UPDATED: 4th Uncut Activist Arrested in Edinburgh
We have just heard word that a fourth UK Uncut activist has been arrested in Edinburgh for breach of the peace. The activist was arrested at their home this afternoon and is now at St Leonards police station. There has been no further action by Edinburgh Uncut since Saturday, when two attendees were arrested and held for 5 hours, and we can only assume the current arrest relates to that action.
The fact that this activist was approached by police days after the event makes this arrest very different from the previous three, and while they could be seen as officers at the time mistaking what was happening and doing what they thought was necessary to end the actions, it is hard to see the latest as anything other than blatantly political policing and an attempt to frighten people away from future protest.
We’ll try to keep you up to date with any further information we receive and if you’re around Edinburgh and free this evening a group of people will be gathering outside the station to express their solidarity and wait for the activist’s release.
update
The activist has now been released, charged with breach of the peace. The terms of their bail conditions, as with the previous two people arrested, prevent them from entering or attempting to enter BHS. You might think that the imposition of that condition was why they were arrested, we couldn’t possibly comment.
@Anon above. The people they are protesting against ARE sponging off the government, everyone else pays tax and yet they pay little or none, however they greatly enjoy the benefits of the state, state protection of their property and wealth, state infrastructure that allows them to sell their products and services, the state that fosters a stable market, ensuring aggregate demand for their services. In not paying taxes they are greatly benefiting from the state (through other people’s contributions) and not paying their share back.
Yous are all a joke! Spending you weekends protesting?! And for what? You achieve nothing, other than stopping decent people getting on with there jobs. Get a job and put money back into the economy!! Or even better, protest against the people that sponge off the government!!!
Hi Alistair,
what to do then?
Yeah, it’s difficult I fully agree and I don’t much of a positive bent to offer, sorry. If you organise a march, not many will bother to attend if they aren’t in the organisation already. You already have a website and are featured on TV/papers occasionally (though not always in the best light perhaps). Leafleting on the street? Mmm…. I dunno, seems very ineffective
Targetting the owners of these companies where they live or when in the public eye etc would be very popular – I remember Greenpeace putting a banner on Prescott’s house, Chumbawamba throwing water on Prescott at the Brits etc, amusing, memorable and with a point. I suspect many in the public find the cheekiness of these things admirable (remember Prescott punching that chap for egging him – people loved it) but I think the public find a few young people who they rightly/wrongly perceive as ‘students’ occupying shops in a different light and often as mildly or rather annoying.
I don’t have any better suggestions, protest when I was involved, was a mass antagonistic demo type thing that swept people up (Poll Tax, miners etc) but the average person had more of an idea of right and wrong and fairness then and wouldn’t take stuff that happens readily now. There is also the horrible thought that whatever you do people will not take much notice as they just don’t care much these days.
Anyway, Phillip Green/Fred Goodwin’s garden, roof, car etc? Occupy their large houses. Certainly would be popular, certainly get some media coverage and no doubt oodles of support. It would take some courage though.
@Steve, I don’t think that particular tactic would work anymore thanks to yet another bullshit offence “aggravated trespass”
However I do see what you’re saying generally.
@Steve Wilson. As an example off the top of my head, that well known bunch of subversives, The Rambler’s Association was founded as a group to go trespassing on land that they were prohibited from walking on. As a result, they caused legislation which opened up the countryside for walkers – a liberty that people enjoy today as if it was longtime birthright. But the right is less than a century old. Trespassing as deliberate civil disobedience can work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambler%27s_Association
UKUncut have brought to the attention of the people the link between tax-avoiding corporations and cuts. They are winning, and that’s why political policing is being used against them.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Gandhi
Julia: “And to all the lie down and get screwed over sheep whining that “somebody is doing something the big businesses don’t like.. they deserve to be arrested even though they haven’t done anything illegal” .. well guess what.. when the police come banging on your door and arrest you at 5am for having a laugh with your neighbour and a couple of beers watching the football 4 weeks before.. will you be still saying this kind of police state action is fair and just?”
Many activists often talk to people like you do – you seem to think everyone who doesn’t agree with you is slightly thick and sleepwalking into a Gestapo state etc. I know all about the police and their methods thanks, I lived in a mining area 84-85 and my father met the real Gestapo first hand. What you mention isn’t going to happen and comes across as slightly silly and naive. You are ‘whining’ about being thrown out of shops that you are causing a nuisance in, and of course you cannot be allowed to do that as you please – if you were only moved on, you’d be in another shop just round the corner, hence the arrests to stop it happening or spreading. Rightly or wrongly.
Do something else. Sitting in shops didn’t stop MacGregor or Thatcher (and the police were a LOT worse then!). Other things nearly did though.
If you’ve got constructive ideas for other things we could do, please tell us Steve.
I just deleted two comments as they were offensive. We try not to moderate here, but random abuse isn’t cool.
Just because it’s a few days or weeks after the event, does that make the arrest any less valid?
People are arrested (and convicted!) for rape and murder YEARS after the event.
Just to make sure people are aware, Breach of the Peace is a criminal common law offence which can result in punishment and conviction. There is a lot of confusion because there is a similar offence in England and Wales. The Scottish variety is very different. More information can be found on our website.
So there it is.. a political bullshit arrest.. it’s not possible under the law to be arrested for “breach of the peace” 4 days afterwards.. human rights lawyer required pronto..
And to all the lie down and get screwed over sheep whining that “somebody is doing something the big businesses don’t like.. they deserve to be arrested even though they haven’t done anything illegal” .. well guess what.. when the police come banging on your door and arrest you at 5am for having a laugh with your neighbour and a couple of beers watching the football 4 weeks before.. will you be still saying this kind of police state action is fair and just?
Greetings and 100% solidarity from The Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign in Defence of Disabled People’s Rights.
We are having a meeting with Kenny MacAskill this Friday and we will be condemning this act of political policing in the strongest possible terms and demanding immediate remedial action!
We all stand ready to do whatever it takes to defend our legitimate right to protest in a free and democratic society.
Get in touch with us and Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty.
UNITED WE STAND!
Black Triangle
If a police officer considers that you are causing , have just caused, or are about to cause a breach of the peace they have a common law power to arrest you. They must reasonably believe that you are using violence, or are about to use violence against persons
or, in their presence, against their property. They can also arrest you, if they think others are being, or may be violent in response to your actions. There must be a “real and imminent threat to the peace”. The police
have often threatened to arrest people for this offence in the past when they have occupied offices or other private property.
Breach of the peace is not a criminal offence but a civil wrong and the only possible penalty is a bind-over order. This is not a criminal conviction but an undertaking given to the court about your future conduct.
But surely you see that walking into shops etc and doing what you want in them, will lead to arrests (as it probably should to be honest). You can’t just go around stopping trading because you don’t like the ethics of the shop (well, you can but you might get nicked)
Why not do something else?
As far as I can see he can’t fail to get off, and maybe can sue for false arrest. The crime of breach of the peace is specifically there to remove people doing something that might provoke others into violence. As this arrest took place when the situation was over, and without violence, that cannot possibly have been the reason for the arrest.
Should seek out a human rights lawyer wanting to make a test case on this.
If there was a crime committed then they’d charge them with a crime, not ‘breach of the peace’, which doesn’t exist in any other country, and really means ‘doing something the police don’t like’. It is a notorious bullshit charge.
Police officers continually admit these arrests are for ‘stopping trading’. Well, if these companies want to be on our high-streets, they should be aware that they’re public actors, and can be targeted as such (non-violently).
*which is why
Steve Wilson, the point is whether you are allowed to protest in *this* particular way. It’s doubtful whether the protests – which take place in public places – involve any criminal offence, why is why people have been arrested only on vague or spurious grounds. This makes the arrests look politically motivated, which is unacceptable, regardless of whether there are ‘other, more usual ways’ to protest.
I don’t see it as an attempt to stop protest. It certainly seems to be an attempt to stop people going into shops etc and ‘occupying’ said shops whenever the fancy takes them.
I assume you are allowed to protest in other, more usual, ways without getting arrested?
BTW, my expletive was directed at senior L&B police officers for what is a targeted and political arrest – not the person arrested (who I can assure you all is a lovely person).
Bastards indeed.
Bastards.
Any idea what kind of time we’re talking about to be outside the station?