Not Guilty: Bauer bridge protest case collapses
The case against Edd Bauer, Simon Furse, and Daniel Lindley – the student activists accused of traffic offenses after a banner drop – collapsed in court today. Bauer had spent more than a week on remand in Birmingham prison after being arrested for hanging a banner off a bridge during the Liberal Democrat conference in the city.
As a result of his time in the cells, Edd, who is Vice President Education at the Birmingham University Guild of Students, was dragged through a lengthy disciplinary process as the union attempted to remove him from his job. But in court today, the prosecution had to accept that they had no case after video evidence failed to confirm allegations that a little rubble had fallen from the bridge on which the banner was hung onto the empty road below.
Edd, who is a regular contributor to Bright Green, has seen his case gain prominence as students from across the country attended solidarity demonstrations during his time in prison. And here’s the question Birmingham’s police and Magistrates must ask themselves: Why did they hold a non-violent protester on remand for ten days in one of Britain’s most over-crowded prisons for a case that was laughed out of court?
aww how cute it is to see naiveity in Pip, the BNP/EDL/Combat 18 have all had recruitment drives and for a facist in the UKthey are urged to join the Police force, and this has been going for over 30 years! so well inbred racist institute is not a joke or blacks/asians playign a race card, it is racist joining the force and are there holding key positions, how else can legitimate cops like sultan alam be railroaded for 18 years and murderers who killed Stephen Lawrence walk the streets without fear of prosecution, never mind the number of blacks in prison on joint enterprise and not one white racist??? jeez white brits can have terror manuals and incite racial hatred without conviction and all a muslim has to do is hold up a banner!
Yay! Just to reply to Jonathan, I’m not the biggest fan of the police, but I’m sure they’re also spending lots of money on undercover cops in the EDL etc….
Nice to see a case with no evidence being dismissed in a timely manner that’s convenient to all round, isn’t it?
(Claire- managed to get hold of Simon, so all three are now mentioned – hugs to all of them!)
I think that question is not unrelated to the question of why member of the Rebel Clown Army are classified as domestic extremists but not those active in the EDL, or why the police spend million on undercover ops against non violent greens and yet don’t see violent neo fascists as a threat to democracy or, apparently, public order.
There seem to be a growing number of reasons to believe that the police have adopted an agenda shaped by politics and commercial considerations and not by issues of security.
Hello, are they OK being named? I didn’t want to put them up here unless they are, but will of course add their names if they are OK with that.
Lets not forget the other two who went through hell, Simon and Dan