Democracy and free-speech are not.
For anyone in any doubt as to the power of the Police State that is Britain today, the arrests made BEFORE the Royal Wedding, (and before any ‘crimes’ were committed), are something that should make everyone sit up and take notice. Sadly, the themes addressed in the Minority Report are no longer mere works of fiction.
I first referenced the peaceful activist Charlie Veitch on tablefortyone a few days before the wedding – before I was truly aware of the scale of the man and his Love Police movement.
He uses megaphones, not weapons.
He speaks. On streets.
He hugs people.
That’s all.
Yet the footage below shows his arrest, a day before the Royal Wedding, on the grounds of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”, after an earlier youtube ‘rant’ from the 26th, where he unnervingly jokes, ‘How funny would it be if the Police came busting in now and grabbed me?” It quickly becomes apparent that the young officers below have little idea of why they are arresting Veitch, and that they are only following orders ‘from above’.
Footage has also emerged of 68 year-old Professer of Anthropology, Chris Knight being arrested, along with his 60 year-old wife, and another member of their street theatre group. They were PLANNING a peaceful street protest, far away from the action at Westminster. At the time of their arrest, they were in the company of Channel 4, who were filming for the forthcoming documentary ‘The Unofficial Royal Wedding‘.
The MET have also seemingly introduced a few new laws that were only in force for the day of the wedding:
It transpired that you were not allowed to dance and sing peacefully in a park, or put some make-up on your face and peacefully drink coffee in Starbucks.
I can only assume that these laws were temporary – for example, it hasn’t stopped students dressing up in fancy dress before, and I very much doubt it will prevent them from doing so again in the future. And if ‘potential breach of the peace’ is reason alone for arrest, shouldn’t everyone heading into a city centre on a Friday and Saturday night also be thrown in the back of a van?
Anyone wanting to see the full array of videos and articles from the various arrests should head over to 4therecord.org
Living In Emergency
I went to a screening of Living In Emergency last night.
One of the most moving and intense films I’ve ever seen.
Makes the next Hollywood blockbuster seem utterly, utterly pointless.
It seems a real shame that there don’t seem to be any plans at the moment to release it online or on DVD, as it’s something that should really reach as many people as possible.