Part 4 of the Police Bill… Echoes of the Porrajmos?’

Posted on 27 January 2022 by admin

We are sleepwalking into a human rights catastrophe

Date published27 January 2022LocationUKRelated professional interestEthics and human rightsSocial justice, poverty, housing and economy

By Allison Hulmes, Mairtain Moloney-Neachtain and Dr Dan Allen (GRTSW Association)

“Culture is fading because we are getting forced to leave it behind. We can’t live our way of life. They can’t provide sites; they won’t put planning on private sites through so what do they want us to do. We can’t live on side of the roads anymore; they just want us in houses. The culture of Travelling is going.”

Criminalising a tradition, culture & way of life

Part 4 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSC) stands in a long line of legislation and policy specifically designed to achieve the eradication or assimilation of ethnic Gypsies and Travellers in the UK. 

Part 4 of the Bill seeks to criminalise ‘unauthorised encampments’ – and when enacted will make trespass a criminal offence, increasing the powers of the police to seize vehicles, which are homes or crucial to employment.; impose fines that result in more families falling deeper into debt and poverty; or impose a prison sentence, denying families in many instances of a primary wage earner.

This racist Bill is a direct attack on the rights of Gypsies and Travellers to continue a nomadic practice that is central to Gypsy and Traveller identity and culture. 

Echoes of the Porrajmos

It is the conscious and targeted impact of the Bill on ethnic Gypsies and Travellers which raises echoes of the Porrajmos – a targeting of a group, based on ethnicity as a key characteristic of identity, which is what happened to Jewish, Roma and Sinti people in the Holocaust.

The proposals in Part 4 of the PCSC Bill fail to acknowledge the fact that there is not enough site, transit or stopping place provision to meet the needs of Gypsies and Travellers and there are not any meaningful proposals to address this in England. Indeed, the Government’s own Consultation Paper acknowledged that the Bill will have adverse impacts on Gypsies and Travellers. 

There is a campaign to support a ‘negotiated stopping places’ approach, which can help ease some of the pressures created by lack of appropriate stopping places – but this doesn’t address the racist mindset of a government that initiates abhorrent, repressive and racist laws in England and Wales.

To contextualise these initial reflections, it is important reflect on the direct and indirect damage that Part 4 of the PCSC Bill may cause. One specific example is the impact on families – undermining legal standard that the welfare of children must be paramount.

Another tool for state-sponsored violence

Throughout history, there is clear and obvious evidence that Gypsies and Travellers have been – and continue to be – strategically marginalised and controlled because of their ethnicity, customs and traditions. 

Despite their protected characteristics, current public service provision limits progress to promote or develop effective working relationships in any specific agency. 

Where there remains strong evidence of transgenerational trauma, born out of centuries of oppression, there remains that need to develop effective communities of practice. Instead, Part 4 of the PCSC Bill presents as the true representation of the absence of any genuine duty of care for vulnerable children.

In Figure 2 below, we illustrate the rising number of Gypsy and Traveller children living in state care in England. For reasons known only to devolved government administrations, this data is not easily accessible in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. 

To highlight our concerns about Part 4 of the PCSC Bill, we also include a timeline of policy concordats and events that contextualise the abhorrent, repressive, and racist actions that have taken us to the position that we find ourselves in today.   

Figure 2: Timeline and illustration of the rising number of Romani and Traveller children living in State Care in England since 2009

Huge inequalities for Gypsies and Travellers

Figure 2 is based on education census data in England until 2009. Even now the classification and conflation of ethnicity ‘Gypsy/Roma’ falls behind what is required.

Directly related to the policy concordats and events listed, the 2017 Race Disparity Audit in England found huge inequalities in access to some public services for Gypsies and Travellers, particularly in education. 

At the same time, the Women and Equalities Committee started a report about tackling inequalities faced by Gypsies and Traveller communities, which concluded that these inequalities persisted in education housing and health because of a reduction in effective (pro-Gypsy and Traveller) community development action.

In 2019, the English Government launched a national strategy to tackle entrenched inequality and improve the lives of Gypsy and Traveller communities, but no attention to the impact of Part 4 of the PCSC Bill is considered. 

A critical juncture for public services: lessons from COVID-19 concluded that Gypsy and Traveller groups experienced significant inequalities of access to public services – but again the full impact of Part 4 of the PCSC Bill was omitted from this research.

The Bill undermines ‘levelling-up’ rhetoric

Despite a broader commitment to a levelling-up agenda where “everyone to have the same opportunities to get on in life” by tackling regional inequalities in outcome and opportunity, the disconnection between Part 4 of the PCSC Bill and the welfare of the child continues to pathologise a community, blame them for the inequalities, racism, and deprivation that they experience, and once again normalise the hate speech, leading us to forget why Holocaust Memorable Day is important.

To our knowledge, the full implication of Part 4 of the PCSC Bill does not appear to have been made subject to a formal impact assessment from a child welfare perspective. For this reason, we predict that its implementation will exacerbate the entrenched inequality and deprivation that government so frequently reports.

Despite, continuous research highlighting the need to give recognition and acknowledgement to the intersection of culture, history, identity, racism and oppression, policy directives have slowly dismantled investment in services designed to bridge the gap caused by centuries of oppression and state sponsored violence. 

Figure 1 shows that as services have been withdrawn, as housing policies have been amended, and as the obligation to promote opportunities for integration have been diluted, the number of Gypsy and Traveller children requiring support through formal child welfare services has increased.

It is our view that Part 4 of the PCSC Bill threatens to add to this number as it making the lives of Gypsy and Traveller children and their families even harder.

The final systematic annihilation? 

The situation is Wales diverges somewhat from England. Although criminal justice is a reserved and non-devolved matter, Part 4 of the PCSC Bill conflicts with domestic legislation, in particular Part 3 of the Housing Act 2014 which relates to local authority duties to assess and meet the housing needs of Gypsies and Travellers. This includes site provision and transit places.  

The existence of a legal duty hasn’t improved the delivery of culturally appropriate accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers in Wales. There continues to be a shortfall in sites/pitch provision and the duty has not led to ANY transit sites to date. Significantly, no local authority has been held accountable for the failure to meet this requirement.

The Senedd in Wales has, however, sent a clear and unambiguous message to Westminster Government that it will not support racist laws. On January 18th Members of the Senedd voted 40 to 14 to withhold consent to Part 4 of the Police Bill and it was encouraging to hear strong and supportive cross-party speeches.

This vote sends a strong message not just to Westminster but a clear message of support to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller citizens of Wales that the nomadic way of life should not be criminalised, people’s human rights do matter and there are those who are willing to raise their voices to defend and uphold them. It was important that Senedd debate shone a light on the lack of adequate sites across Wales and the need for Welsh Government and Local Authorities to do so much more –

The Senedd vote is a moral victory and time will tell whether or not Welsh Government has the legal capacity to withhold consent. Welsh Government also needs to ensure that local authorities meet the assessed needs of Gypsies and Travellers with clear accountability and penalties where this doesn’t happen.

One Day

History may remember January 18th 2022 as that ONE DAY where common humanity was the order of the day and instead of sleep walking into a human rights catastrophe, the eyes of the general population were opened to the monstrosity of this Bill and where ultimately, it can lead – the systematic annihilation of people based on their ethnicity or race.

“The Travelling life in my family goes back over three hundred years in Wales, they had stopping places where local people would gather to hear their story-telling and dance to the Gypsy fiddles and harps. All over Wales you can see ‘Y lon Sipsy/Gypsy Lane’ the ‘achin tans’ where our families stopped, cared places to us where birth, marriage and death occurred. By outlawing these culturally rich practices of stopping places an entire legacy of Welsh Romani culture is threatened with silence and erasure. Without ‘place’ there will be no meaning to our Welsh Romani cultural identity and our contributions to Welsh culture will become empty and blown away like leaves in the wind.”

Roma and Sinti Porrajmos – resources:

https://www.basw.co.uk/media/news/2022/jan/basw-blog-part-4-police-bill-echoes-porrajmos

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From rural to radical, Tate Liverpool re-evaluates the art of landscape with major exhibition for summer 2022

Posted on 26 January 2022 by admin

In summer 2022 Tate Liverpool will present Radical Landscapes, a major exhibition showing a century of landscape art revealing a never-before told social and cultural history of Britain through the themes of trespass, land use and the climate emergency.

From rural to radical, Tate Liverpool re-evaluates the art of landscape with major exhibition for summer 2022

by CULTURE LIVERPOOL

The exhibition will include over 150 works and a special highlight will be Ruth Ewan’s Back to the Fields 2015-22, an immersive installation that will bring the gallery to life though a living installation of plants, farming tools and the fruits of the land. This will be accompanied by a new commission by Davinia-Ann Robinson, whose practice explores the relationship between Black, Brown and Indigenous soil conservation practices and what she terms as ‘Colonial Nature environments’.

Expanding on the traditional, picturesque portrayal of the landscape, Radical Landscapes will present art that reflects the diversity of Britain’s landscape and communities. From rural to radical, the exhibition reconsiders landscape art as a progressive genre, with artists drawing new meanings from the land to present it as a heartland for ideas of freedom, mysticism, experimentation and rebellion.

Radical Landscapes poses questions about who has the freedom to access, inhabit and enjoy this ‘green and pleasant land’. It will draw on themes of trespass and contested boundaries that are spurred by our cultural and emotional responses to accessing and protecting our rural landscape. Key works looking at Britain’s landscape histories include Cerne Abbas 2019 by Jeremy Deller, Tacita Dean’s Majesty 2006 and Oceans Apart 1989 by Ingrid Pollard. Ideas about collective activism can be seen in banners, posters and photographs, such as the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp banners by Thalia Campbell and video installations by Tina Keane.

Reflecting on shared customs, myths and rituals, the exhibition emphasises how artists have reclaimed the landscape as a common cultural space to make art. Interrogating concepts of nature and nation, the exhibition reverses the established view to reveal how the countryside has been shaped by our values and use of the land. Key works looking at performance and identity in the landscape include Claude Cahun’s Je Tends les Bras 1931and Whop, Cawbaby 2018 by Tanoa Sasraku, while the significance of the British garden is seen in works such as Anwar Jalal Shemza’s Apple Tree 1962 and Figures in a Garden 1979-81 by Eileen Agar.

The exhibition will also consider how artists and activists have created works that highlight and question human impact on the landscape and ecosystems, shining a light on the restorative potential of nature to provoke debate and stimulate social change. Radical Landscapes will feature works that reflect on the climate and its impact on the landscape including Gustav Metzger’s dazzling Liquid Crystal Environment 1965 (remade 2005) and Yuri Pattison’s sun[set] provisioning 2019.

Radical Landscapes will be presented within an immersive, environmentally-conscious exhibition design by Smout Allen that creates a dynamic dialogue with the artworks. The exhibition will be complemented by a new publication, with contributions by leading and upcoming writers, campaigners, naturists, environmentalists and social historians, offering a wide variety of voices on the subject of landscape. A diverse public programme will accompany the exhibition, taking place online, throughout the gallery, across the city and beyond into the great outdoors throughout the summer.

Radical Landscapes is curated by Darren Pih, Curator, Exhibitions & Displays, and Laura Bruni, Assistant Curator, Tate Liverpool.

From rural to radical, Tate Liverpool re-evaluates the art of landscape with major exhibition for summer 2022
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UK Traveller communities fear ‘cultural annihilation’ over upcoming trespass laws

Posted on 26 January 2022 by admin

Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people face imprisonment or hefty fines under new England and Wales Police Bill that ‘criminalises’ nomadic life

Blyth Brentnall 25 January 2022, 11.33am

GRT campaigners at a protest against the Police Bill, 2021 | Drive2Survive

Peers will tonight vote for the final time on legislation that has been described as “cultural annihilation” for the UK’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities.

The government has been accused of criminalising nomadic lifestyles in new trespassing laws introduced in Part 4 of its flagship Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

The Lords last week voted down a series of protest restrictions introduced into the bill at the last minute, but the section that most worries GRT people passed unhindered.

Under the planned legislation, an estimated 10,000 people from GRT communities in England and Wales could face eviction for parking their vehicles on roadsides and unauthorised land if they are deemed to have caused ‘significant disruption’. Yet there is a national shortage of sites and a declining number of new ones, despite the number of Traveller caravans rising.

Violet Cannon, a Romany Gypsy and the chief executive of York Travellers Trust, explained: “Councils are really reluctant to build any new pitches or grant planning permission for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller caravan sites. So a large proportion of three ethnic minorities is officially homeless. And the government’s response is to make them criminals.”

The bill would change trespassing from a non-arrestable civil offence to a criminal one with harsh sentences. If it comes into force, a land occupier or their ‘representative’ could call the police to evict those present and seize their vehicles if they have caused ‘significant harm, disruption or distress’. Guilty verdicts in court would result in fines of up to £2,500 and imprisonment for up to three months.

“The aim of the bill is clearly to take away people’s homes, their pets and property, imprisoning them and leaving their children parentless, in order to forcibly assimilate them into settled culture,” said Traveller Ann Marie Evans. “For us, that is just the first step of cultural annihilation.”

The Home Office denies that the proposed law is discriminatory.

But Evans says the legislation would leave “children parentless, in order to forcibly assimilate them into settled culture”. “For us,” she added, “that is just the first step of cultural annihilation.”

In a vote in the Lords last month, the Lib Dems and Greens opposed Part 4 of the bill, but Labour whipped its peers to abstain, meaning the parts of the bill that could most harm GRT communities passed unchanged. Protections for GRT people, which would have ensured police officers could evict mobile-home dwellers only if there were alternative sites available nearby, had been backed by Labour but failed to get through by a single vote.

Gypsy Traveller Lynne Tammi, who works in human rights, reiterated: “The bill sets out to criminalise nomadism. It’s a violation of human rights and breaches the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by ensuring children and young people no longer have the ability to practice their culture and traditions.”

These communities already suffer from abusive policing and imprisonment, which they expect to worsen under the bill. People from GRT backgrounds represent one in 20 inmates in English and Welsh prisons, despite making up only 0.1% of the countries’ populations.

Sherrie Smith, a Romany Gypsy and co-founder of GRT campaign group Drive To Survive, launched a system to monitor hate crime, Report Racism GRT in 2016. Through her work, she has heard many accounts revealing the extent of discriminatory policing of her community.

She told openDemocracy how, 18 months ago, she learnt of a woman who was violently arrested despite being seven months pregnant. Police pinned her to the ground, Smith said, causing her to have a fit, only to later release her without charge.

“I’ve seen the worst of how Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people are treated by police in the UK,” she added. “They don’t take proportionate measures for people who are innocent and this is standard practice in different areas of the country. Under this bill, policing will ensure our total demonisation as a race.”

Others have had similar experiences, including Irish Traveller Chris McDonagh, who was beaten while in police custody about 15 years ago. He has since developed hyperacusis, a condition that makes him overly sensitive to sound in one ear, which he believes was caused by having been punched in the head by a duty officer.

McDonagh said: “This is a blatantly racist law. Although not all police are against us, this is going to give officers who are prejudiced towards us the power to do anything they feel like.”

Gyp Drive2Survive
Sherrie Smith, Drive2Survive founder, with other activists at an anti-Police Bill protest, July 2021 | Drive2Survive

Community members have additional concerns about the health impact of exacerbated discrimination, which has been linked to suicides among GRT people.

Martin Gallagher, an Irish Traveller and PhD candidate at Northumbria University, predicted: “Suicides are going to rise as mental health worsens due to kids being taken from their parents and homes confiscated, off the back of this bill.”

Scotland and Northern Ireland have independent criminal justice systems, making these countries exempt from Part 4. Nomadic people, however, often travel across borders.

“It still impacts us in Scotland and Northern Ireland because Gypsies and Travellers have families in England and Wales so they shift back and forth, going to horse fairs and religious gatherings,” explained Tammi, who currently resides in Scotland.

After its third reading in the House of Lords, the bill will return to the House of Commons where MPs will review the Lords’ amendments to other parts of the bill. The bill can pass back and forth between the two houses until there is agreement on its various clauses.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We recognise that the vast majority of Travellers are law-abiding and we respect their right to follow a nomadic way of life, in line with their cultural heritage and to suggest the legislation is discriminatory is false.

“Unauthorised encampments can cause misery to those who live nearby, with excessive noise and littering, and people unable to access their land. We are giving the police the powers they need to tackle this problem.

“The conditions of the offence are clear – if people do not commit significant harms and if they leave when asked to by the police or landowner, they will not risk having their vehicle seized. There are measures in place for local authorities to provide authorised sites for Travellers to reside on.”

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/police-bill-travellers-gypsy-roma-trespass-laws-cultural-annihilation/

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Met/NPCC statement – compensation awarded in Investigatory Powers Tribunal case

Posted on 25 January 2022 by admin

On 30 September 2021, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) handed down Judgment in relation to the claim brought by Kate Wilson against the Met and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

The claim related to the actions of undercover police officers deployed to gather intelligence on protest groups and people associated with those groups between 2003 -2010.

Part of the claim related to a sexual relationship Ms Wilson was deceived into by an undercover officer, Mark Kennedy.

Kennedy, using his cover identity “Mark Stone”, was deployed by the now disbanded National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), into an environmental activist group Ms Wilson was associated with.

The sexual relationship ended in 2005. Kennedy resigned from policing in 2010.

The Met and the NPCC admitted to a number of breaches of Ms Wilson’s human rights. The IPT also considered evidence and issues relating to the severity of the admitted breaches, and several other complaints that were disputed.

On Monday, 24 January 2021, the IPT issued an Order detailing the compensation that is to be awarded to Ms Wilson.

Ms Wilson received formal apologies before these proceedings took place and during the IPT hearing in April last year, the Met and the NPCC reiterated their regret for the hurt and damage suffered as a result of the intelligence operation.

As acknowledged in these apologies, the sexual relationship was wrong and constituted a serious violation of Ms Wilson’s human rights. It was an abuse of police power which caused significant trauma.

The Tribunal in its Judgment found that the sexual relationship had not been an authorised tactic. However, as was admitted, the relationship demonstrated that there had been failures in the supervision and management of Mark Kennedy.

Helen Ball, the Met’s Assistant Commissioner for Professionalism, said: “We recognise the gravity of the Judgment in this case, which outlined a series of serious failings that allowed Kennedy to remain deployed on a long-term undercover deployment without the appropriate level of supervision and oversight. This resulted in Ms Wilson’s human rights being breached.

“In entering into a sexual relationship, Kennedy’s actions went against the training and guidelines undercover officers received at the time. However, the Tribunal found that the training was inadequate and more should have been done to consider the risks of male undercover officers forming relationships with women. We accept these findings.

“It is important to note that since Mark Kennedy’s deployment there has been enormous change in undercover policing, both in the Met and nationally, and I want to be clear that this case in no way reflects modern-day undercover policing.

“We are completely committed to learning from past mistakes, and to make the necessary changes to try to ensure they aren’t repeated. The issues explored in this case are among those being closely examined by the Undercover Policing Inquiry, with which we continue to cooperate fully.

“Lessons learnt from this Judgment, the Inquiry and other reviews have been, and will continue to be, used to inform changes to training and guidance for undercover officers.”

Chief Constable Alan Pughsley, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for undercover policing, added: “Since the conduct of Mark Kennedy came to light, a number of reviews into undercover officer activity have been undertaken. These have resulted in significant changes to the way undercover policing is conducted nationally.

“The selection and training of all undercover officers has been standardised and is licensed by the independent body, the College of Policing.

“The training is significantly more rigorous than that during Mark Kennedy’s time, both in duration and content. Cover officers and those supervising and managing operations are now required to complete standardised training courses tailored to their roles.

“The psychological fitness and well-being of undercover officers is a key consideration during their recruitment, training and deployment. In addition to the relevant laws, regulations and rules in place, the conduct of undercover officers is governed by a National Code of Conduct and the College of Policing’s Code of Ethics.

“Significant work has been undertaken to ensure undercover officers and those authorising their deployment understand the legal limits within which they operate, including the core concepts of deployments needing to be necessary and proportionate, and the need to minimise collateral intrusion into the private lives of others.

“Oversight of undercover deployments is maintained at a senior level. At least those of Assistant Chief Constable rank or equivalent now authorise deployments, and for deployments exceeding 12 months, this is conducted by a Chief Constable or equivalent. The independent Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office is informed of, and scrutinises undercover deployments.

“As the Tribunal in this case acknowledged, undercover policing remains an effective and vital tactic in the fight against serious organised crime. Officers in these roles put themselves at great risk every day to protect the public.

“Policing will continue to review current policies to ensure tactics are used lawfully and ethically, and all officers uphold the highest professional standards.”

https://news.met.police.uk/news/met-slash-npcc-statement-compensation-awarded-in-investigatory-powers-tribunal-case-441221

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Operation Snapshot [extract from :  Police Surveillance [Zine 34]

Posted on 23 January 2022 by admin

from Police Surveillance [Zine 34]by Alan Lodge

from ‘Police Surveillance [Zine 34]’Forward Intelligence Teams ‘FIT

Operation Snapshot was a further intelligence gathering exercise on Environmental Protesters and Travellers but now organised on a national basis. Also, the ‘Rave Scene’ was now included. All designed to establish a database of personal details, names, nicknames and vehicle registration numbers.

“Now every traveller’s vehicle is logged on computer, along with its whereabouts. An estimate of the number of persons in a convoy is included, together with details of any targeted individuals. Many of the vehicles and their occupants have been photographed”.

Undercover operations were carried out and yet more photographs taken. This information was used as a backbone for an on-going intelligence operation begun by the Southern Intelligence Unit (SIU), operated from Devizes in Wiltshire (fancy that! coincidentally, the same base as ‘Operation Solstice’). In the minutes of a meeting held at Devizes on March 30th 1993, the objectives of the operation included:

• Looking for a system to prevent Forces such as West Mercia (Castlemorton), being initially left bereft of intelligence. • Needed to develop a system whereby intelligence could be taken into the control room, and the most up-to-date intelligence was to hand. • To give Commanders immediate access to the most up-to-date intelligence, enabling them to develop the best strategy to combat the illegal activity which accompanied such events.

After a short period the Northern New Age Traveller Co-ordination Unit, designed to cover the north of Britain, was established and operated from Penrith in Cumbria.

The meeting was attended by constabulary representatives from Bedfordshire, Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Dyfed-Powys, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent,

Papers that told of this operation included this paragraph: “Detective Superintendent Fraser described how, if the need arose, an operator would be sent the scene with two lap-top computers. One for input and the other for information contained in the main database. Supt Fraser affirmed that the system could contain over ONE MILLION RECORDS”.

One million of course, far exceeds the numbers of people that have acquired criminal records from the groups in question. The rest of the capacity it clearly for chit-chat and intelligence, rather than evidence, hence my concern.

Among information about New Age travellers and ravers are some of the following examples: • Spiral Tribe, one of the best known rave organisations, are targeted for special attention. The bulletin notes their plans and asks: “Does this mean they are going to be more organised this year? If so, we will have to be alert!!!” • “Suffolk Police object to all applications for rave parties”, one bulletin says. Their officer suggested that: “fire services were useful in producing prohibition notices”. • Surrey constabulary’s policy is that: “raves will not happen, illegal or otherwise”. • Gloucestershire Police reported that an organisation called Fayre Events Limited has applied to Forest of Dean council for a nine-month site for travellers at a farm. “Believe it or not, this may well be granted” the bulletin says!

I was amused to read PC Keene delivering a final exhortation at the end of the meeting: “It’s yours, it’s new, let’s give it a go!”. I wonder how they’re getting on?

The paper requests: “Any information, no matter how small, on new age travellers or the Rave scene should be forwarded to the unit immediately …. Does this mean they are going to be more organised this year? If so, we will have to be alert!!!”

Liberty has challenged this police monitoring at the European Court of Human Rights. Andrew Puddephatt said: “To collate information on computers about individuals who have not committed offences and on the mere basis of their choice of lifestyle infringes on their right to privacy and freedom of expression. Targeting the whole of the travelling community is beyond the European Conventions’ limitations. Just because someone is a `new age traveller’ doesn’t mean that they are involved in crime”.

“The figures produced by the police under Snapshot and Nomad assert that, at most, there are only 2000 vehicles housing 8000 people on the New Traveller scene. Now that the principal and the practice of

domestic surveillance of British citizens (who have not been found guilty of any offence) has been established, it seems likely that other demonised groups will come to join Travellers and ravers under the watchful eye of ‘Big Brother’”

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Quote : In the name of God, go!

Posted on 22 January 2022 by admin

“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing.
Depart, I say, and let us have done with you.

In the name of God, go! “

David Davis
House of Commons 19 January 2022
(in his attack on Biris Johnson)

Leo Amery
House of Commons 7 May 1940
(in his attack on Neville Chamberlain)

Original quote:

Oliver Cromwell Speech

“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

In the name of God, go!”

Oliver Cromwell
20 April 1653
(Dissolution of the Long Parliament by Oliver Cromwell given to the House of Commons)

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Cafe Royal Books pub: my Stonehenge Solstice Zine

Posted on 22 January 2022 by admin
Stonehenge
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Boris Johnson questioned by Line of Duty team in Led by Donkeys video

Posted on 22 January 2022 by admin

The PM is questioned by AC-12 officers about lockdown breaches in a spoof episode of Line of Duty by the satirical artists Led By Donkeys. The video was posted on Twitter on Tuesday and was swiftly retweeted by the Line of Duty writer Jed Mercurio with the words ‘brilliant work’. Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► http://bit.ly/guardianwiressub As part of Operation BYOB, the AC-12 investigators Ted Hastings, Steve Arnott and Kate Fleming tell the PM: ‘We’re satisfied that you knowingly and intentionally flouted the rules because you believe you’re above the law’ Boris Johnson grilled by Line of Duty team in spoof video viewed by 5m ► https://www.theguardian.com/politics/…

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/19/boris-johnson-grilled-by-line-of-duty-team-in-spoof-video-viewed-by-5-million

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Instant arrest without explanation

Posted on 21 January 2022 by admin

Gosh. I hadn’t check this out for a while. During my house move….. but now at 528k views. Amazing innit

@tash_uk

“it’s not a crime to speak” #arrest #police instant #handcuffs

♬ original sound – tash

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Jason Kirkpatrick & the German SpyCops court case

Posted on 21 January 2022 by admin

Jason Kirkpatrick is a climate change activist based in Berlin who was targeted by undercover police officer Mark Kennedy. He is now taking legal action in Germany over the deployment of British undercover police officers at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in 2007.

As mentioned in the episode, you can read reports from Statewatch at  and https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statewatch.org%2Fanalyses%2F2018%2Fundercover-policing-the-alphabet-soup-of-cross-border-networks-groups-and-projects%2F&token=696833-1-1642770350823

You can also read all about the movements of Mark Kennedy around Germany and elsewhere: powerbase.info/index.php/Mark_Ke…of_his_activities

For information on Jason’s film project: spiedupon.com/

and more from Jason: campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/tag/j…rick/

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The view from my balcony / pod

Posted on 21 January 2022 by admin

Nice eh!

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My new front garden!

Posted on 19 January 2022 by admin

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Negatives, Slides and Files

Posted on 18 January 2022 by admin

Negatives, Slides and Files unpacked at last. Some many boxes unpacked and so many more to do. Oh god, will this ever end.

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The policing bill’s attack on Gypsies, Roma and Travellers

Posted on 18 January 2022 by admin

The policing bill is the biggest threat to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in our lifetime. Jake Bowers speaks with Pablo Navarrete to explain why.

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Posted on 18 January 2022 by admin

Ministers stoke ‘culture war’ as Lords reject proposals to curb protests

Jan 18, 2022 | Protest | 0 comments

Photo credit AFP

On Monday, the House of Lords voted on the parts of the government’s controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill relating to protest. The Lords have rejected some of the draconian measures in the Bill, but left others intact. However, the government has suffered some serious defeats as the Lords struck down many of their proposals, and on Twitter, an outraged Home Secretary Priti Patel accused the Lords of siding with “thugs and vandals”

Here are the major changes to the Bill from the Lords vote:

  • Lords rejected proposals for new ‘Serious Disruption Prevention Orders’, modelled on Knife Crime Prevention Orders, which would impose restrictions on who activists suspected of planning disruptive protest can associate with, which events they could attend, and what they could post online. Peers voted against introducing these by 199 to 124.
  • Proposed new stop and search powers which would allow police to conduct ‘suspicionless’ searches at protests and demonstrations were rejected by 212 to 128.
  • The new criminal offences introduced in a bid to target climate campaigners have also been rejected. These include rejecting the proposal to create new offences of “obstructing major transport works” (208 votes against, 154 for), “interfering with the use or operation of key national infrastructure” (153 for, 198 against), and “locking on” (216 against, 163 for).
  • Peers voted to entirely remove highly controversial proposals to put noise conditions on protests and processions from the Bill. Clause 56 and 57 of the Bill would have allowed police officers to shut down protests if they were “noisy” and caused “disruption” or “distress” to those in the locale, and were defeated by a large majority (238 / 171 and 261 / 166 respectively).
  • Peers also voted to amend a proposed increase to the penalty for “wilfully obstructing the highway” so that it only applies to the Strategic Road Network, instead of all public highways (216 for, 160 against).
  • Peers voted to introduce the so-called ‘Hillsborough’ amendment, introducing a statutory ‘duty of candour’ requiring the police to collaborate with and tell the truth to public enquiries (252 for, 179 against). Netpol have previously called for this ‘duty of candour’ to extend to protest and public order policing.

While these changes represent a limited victory, Netpol are among the many who are still calling for the Bill to be scrapped in its entirety. While the Lords votes seek to soften the sharpest edges of the Bill, there is still the chance for the Bill to be amended against before it becomes an Act and many of the most racist features of the Bill are still in place.

These include moves to further criminalise Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, making it possible to seize people’s homes and imprison them, and proposals for the new ‘Serious Violence Reduction Orders’ (SVROs) which would give police additional powers to harass Black men and which have only been amended, not removed.

Still included too are proposed changes to law around public nuisance which would criminalise causing “serious annoyance”, and a change to the Public Order Act which would make it easier to convict people of a criminal offence if they don’t comply with conditions imposed on demonstrations by the police. The current legislation meant that in order to convict you, the police had to prove that you knew about these conditions – new changes mean that you can commit a criminal offence if you don’t comply with restrictions you merely “ought to have known” about.

Stoking a culture war

The government response to the Lords votes has been an indication of how they see this Bill has an important element of the Conservatives’ desire to fight a culture war that means any protest involving civil disobedience or direct action (no matter how peaceful) is in Priti Patel’s words the work of “vandals and thugs”.

It therefore seems likely ministers will fight tooth and nail to give senior police officers the sweeping anti-protest powers they have lobbied for. Anyone doubting the government intends to portray the exercise of freedom of assembly as some kind of liberal frivolity should note this statement by Baroness Williams: “The arguments deployed here tonight are about the middle classes trying to stop working people going to work.”

In an apparent reference to the coronavirus pandemic – an issue that ministers are desperate to push criticism onto others at the moment – Conservative Party Chair Oliver Dowden went further and claimed opponents of the Bill in the House of Lords “voted to make it to harder for the British people to get on with their lives”.

We’ll be following and reporting on the final stages of the Bill as it continues its way through Parliament, and you can find our two-part explainer of the Policing Bill and the government amendments to it on our blog.

https://netpol.org/2022/01/18/lords-reject-proposals-to-curb-protests/
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How a Married Undercover Cop Having Sex With Activists Killed a Climate Movement

Posted on 18 January 2022 by admin

Mark Kennedy spent seven years pretending to be a climate activist. People he deceived are still rebuilding their lives

hen Kate Wilson was 23, she got deceived into having sex with an older guy who wasn’t what he appeared to be. To her, he was Mark Stone, a radical environmental activist who shared her taste in country music and her belief that capitalism is destroying the planet. He wrote poetry for her, went to her grandmother’s 90th birthday party, and helped her organize a massive protest against the G-8 summit in Scotland. They lived together nearly two years as lovers and stayed close friends for years after. 

But seven years after they first met, in 2010, their intimate relationship imploded when Wilson learned the shocking truth about Stone’s true identity. Not only was his real last name “Kennedy.” Not only did he have a wife and two kids. But the person with whom Wilson had “shared many of my interests and dreams,” who told her “lots of his most intimate stories and secrets,” was actually working for the British state.

In 2003, Kennedy had been sent undercover by an elite unit in London’s Metropolitan Police Service to gather intelligence on activists like Wilson. He spent seven years living a double life: He was a fearless organizer who had a shadowy backstory as a cocaine runner, but he was also a cop with a family in Ireland. 

Until the day he was “outed” by a small group of sleuthing activists, Kennedy was a trusted leader in a movement that was desperately trying to wake up Britain and the world to the impending horrors of the climate emergency. But his friends, comrades, and at least 10 other women he had sex with had no idea Kennedy was selling them out to governments and corporations that had a vested interest in keeping the country hooked on fossil fuels. 

This wasn’t just a personal betrayal. “He was controlling people’s ability to organize politically,” Wilson told VICE World News. “That is profoundly anti-democratic.”

Nearly 20 years after Kennedy first met Wilson and manipulated his way into her bedroom, the legal consequences are still unfolding. A judicial authority known as the Investigatory Powers Tribunal made a damning decision about Kennedy last September. 

The court ruled that Kennedy “debased, degraded, and humiliated” Wilson. He “invaded the core of her private life” and “caused her mental suffering.” He “interfered” with her “sexual autonomy” and showed “a profound lack of respect” for her “bodily integrity and human dignity.” It was an “abuse of the highest order.” 

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal concluded, “This is not just a case about a renegade police officer, who took advantage of his undercover deployment to indulge his sexual proclivities.” It described “disturbing and lamentable failings at the most fundamental levels.”

The ruling stated that the UK’s largest police force had adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward Kennedy having sex while undercover, “or more probably a lack of interest in protecting women.” It said activists such as Wilson never should have been targeted for their political beliefs.

The Metropolitan Police isn’t disputing the judgment. “We accept and recognise the gravity of all of the breaches of Ms. Wilson’s human rights as found by the tribunal,” it says in a statement provided to VICE World News. “[We] unreservedly apologise to Ms. Wilson for the damage caused, and the hurt she has suffered from the deployment of these undercover officers.” 

Wilson had previously said that learning about Kennedy’s true identity “was like a computer virus. It’s corrupted all my memories of those times, and it affects all the relationships that I’ve had since.”

SENIOR OFFICERS KNEW ABOUT OR TOLERATED KENNEDY’S RELATIONSHIP WITH WILSON, THE TRIBUNAL FOUND. PHOTO: KATE WILSON

The court decision this fall, which was major news across much of Europe but barely noticed in the U.S. and Canada, was the result of a 10-year legal battle by Wilson. “In terms of emotional closure, it’s all quite complicated,” she said. “In the end, the judgment was a much bigger victory than I expected it to be.”

The ruling was a vindication for dozens of other women who have come forward across the UK saying they also were deceived into sexual relationships with undercover officers. The tribunal will now be deciding what damages Wilson should receive. 

But Kennedy caused harm that some of Wilson’s friends and former activist colleagues say is not only personal, but actually planetary. They say that the dirty tricks he played, carried out on behalf of a police force hostile to political dissent, hobbled a climate movement whose goal was to prevent death and destruction from an overheated planet. 

Geoff Dembicki Vice

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epxbpj/kate-wilson-mark-kennedy-undercover-cop-sex-with-activists

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Police Bill: Lords defeat some measures but concerns remain over a number of provisions

Posted on 17 January 2022 by admin

On 17 January 2022, the protest measures of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill were debated in the House of Lords. In a night of crushing defeats for the government, peers voted 14 times to block its proposals.

Among the provisions voted on were the amendments inserted by the government at the 11th hour, including new protest-specific stop-and-search powers, serious disruption prevention orders, and new criminal offences of ‘locking on’ and interference with key national infrastructure. Having been introduced at a late stage, peers were able to block these amendments from progressing any further through parliament.

Peers also successfully passed amendments to the original bill, including removing the new noise trigger for the power to impose conditions on protest and the power to impose restrictions on static assemblies. They also voted to repeal the nearly 200-year-old Vagrancy Act, which criminalises rough sleeping. If the government opposes these amendments, they will return to the Commons. These victories notwithstanding, the bill remains deeply concerning. Measures criminalising trespass – which would effectively extinguish Gypsy and Traveller communities’ way of life, trap people in cycles of eviction and criminalisation, and tear families apart – remain intact after an amendment to mitigate their worst effects failed by one vote. Serious violence reduction orders Earlier, on 10 January, peers debated serious violence reduction orders (SVROs), new civil orders that establish an individualised stop-and-search power, as well as reporting requirements and conditions, breach of which is a criminal offence. The Home Office acknowledges that SVROs will disproportionately affect Black men. Violence against women and girls (VAWG) organisations have warned that the ability of SVROs to be imposed on people who ‘ought to have known’ that someone else involved in an offence would have a knife, will disproportionately affect women experiencing domestic abuse and criminal exploitation, and trap people in cycles of punishment and criminalisation. Campaigners have also warned that SVROs risk entrenching the discredited doctrine of joint enterprise, given that ‘ought to have known’ creates a lower threshold than ‘foresight’, which was considered in the Supreme Court case of R v Jogee [2016] UKSC 8. Peers successfully passed amendments to the bill on 10 January to establish a more robust pilot for SVROs, and to require a parliamentary vote before they can be rolled out nationally. Serious violence dutyPeers have also debated the serious violence duty (13 December 2021), which is likely to drastically expand the racialised surveillance of marginalised communities by creating new powers on the police to demand information disclosure even when this may conflict with duties of confidentiality and data protection law, similar to practices in the Metropolitan Police’s gangs matrix that the Information Commissioner’s Office found to be unlawful. Despite campaigning by human rights, racial justice and data privacy groups, alongside the VAWG sector and front-line workers, the duty has remained largely intact, although peers successfully fought to exclude patients’ medical data from the new data-sharing powers and obligations. The fight against the bill isn’t over, but the government’s defeats demonstrate what can be achieved through sustained and persistent collaboration and mobilisation.

Legal Action Group LAG

https://www.lag.org.uk/article/212122/police-bill–lords-defeat-some-measures-but-concerns-remain-over-a-number-of-provisions

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Kill the Bill Protest 2 Speech : Chris Tregenza

Posted on 15 January 2022 by admin

Kill the Bill Protest 2 on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. 15 January 2022. Nottingham. Speech by Chris Tregenza – Open Nottingham

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Kill the Bill Protest 1 Speech : Greg Marshall

Posted on 15 January 2022 by admin

Kill the Bill Protest 1 on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. 15 January 2022. Nottingham. Speech by Greg Marshall – Broxtowe Labour

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Same view as yesterday, but now look. Freeeeezing fog!

Posted on 14 January 2022 by admin
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