Pictures of attack on Squat

dublin | miscellaneous | news report Monday July 14, 2003 18:19 by Chekov

Thugs attack squat and gardai engage in illegal eviction

The squatted building at 41 Parnell Square west was today evicted. First at around 2pm, a group of 4 men showed up, claiming to be the owners of the building. They had sledgehammers and crowbars and attacked the door of the squat. The police ended up supporting their attack and illegally evicting the people inside.

After the thugs had broken a hole in the door with the sledgehammers (first 2 photos), they attacked the people occupying the building with a crowbar. one of the occupiers received a gashed head and had to be taken to the Mater hospital to receive stitches (shown in last photo). The people inside the house became frightened by the violence and one person contacted the police.

When the police showed up they ignored the perpetrators of the assault and concentrated on arresting the occupiers and forcing them to leave. The third photo shows the officer in charge (white shirt - plainclothes, by the door) and several other officers standing outside the squat ALONGSIDE the assailants. The police took the name of the 'owners' and let them go without charge. People who were present at the time indicated that the owner is called john bermingham and there is a suggestion that he is an ex-cop (unconfirmed).

The assailants left and the police became very heavy-handed, threatening the onlookers on the footpath and ordering them to move on. Those who hesitated in doing so were arrested under the public order act. The 4th photo shows one of the 2 arrests for failure to comply with the orders of an officer. The police were very aggressive and heavy handed.

The police gained entry to the squat at this stage, under the pretence that they needed to collect statements from those inside. Once inside they declared that anybody who refused to leave would be arrested and eventually, after about half an hour those inside all left.

I approached the officer in charge (who denied that he was in charge although he clearly was) and asked him to see the injunction. He declared that there was no injunction and that they were being arrested under the public order act. I contacted a lawyer who queried the legality of this. I then brought this up with the plain clothes cop who denied that they were being arrested under the public order act and refused to say under what power they were being evicted. He also refused to talk to our lawyer on the phone.

At this stage the 2 protestors have been released from Store st and the injured protestor has had his head stitched up and is out of hospital.

A fine day for law and order in Dublin. It's okay to attack people with metal bars and sledgehammers, it's not okay to reclaim unutilised space.