10 of the Fortnum and Mason 145 found guilty
Published:
November 17, 2011 13:16
by
solidarity
Neighbourhoods:
Ten of the Fortnum and Mason 145 were today found guilty of “Aggravated Trespass” with Judge Snow saying that they intimidated F&M staff. They were part of the 145 people arrested during the end of the ukuncut planned occupation of Fortnum and Mason during the massive anti cuts demonstrations on March26th 2011.
A statement by those found guilty said: "As the government’s cuts continue to destroy the economy and people’s lives we will not be put off by these attempts at humiliating and punishing us." [see full statement below]
Pic: rikki london.indymedia.org/articles/8541
"Today, the 10 of us who were on trial have been found guilty of taking part in a protest. A protest that was dubbed ‘sensible’ by the senior police officer at the scene. We were standing up, or more accurately sitting down, against our government making harsh cuts to public services, whilst letting companies like Fortnum and Masons get away with dodging a total of tens of billions of pounds of tax every year. Then we are put on trial, whilst it’s clear the real criminals are the tax dodgers, the politicians and the bankers who caused this financial crisis and who continue to profit. We are supposed to have a democratic right to protest yet people like us, exercising that right and expressing our discontent feel the force of the law and receive harsh and disproportionate sentences. We have been convicted of Aggravated Trespass, an example of a law created in the 1990′s as an attack on our rights to protest and which is used in situations like this one to turn protesting into a crime. We will, of course, continue to fight this and will be appealing the judgement.
As the government’s cuts continue to destroy the economy and people’s lives we will not be put off by these attempts at humiliating and punishing us."
Also see:
Fortnum and Mason occupation trial begins
Prosecution of a F&M145 arrestee falls apart
Additions
Fortnum & Mason trial: a convicted defendant writes
Published: November 18, 2011 12:29
by
RP
17 November 2011: Adam Ramsay was one of the ten people found guilty of aggravated trespass today for entering Fortnum & Mason as part of a UK Uncut protest. Here he gives his view:
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/fortnum-mason-trial/
Before the credit crunch, the last run on a UK bank was in 1878. The directors of the Bank of Glasgow were jailed. Likewise many of those responsible for the 1929 Wall Street Crash were sent down.
Not so today. After the banking collapse of 2007/8, not a single financier has been found guilty of a crime. We are expected to believe that in the cocaine fuelled corridors of the city, not one of the choices which wiped the savings of millions was fraudulent: that everything done by these masters of the universe was cock up.
The same cannot be said for those who complain. Today, along with nine others, I was found guilty of 'entering Fortnum & Mason and demonstrating'. I was given a conditional discharge for six months and ordered to pay £1000 of the prosecution's legal costs. Over the last year, many of my friends have been fined, jailed, or beaten to a pulp by the police for such crimes as hanging banners from bridges, or having the audacity to be a journalist reporting on a protest.
In whose interest does the Crown Prosecution Service decide how to allocate its time and resources? In whose interest do the police police? To use the language in vogue: is it the 99%, or the 1%? How many hours have they spent over the last year or so trawling through footage in an attempt to prove that this peaceful protester breached that controversial law? Or that that peaceful protester may have crossed the fuzzy line around this equally contentious piece of legislation?
I maintain I committed no crime. But even if you wholly accept the case that the CPS presented- after days spent trawling through CCTV footage in an attempt to prove something more - all I did was go into a shop and facilitate a meeting. How does this compare with recklessly endangering the livelihoods and lives of millions? How does that compare with defrauding millions in order to make yourself billions? If the police have the time to intimidate protesters entering the city, why didn't they have time ensure those who work there don't commit fraud or embezzlement?
In our Fortnum and Mason case we have the benefit outstanding, passionate and hard working lawyers. They have fought for us every inch of the way, and will fight with us all the way to the High Court. Once there, we hope to win. But we should be clear. Even if we are successful there, we will have been found not guilty by the same legal system which imprisons our friends, which criminalises protesters, and attempts to humiliate those who stand up to power; the same legal system which has done nothing whatsoever to bring to justice those responsible for our economic collapse.
Even the crime for which we were on trial – aggravated trespass – was invented in 1994 with the intention of criminalising protest. The nature of the charge meant that there was no jury – just a lone judge. We might chant that the streets are ours, but the courthouse clearly is not. And whatever ruling it comes to, it is not where our battles will be won. So, we will see you on the picket lines and on the streets.
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Target Fortnum and mason again!
We need to target Fortnum and Mason again but next time with much bigger numbers like 20,000. Let the police try to arrest 20,000 activists!