No 48, September 2002
Operation Hysteria!
FORGET burglaries, car theft,
vandalism or assault. The most serious crime facing Worthing police at present
is people trying to deliver letters along rural footpaths. That’s
the only conclusion to be drawn from the cops’ absurd and widely
ridiculed handling of the latest episode in the battle to save precious
ancient woodland at Titnore Woods, Durrington. This blatant and laughable
piece of overkill was even given an official name by the cops -
Operation HASP. Presumably this stood for Hysteria at Sussex
Police. The pages of the local papers are filled each week with tales of
riled householders, disgusted pensioners and shocked victims who have been
fobbed off with "staff shortage" excuses when they try and get the boys
in blue to investigate their particular crime. But, it appears, there were
unlimited numbers of police, riot vans, video-camera squads and
reinforcements available on Sunday September 1 when a group of people decided
to deliver a scroll to rich landowning family the Somersets asking them not to
sell land off Titnore Lane to a giant property consortium. And it wasn’t
just on the day itself that the town’s top cops managed to suddenly tap
into some previously undreamt-of resources. In the run-up to this harmless
event - which was only ever planned as a symbolic gesture - they had already
gone to great lengths to harass and intimidate anyone they thought might be
taking part in a perfectly legal and peaceable form of protest. First of all a
woman who helps produce your very own independent newsletter, The
Porkbolter, was intercepted in the street outside her home on her way
out for the day with her two kids, by two plain clothes cops. These were
Pc Sean McDonald (CM440) and DC Jodie Moss (DM725)
from the Divisional Crime Unit. (It never became clear what "crime" they
were investigating. Are they so short of crime to look into that they have to
branch out into hassling people trying to protect the environment?) The
cops were interested in our report in the August issue on the plans by Ye Olde
Friends of Titnore and were eager to be provided with names of "organisers" so
they could "help" them. Needless to say, no such information was provided.
Next, news started to filter in of letters that had been sent out by recorded
delivery by police to various people they thought might be involved in the
protest. We have heard of six people receiving them, though there could
obviously be many more (let us know if you got one!). The letter from
A/Chief Inspector (Operations) R Whitfield began: "As you may be
aware, a protest has been advertised for Sunday 1st September 2002, meeting at
the ‘Coach and Horses’, Arundel Road, Durrington, at 1.00pm. This
is a protest against the development of housing in the Titnore Lane area.
Sussex Police is aware that you are one of those who feel strongly about this
issue and attended a previous protest on Sunday 26th May 2002 at Titnore
Lane." It added, in somewhat garbled English: "Sussex Police strongly urge
you, if you are an organiser, or can tell us who the organiser of the event
is, who can contact the organisation on 0845 60 70 999 and ask to be put
through to the Highdown Planning Department. In any case, police officers will
attempt to speak to you on the day of the protest to ensure you are aware of
how this demonstration can best be facilitated." The deliberate atmosphere of
intimidation and criminalisation of dissent continued on the day. The fifty
people who gathered to symbolically hand over a scroll were amazed at the size
of the police operation that had been launched. Police riot vans were parked
up in laybys along the A27 for miles in either direction, video camera
wielding "evidence gatherers" were openly filming protesters (and also hiding
in roadside bushes) and metal barricades had been erected around the Coach and
Horses, the pub where they were meeting up. Clement Somerset failed to turn up
at the pub to meet the campaigners, as he had earlier promised. And when the
group started strolling up the public right of way to the Somerset
family’s Holt Farm, just north of the A27, their way was blocked with a
thick line of police and a riot van – with another van and
reinforcements seen lurking by the farmhouse. They were informed by the police
that "Section 42" emergency powers had been invoked and anyone continuing
along the public footpath would be arrested. Eventually Mr Somerset arrived on
the scene, accepted the scroll and engaged in a brief, polite debate with the
delegation about his status as a friend of the countryside and the impending
sale of the Titnore land to a consortium of property developers - he refused a
donation of £1 to help him out of his hardship - before the group
dispersed back in the direction of the pub. Said Bob Bobbins of Ye Olde
Friends of Titnore: "The presentation passed off completely peacefully, as
we always knew it would. "We have been amazed at how wrong the police have got
this all along. This was never even going to be a proper demonstration - it
was just a gesture more than anything. Someone in the force must surely now be
brought to book for launching this massive and costly over-response."
Borough sliding out of control, police warn
OUR brave boys in
blue are battling against the threat of total anarchy in the Worthing area,
unreliable sources have revealed exclusively to The Porkbolter. Complained one
senior officer, who did not want to be named for fear of ridicule: "It’s
chaos out there. We just don’t know what’s going to happen next."
One headache that has been haunting the police in recent weeks has been the
large numbers of irresponsible local people who have been organising a whole
series of social events and outings without informing the force in advance.
Said the officer: "We have now reached the stage where people are actually
arranging, behind our backs, to meet their so-called friends in pubs around
Worthing without having first applied for and been granted a Certificate of
Authorisation from the relevant department. "How can we cope with this? How
can we know how much policing we are going to need, and where, if people
aren’t registering their movements in advance with the authorities, as
required under the new Security Laws." Police are also probing a potentially
dangerous circle of anti-social elements on the western fringes of Worthing,
known only to them as the South Ferring Chapter of the Goring and District
Bridge Club. It is believed the notorious animal-loving subversive "Riot Gran"
may be linked to this shadowy group, who are known to brandish heavy sticks
and thick flame-resistant overcoats. Said the officer: "Our intelligence is
zero. We have no information on what this group is or what it is planning to
do. It is essential that organisers identify themselves prior to any further
activities. "We simply do not know how many bridges may be targets for
this club and what kind of explosives they have access to. We are
investigating reports of a large number of ‘rubbers’ involved in
their activities and believe they may already have set up a clandestine
‘rubber’ factory in Ferring." He warned: "We have evidence that
if someone supplied them with nuclear materials and expert advice, they could
produce a rubber nuclear bomb at any time now, bouncing the whole of
civilisation into oblivion."
Justice in Worthing - shock
JUSTICE triumphed at Worthing
Magistrates Court earlier this month - for what is believed to be the first
time in the town’s history. In a stunning victory for the Simon
Jones Memorial Campaign against the casualisation of labour, all
charges against the protesters who occupied the Shoreham docks of Euromin, the
company responsible for killing Simon Jones in 1998, were dropped. The Crown
Prosecution Service announced on Tuesday September 3 that it considered it was
not in the public interest to proceed with the prosecutions. The protesters
had been charged under section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations
(consolidation) Act 1992 following a protest at the docks on December 3 2001.
All the accused faced a maximum sentence of six months in jail if found
guilty. Anne Jones, Simon’s mother, and others were to give evidence at
the trial about the appalling lack of safety at Euromin’s dock. The
protest that led to the charges being brought was an attempt to draw attention
to this lack of safety and force the relevant authorities to take action
against Euromin. Colin Chalmers of the Simon Jones Memorial
Campaign said: "We’re glad that the CPS has finally realised that the
people protesting against this death trap of a dock aren’t the criminals
here. Dozens of firefighters recently fought a major blaze at Euromin’s
dock, where, unlike all other docks at Shoreham, gates aren’t locked,
there are no security guards and there is nothing preventing small children
from playing with heavy machinery. Our campaign will continue until the
authorities wake up to what’s going on here and shut this cowboy
operation down." Anne Jones, Simon’s mother, said:
"I’m very glad these charges have been dropped. There clearly
isn’t any public interest in prosecuting peaceful protesters in this way
and it’s good that the Crown Prosecution Service has now realised that."
Lydia Dagostino, the solicitor representing the five accused,
said: "This is a small but important victory in an ongoing campaign against
those who killed Simon Jones. This case highlights that direct action and
peaceful protest still have an important role to play in our society."
Microchipped madness
ONE of the fears that always haunted
The Porkbolter is that one day English people will not only be
taxed, registered, spied upon, eavesdropped, monitored and manipulated by the
powers-that-be, but that we will all actually have microchips inserted in our
bodies so they can ensure they know exactly where we are 24 hours a day. So it
felt like someone had just walked over our graves when we read of the parents
who are having their 11 year old daughter microchipped because they have been
caught up in the media hysteria over child abductions. Explained The
Daily Mirror (September 2): "Danielle Duval will be implanted with a
microchip to track her every move. If she was kidnapped, her exact location
would be discovered via computer." Danielle herself gushed: "I will feel so
much safer knowing that mum and dad could find me in an emergency." Although
tragedies like that of Jessica and Holly are horrific and disturbing, it is
worth remembering that children are more likely to be struck by lightning than
whisked away and murdered - and much more likely still to be killed by a motor
car. We can’t afford to let state-sponsored hysterical fear push us into
a nightmare totalitarian future where freedom has been totally extinguished -
and the whole human race will in effect have been murdered.
Sick of the lot of them?
FAST relief from authority is
promised from Anarchism 2002, otherwise known as the 21st annual
Anarchist Bookfair, to be held from 10am to 7pm on Saturday October 19 at the
Camden Centre, Euston Road, London, (near Kings Cross). Free entry. Info from
www.anarchistbookfair.org or from 84b Whitechapel High St, London E1.
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PORK-SCRATCHINGS
A LOVELY glossy newsletter has been produced
by railway operator South Central Ltd boasting of a "new era of travel"
arriving soon with their new south coast trains. What they don’t
mention, though, is that the Class 377s will spell the end of an era for many
cyclists. At a time when we are all supposed to be exploring green ways of
getting around, they have simply decided not to leave enough room in the
trains for carrying any more than a couple of bikes - this would get in the
way of their aim of cramming in as many people and profits as possible. Local
pedallers are rumoured to be be planning some direct action disruption when
the new cycle-hostile trains come into action.
* * *
SUPPORTERS of the new fan-led Wimbledon AFC were in Worthing on
September 7 for a match against Withdean 2000 at Woodside Road (they lost
2-0). And they will have found much in common with Worthing people fighting
Asda/WalMart’s insidious scheme to replace Worthing
Sixth Form College’s sports fields with a new supermarket. For
the Dons supporters have already sampled Asda’s community-minded,
sports-friendly approach - the firm is one of the backers of the official
Wimbledon FC’s universally despised relocation to Milton Keynes. The
Wimbledon fans like Asda so much that they are calling for a national boycott
of the firm’s stores. Of course, we haven’t got an Asda here yet,
so we can’t be of much help - but we’re with them in spirit!
* * *
WORTHING opponents of war with Iraq will be travelling up to London on
Saturday September 28 to join what promises to be a massive national demo,
starting from the Embankment at 1pm. Meet at Worthing railway station at
10.45am, not forgetting your home-made banner or placard telling Blair and
Bush where to stuff their special relationship.
* * *
SINCE September 11, 2001, internet freedoms have been badly eroded under the
pretext of 'fighting terrorism’. That was the anniversary warning from
the well-respected international group Reporters Without Borders
(Reporters Sans Frontieres). Said secretary-general Robert
Menard: "What would the citizens of Europe and elsewhere do if they were told
a law had been passed allowing what they sent through the post to be routinely
read by the police at any time? They would be outraged at such restrictions on
their freedom. Yet there are exactly the kind of measures that have been taken
or are being taken concerning the Internet. We need to be much more vigilant."
Info: www.rsf.org
* * *
A DATE for your diaries! The Porkbolter will shortly be five years old
and to celebrate we are holding a party to which YOU are invited (no, sorry
- not you over there, but everyone else). Hold onto this or any other copy
of our newsletter, coz it will give you free entry on the night.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1, 7.30pm
THE VINTNER’S PARROT,
WARWICK STREET,
WORTHING
THE PORK-BOLTER’S FIFTH BIRTHDAY BASH
Featuring live band BECOMES THE WATER OF DEATH
plus DJs, beer, interesting conversation etc
* * *
THE next meeting hosted by Worthing eco-action will be at 7.45pm on Tuesday
October 1 upstairs at The Downview pub opposite West Worthing station.
Warning - know your rights
THE complex and finely balanced
relationship between the state and individual in modern democratic Britain was
this week set out in a statement from the Minister for
Obedience. He explained: "Beyond the framework of the permitted
representative processes the Crown at all times retains a prerogative to act
in such a way as to protect the interests of the Crown through any measures
deemed expedient by those authorised to reach such a decision. Any attempt to
limit or challenge these Crown powers will be met with such force as is
necessary to maintain the rule of law." Added the minister: "What this is
saying, in other words, is that we’re right, you’re wrong and if
you’ve got a problem with that you just try and do something about it
and see how far you porkin’ get, sunshine!"
Pig is beautiful - subscribe!
THE PORK-BOLTER is a local
independent newsletter named after an old nickname for Worthing people. It has
been going since 1997, coincidentally just after Tony Blair became Prime
Minister. It is run entirely by volunteers and, unlike certain supposedly much
larger and more powerful bodies, is allowed to do what it likes without
consulting George Bush first. To get the next six issues through the post send
a donation of at least £3 payable to The Porkbolter, to PO Box 4144,
Worthing BN14 7NZ. You can go on the email list for free. Drop us a line at PO
Box 4144, Worthing, West Sussex BN14 7NZ. or send e-mail porkbolter@eco-action.org.
Printed and published by The Pork-Bolter, PO Box 4144, Worthing BN14 7NZ.
No copyright. No weapons of mass destruction, honestly Mr Bush sir!
and finally ...
Reclaim Your Town, Reclaim Your Life!
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