threat to their control. It is a more direct threat than Stop The War, Greenpeace, Amnesty or any so called 'black block anarchists' for it goes to the very roots of the problem.... the indoctrination of children.

Only indoctrinated children will go against their own inner motivations. Only indoctrinated children will grow up to be Volunteers for Military (professional killers), Police (professional enforcers), state and corporate bureaucrats (professional jobsworths), Prison Officers, Teachers etc etc... people who a) never question the basis for their work or b) the policies of their institutions.

'Good Germans' all. Torturers, Spies, Detectives......

The state cannot exist without these damaged people. The corporatists state must damage all children, in order to ensure it's survival. No Child Left Behind has meaning.

And the truth is this : the state cannot endure as is, for the nature within is far to powerful. We have already won, though we may have a few battles on our hands...

core luminous
Homepage: http://dwylcorneilius.blogspot.com/