Police re-arrest Dalston 37 for affray

Published: December 01, 2011 02:54 by need more info

Telegraph says:

a female PCSO was attacked during protests in Hackney this morning and two people were arrested.
Following the assault a group of 37 protesters, beleived to be on strike, were held in Dalston Lane, east London, after officers feared violence would flare.
After being held for four hours, the group were all arrested on suspicion of breach of the peace...

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http://glennmcmahon470.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/police-arrest-37-for-affray-outside-hackney-library-as-boroughs-public-sector-goes-on-strike-over-pensions-n30/

THIRTY-SEVEN people arrested for suspicion of breach of the peace outside a library in Hackney today have this evening been re-arrested for affray.

It is not clear why the group, that included activists, academics and public sector workers on strike over cuts to their pensions, were initially arrested, but one witness, who arrived as the group were being kettled outside Cllr James Library in Dalston Lane, said it seemed unprovoked and unnecessarily violent.

The police, accompanied by around six dogs, were accused of pushing two woman, believed to be in their 50s, to the ground before arresting them for no apparent reason.

The activist, who did not want to be named, said: “I did not see what happened before, but I could see no reason for the kettle, the violence or the arrests.”

He said those detained in the kettle were arrested one at a time before being put into police vans.

The Metropolitan Police said a Section 60 was in place based on intelligence authorising stop and search measures in the area, but gave no further information.

Activists and friends were due to demonstrate outside Stoke Newington Police Station tonight over the arrests.

Published: December 01, 2011 02:59 by wtf happened in hackney?

As of 18.40 hours there have been 75 arrests for a variety of offences.

2 x Breach of the Peace
5 x Offensive Weapons
3 x Assault on Police
2 x Drugs
2 x Criminal Damage
1 x Obstruction
1 x Section 2 and 3 Public Order Act
1x Section 4 and 5 Public Order Act

A further 21 arrests have been made for the unauthorised entry into Panton House for a variety of offences including burglary, aggravated trespass, criminal damage and assault on police.

The 37 people who were arrested earlier in Hackney for breach of the peace have been rearrested for affray.

http://www.met.police.uk/pressbureau/Bur30/page03.htm

Published: December 01, 2011 03:05 by via RobRay81

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_aQM9QukIA

For context, a bunch of kids who had been doing a solidarity walk round the pickets tried to do a short road block outside CLR James library in Dalston.

When I got there a few people had stayed outside the kettle as they were with young children, who stayed out of solidarity until a group of four snarling attack dogs was was brought in and picketed around whoever wasn't already kettled. The kids freaked out (understandably) and had to be taken home while everyone else stayed and kept an eye on police as they marched the entire group to waiting coaches.

There were a fair few pickets went by on their way to the nearby town hall demo as it was going on, a lot of people were pretty shocked by how heavy-handed the police were being.

Published: December 01, 2011 18:31 by cockneyreject

I was on the picket outside CLR James library yesterday morning from around 8.45am until 11.30am when I had to collect a relatives child and throughout that time I can categorically state there was no affray, no violence or even a breach of the peace by anyone but the police, (if we're talking legal, ok, possibly an 'obstruction of the public highway' but that could've been dealt with in a very different way than the way the police chose to) at any time. This was an out and out act of attempted provocation and when that didn't work repression.
There have been reports that these actions were the result of an assault on a PCSO, there was an assault on a female PCSO but that was a blatantly unconnected incident that occurred at 7.45am at Hackney bus garage, roughly a mile away from CLR James and an hour and a half before the solidarity group and police showed up.
I took a couple of videos there, (a lot more but I messed them up!!!) that you can find here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONVyFKYkUrE and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlcFd015XDQ
If anyone has any other information, eye witness reports, pictures, videos etc please email me at c0ckneyreject@riseup.net as members of Hackney Anarchist Group are attempting to collate as much possible to be possibly in defense of those arrested. Cheers.

Published: December 02, 2011 14:31 by via solfed

An eyewitness account by a Hackney picket:

I went from my picket line to the CLR James library picket at about 10. On the bus up there I was a bit disturbed to see a police helicopter hovering above Dalston Junction. When I got to the library there were a huge number of TSG kettling about 35 people with a mobile sound system. I managed to speak to people in the kettle and they told me that two people had been beaten up and arrested earlier when people had tried to block the road.

I called people on my picket line and asked them to come quickly to the library. A small group of us stood around for ages occasionally having short conversations with the kettled protesters or telling the police that they were disgusting. I phoned my picket again and was dismayed to find out that they had all gone to another picket line that was nearer.

A small group of Unite pickets went marching past on their way to the Town Hall and stopped in surprise to find out what was going on. The police told them that the protesters had caused serious disorder and had assaulted a police officer. The woman asked “All of these people assaulted one police officer?” in a disbelieving tone which was quite nice. The protestors called out to them that the police had beaten people up.

Eventually two people came from my picket who said that the others had gone by bus to the town hall but that they were worried about me and thought they should come to find out what was going on. They looked at the police deployment in total disbelief. They wanted to speak to the Unison picket, who assured them that I was giving them the full version of events and that all that had happened was a roadblock. A local teacher turned up and gave the police a withering assessment of what she thought of them before leaving on her bike.

Then suddenly more vans arrived and the police bought out five attack dogs, which were snarling and trying to fight each other as they came out of the van. Several people retreated, terrified. We screamed at the police that there were small children there on the picket line and to take the dogs away, but in the end we had to carry the children, who were crying and terrified, past the dogs. The two people from my picket left due to the presence of the dogs. They said they were appalled and would tell the other people from our picket what had happened.

At this point, when things were looking pretty bad, about twenty five Unison pickets turned up, as the teacher, with great presence of mind, had cycled to the town hall and got some pickets to come to us. The police started taking people out of the kettle one by one, handcuffing them, videoing them behind the police vans and then searching them. Passers by stopped to shout “This is a disgrace” and “this is why there are riots” at the police as they marched people one by one across Dalston Lane into a coach, to a chorus of boos and haranguing.

Several hours later we got told which police stations people were in, which were as far away as Heathrow and Kensington, and a protest was organised outside Stoke Newington police station. More than a hundred people came, including, I was happy to see, four of my workmates, plus some Unison pickets. One of the Turkish cafes bought us several rounds of tea which was very welcome as we were very cold. At the time of writing I still haven’t heard from any of the arrested protesters and don’t know the charges.

http://www.solfed.org.uk/?q=repression-in-dalston