Police Repression in Liverpool Results in Random Arrests

international | miscellaneous | other press Sunday October 12, 2008 15:33 by Reports from Liverpool

New Model Special B's

The Police have made arrests and issued fixed penalty notices of two political activists in Liverpool. Liverpool has long historical links with Ireland and the attached articles may be of interest.

The arrests were made as a result of a number of campaigning groups setting up stalls on Church Street, these ranged from the Anarchist Federation to the National Health Service.

The Following news articles give an outline of the events of Saturday.

www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/liverpool/2008/10/410463.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/liverpool/2008/10/410405.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/liverpool/2008/10/410407.html

These are in roughly the order they were posted.

While most people can happily suppose that police states happen in some far off place, very few people expect to see it first hand. In Liverpool, on Saturday, two arrests were made on the claim of "public order offences" being commited. Quite clearly, from the first pictures in the earliest pictures in comparison to the later video footage, the situation became difficult to police. The reason was the manner in which two people were arrested and carted off to a police van for no other reason than they were present on a stall.

The officer claimed to have been "alarmed and distressed" - a form of language designed to invoke the Public Order Act. Any "alarming and distressing" situation only arose after the arbitrary ill treatment of the activist. Which begs the question: should the police officer involved be charged with a public order offence.

Please have a read of the attached articles - which are a good deal more comprehensive. The Activists of Liverpool would certainly appreciate any support that you might wish to give. In the interests of promoting International Indymedia, the republication of these links would be much appreciated.