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Anti-Empire
The Saker Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Human Rights in IrelandIndymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
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Text report from Belfast demostration national |
miscellaneous |
news report
 Tuesday April 08, 2003 17:58 by steve - indymedia belfast steve at gluaiseacht dot org
 Some nasty police brutality Tuesday: A protest, low four figure number, outside Belfast City Hall resulted in a number of arrests and injuries as riot police move in to snatch random protesters. Tuesday: A protest, low four figure number, outside Belfast City Hall resulted in a number of arrests- 14 according to one senior police officer, 6 according to another, 11 at the last count of an activist doing legal support. The protest began at about 13.30 and many people went onto the road and lay down, as a number of people dressed in white overalls and skull masks, carrying drums, arrived and began dancing in the street. There were huge numbers of mainstream media videoing, interviewing and taking pictures. Some of the crowd remained on the footpath, while officers from Musgrave St. police station formed a line in case they attempted to join the protesters on the road- and in order to encircle the civil disobedients. On previous occasions, the police had allowed road blocking to continue for an hour or so before moving in, but this time a very heavy prescence was deployed immediately. Cops in full riot gear formed a line in front of protesters and snatch squads began grabbing people apparently at random and dragging them away. Several people were de-arrested, sometimes repeatedly. The police began throwing protesters they couldn't grab into the crowd behind who had linked arms and sat down. The second time the snatch squads moved in, they were heavier, beating protesters with batons before dragging them off. They only stopped when a bag of red jam (brought for a separate street theatre action) was burst in the chaos and for a moment everyone thought it was blood. After a tense standoff, lasting until at least 14.45, the line of riot cops moved back, to cheers. After a few minutes Caoimhe Butterly went forward to lift or move something on the ground near where the jam was spilled and two police immediately grabbed her, number 6277 dragging her by the hair. Protesters who were snatched reported a high degree of intimidation. One who was shouting "You batoned me" was told he'd be hit again if he didn't shut up. A cop was seen drawing his baton and entering a van where arrestees were being held, but backed off after realising there were cameras on him. Some cops became quite silly indeed, one claiming that a drumstick was a weapon, before breaking it ceremoniously and smugly throwing it on the ground like a playground bully. After yet another tense standoff, the riot police moved off, to yet more cheers, and were replaced with the new "friendly" look PSNI. At all times the crowd remained peaceful, despite the atmosphere of fear and anger. About 30 - 50 of the crowd moved on to Musgrave St. Police Stn to try to get information about those arrested. About 120 riot police with camera vans followed. A senior officer eventually came out and claimed not to know how many were arrested (he did venture that it was "a number"). About an hour later he revealed it was 14. Meanwhile in Hillsborough, a mere 7 people made it through security but they managed to stage multiple die-ins in the town centre. According to people who were there, one woman was "shoved into the back of a van and driven off, we don't know where she is yet". The BBC reported that the protest had been taken over by undesirable elements. |
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Comments (9 of 9)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Eventually most of those arrested were released, including a blind man.
13 of the 14 arrestees have been identified
Of those 13, 8 are confirmed released
Caoimhe Butterly has been charged with "obstructive sitting", others have been charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and "malicious sitting". One man was released because they forgot who his arresting officer was.
The BBC is giving out a very misleading spin on what happened.
UTV have went so far as to claim that 5 officers were somehow injured, though the report by Icvan Little never mentioned anything of the sort.
I was at the protest today, and took two police baton shots. I'm wondering if anyone knows if there any photos of peeler brutality.
presence
I hope you're bairns aren't relying on your career in journalism to feed them.
Yeah, BBC were making some ridiculous hardline elements claim or something, a total joke.
The 5 police officers injured is complete crap.
UTV did take a more balanced view than the BBC, but they still portrayed the facts incorrectly. In fact, I did an interview with Ivan Little, and they didn't show one bit of it, presumably because they could find no way to make me out to be a complete madman.
"malicious sitting"!
Not sure what that is, unless you could get a twenty-stone person to sit on a peeler's face.
Great report there Steve.Great that you are doing the media stuff.Keep up the good work!
I call on all who were at Tuesdays anti-war protest to contact their local press to explain to the public that contrary to Alisa Keys comments, those arested at tuesdays sit in were not some seperate militant cell who hijacked the protest for their own malicious aims.
I was at the protest from the very beginning and took part in the sit down protest.
When i saw the heavily armoured and masked stormtroopers taking position to the left of the protest my immediate reaction was to link arms with those to the left and right of me. It was a spontaneous act of peaceful defiance to those who wished to suppress our legitimate objection to the invasion of Iraq.
The Police ploughed into the crowd with batons and randomly arrested members of the sit-in, myself and the person to the right of me included. The handing out of charges was as random and illegitamate as the arrests.
I was charged with "obstructive sitting" and "disorderly behaviour". The person to the right of me was let go with a caution despite being arrested in identical circumstances. It would appear that the authorities are using the judicial system inconsistently to 'make an example' of those with a dissenting voice to this neo-colonialism.
Alisa Keys gratitude to the PSNI for their rapport is absurd. Her disowning of us arrested brands us and our actions as criminal.
Her sop to the police is reminicent of Bertie Aherns own sop the US/UK imperialist alliance.
After her comments the only honourable thing for her to do is step aside in her role in the anti-war coalition.
THe court date for some of those accused is Thursday 17th of april.
Anyone wanting to show some solidarity with those arrested in the court house would be extremely welcome.
Tomás Gorman