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| 31st
March 1995 |
Issue 16 FOOTIE
FANS
FOULED BY CJA!
NICKED
FOR SUPPORTING CARDIFF CITY!
An
entire coachload of Cardiff City football fans last week fell victim
to the all-encompassing Criminal Justice Act when their
coach was stopped and searched everyone nicked and held for seven
and a half hours in the police cells. The
police, apparently acting on a tip-off from the National Football
Intelligence Unit arrested all 36 fans - including a 16 year old boy
- at a sizeable roadblock eight miles outside Plymouth, using
section 60 of the CJA. However, it was pointed out to the Plymouth
constabulary that these clauses do not come into effect until April
10th! Arresting
officers were heard to express surprise that the arrested fans
seemed "a decent lot" and not the group of baseball-bat
wielding thugs they'd been led to expect. They were all later
released without charge but still given the benefit of a full police
escort all the way back to the Severn Bridge, with other police
cars blocking off motorway exits all the way to Cardiff.
Already,
at least two Cardiff fans are considering legal action against the
police for unlawful imprisonment, and Liberty (the National Council
for Civil Liberties) have expressed interest in the case. It
is thought that this is the first time an entire coachload of fans
have been arrested and it seems that football fans are perhaps some
of the more unlikelier victims of legislation that the powers that
be would have us believe only affects travellers, ravers, hunt Sabs
and road protesters. In
fact footie fans have always had a bum deal when it comes to the
police and as Mike of Football Fans Against the Criminal Justice Act
pointed out
"this
obviously sets a very worrying precedent for when the rest of the
CJA comes into force. Under the Stop and Search section, this sort
of thing may become a regular occurrence for fans who have done
absolutely nothing wrong." FOOTIE
FANS AND THE LAW
The
stop and search clauses give the police powers to check any vehicle
or person, even if you're nowhere near the ground. Fans are already
searched as they
enter
grounds. Last season out of the 23 million who attended games, just
35 were found with offensive weapons! *Sections
68-71 of the CJA creates a new offence of "aggravated
trespass". This means that peaceful demonstrations such as
those seen at Manchester City, QPR, Spurs, West Ham etc. are now
criminal acts and the police have the right to arrest
everyone taking part.
In fact you could be arrested even if you're nowhere near the
ground! - all the police need is "reasonable suspicion"
that you intend to go! These demonstrations are often the only means
left for loyal fans to voice their
passionate concern about what's happening to their club - and it is
after all they who pay the wages! * Fans are often hauled out of grounds for no apparent reason. The Act abolishes the right of silence, increasing the chances of miscarriages of justice. If you are arrested, the police are empowered to forcibly pluck hair or take a mouth swab. This information will stay on a national DNA database even if you're subsequently not charged. * The Act makes it a criminal offence to
sell on a match ticket, even if it's
at cost price! The law's supposed to be aimed
at ticket touts,
but there
has already been cases of ordinary fans
threatened with
arrest
for trying to sell on single spare tickets! This
law only
applies to football and not to rugby, tennis, theatre, ballet,
opera, horse-racing,
classical music concerts etc.... *
Section
154 of the Act introduces a
new
crime
of
"intentional
harassment, alarm
and distress". (See
below)
So is this all paranoia? Maybe the 36 Cardiff City fans won't think
so..... Ooh!
Aaah! Prisona!
Eric Cantona's tormentor Matthew Simmons has been charged under a little-known section of the Criminal Justice Act. Section 154 means that if you verbally or visibly "insult or abuse" (i.e. shout or gesture) within sight or hearing of a person likely to be caused "alarm or distress" you will commit an offence punishable by up to six months in prison. Slipped in by the government as a last minute amendment it has been attacked by barrister Alan Murdie as "making practical jokes illegal". Simmons - or even Jeremy Beadle - may not get much sympathy but this law is worryingly vague. Football fans by their nature can be rowdy, and often enjoy taunting and teasing the opposition and this law gives the police fresh powers for indiscriminate arrest. Section 154 also states that "displaying any writing, sign or other visible representation" which is "insulting" carries a jail sentence. Careful with those placards! This is just another catch-all which is not going to alleviate Britain's record-breaking prison population - already the highest in Europe. At 51,600 it has increased by 25% in the last 18 months. FOOTBALL FANS against the CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT are putting together a "Bill of Rights" for football fans to be distributed free to every ground in the UK. They have no funding so if you've lots of cash send them some. They have also set up a Campaign Hotline to find out about footie fans experiences under the new laws. 352 Southwyck House, Moorlands Estate, Brixton, London, SW9 8TT. 0171-274-8029 E-mail: ffacja@urban75.demon.co.uk
GET
YOUR HAIR
CUT!
While
Cedric Brown and their other cronies in big business get huge pay
rises, the government is planning a further squeeze on the
unemployed.
Unemployment Benefit and Income Support are to be replaced by a
single unified benefit to be known as the Job Seekers Allowance -
which in a single stroke could make more than 10,000 DSS and
Employment Service workers redundant! The
JSA
will impose stricter conditions for the receipt of benefits.
Claimants will be obliged to sign a 'contract' setting out the steps
they intend to take to find work. The employment service will have
new discretionary powers to compel claimants to take specific
actions to 'make themselves more employable'. Such actions may
include having to attend courses or join various 'training' or
workfare schemes where claimants will have to work for their
benefits, or they even may go as far as directing
claimants to have a haircut to make themselves "more
presentable to prospective employers'! Failure
to comply with such directives could mean a complete withdrawal of
benefit leaving people with nothing to live on. This can only lead
to a dramatic increase in the numbers of people
becoming homeless and destitute. With
26 people chasing every vacancy in Brighton alone, the JSA is simply
another vindictive measure to blame the unemployed for the
governments own economic failures. It would also seem yet another
attempt to scapegoat and harass those people, who facing mass
unemployment, have sought to develop alternative and diverse
lifestyles that are not dependent on endless work and consumption.
After government attempts to criminalise us under the CJA they now
want to take away our meagre benefits unless we conform! With
people desperate to find any work, whatever the pay or conditions,
employers will be able to put the pressure on. Its
up to all groups campaigning against the CJA to forge links with
workers and claimants and stop the JSA in
its
tracks. DEMONSTRATE
Saturday
1st April 12.30 assemble Peace Statue (Hove sea-front) 2
pm
rally on the Level. e-SchNEWS
Now
available on pHreak BBS 0171 434
3800 INSIDE
SchNEWS
Jim
Chambers is still Inside on remand for alleged criminal damage
to a road construction site. Write to Jim Chambers DV 2504 BMP
Wormwood Scrubs, PO Box 757, Du Cane Road, London W12. Party
and Protest
SAT
1st APR 'Push the Law to it's Limit Day'
The Wild Pear Centre, Combe Martin, North Devon, EX34. SAT
1st APR Mass trespass Brewery Fields,
Bangor at site of proposed development of 300 houses on 30 acre
green field site 01248 600 286 SAT
1st APR Picnic in the Park/Anti
CJA march
Rugby 0788 817786 MON
3rd APR Workshop on fighting Interim Possession Orders
(IPO's) 612 Old Kent Road, London Housing Information Project 071
277 7639 MON
3rd
APR Day of Action
against A30
in Devon 0139243801 SAT
8th APR Defend Right to Silence/ Stop the Sus Laws
Holyhead School, Soho Road, Handsworth 12 noon 0181
801
5285
13th
- 17th APR Earth First! Gathering
near Swindon 0794 512790 23-30
APR "OPERATION DRAGON".
A major occupation of land
is
planned to take place somewhere in the south-east SAE land Reform.
Box
E,
111 Magdalen
Road,
Oxford,
OX4
1RQ.
E-mail: eartharc@gn.apc.org SchNEWS
IN BRIEF
All
folk are welcome to join the growing tribe living in benders on the
hillforts backways and woodlands of Wessex. Travelling by foot,
horse, donkey, bicycle and handcart reclaiming our stolen countryside and the right to live together tribally
and celebrate the seasons. Freedom
Trial 01935
863349 *** A protester who climbed up a crane to protest against the Derby Seven Bypass was arrested under the aggravated trespass clauses of the CJA but not charged 01159 585666 ***
The No M65 Campaign in Preston is busy doing action against the new access road worming its way
towards Stanworth
Valleys "Village in the Sky". There are now 24 tree-houses
but space for lots more 0161 861 7895/
0585 165311 ***
V-NO-TREE-DAY?:
An avenue of 330 Sycamore trees, planted to commemorate the dead of two World
Wars, is due for the chop this weekend. The trees are alongside the
A3 in Surrey, near Haslemere, and are "dangerous" because
reckless motorists could hit them if they drive off the road. Not
really in the spirit of all this VE Day palaver is it? Wonderful
thing tradition... local people will be holding a vigil on Sunday
night to defy the chainsaws expected that night - come and support
them! Contact via RA! 01645 521770 ***
65 year old
Shoreham demonstrator Bernard Denyer
is returning his Good Citizen Award he received from Sussex
police as a symbolic protest about their handling of the Shoreham
live exports campaign. He said: "I think the police are
behaving in a totally political way. The silence you get from police
headquarters when you contact them is frightening." Mr. Denyer
said he always supported the police in the past and has a
Neighbourhood Watch award, plus several letters of commendation from
senior officers, which he also intends to return. ***
BERLIN
- A dozen people were arrested when they locked-on to delegates
coaches at the Climate
Conference
yesterday. The biggest government get together since the Rio '92
Earth Summit is a green talking shop to decide our future. The
oil-nations OPEC don't want to reduce CO2 emissions despite the fact
that several small islands like the Maldives will be submerged
shortly by rising
tides. and
Finally...
JUSTICE?
have moved across town to the old Housing Advice Centre in Brighton.
In keeping with the buildings' earlier use an up-to-date list of the
town's derelict/empty property will be available on request - squat
the lot! Last
week in the cheeky in-yer-face high street store "CJs"
bailiffs turned up twice with bits of strangely-worded paper
("I command you, and each one of you, that you enter the said
land and without delay you cause the plaintiff to have possession of
it") but went away again after people scrambled onto the roofs. According
to the High Court Order the building was squatted by seven adults,
one child and a dog who state that they have taken over the Premises
"in the name of justice"! Woof! We're now busy decking out
the new one on Grand Parade ready for opening to the public on
Saturday 8th April. See yer there... WHITE
BOOK -
the definitive book of
anti-CJA
and related groups is nearing the publishers. Funded by the Levellers,
put together by
Justice?
-
you've
gotta be in it
to
win
it.
Send for a form now - (address as SchNEWS)
For further copies of the SchNEWS send stamps/donations (payable to Justice?) SchNEWS c/o on-the-fiddle PO box 2600 Brighton East Sussex. Tel: (01273) 685913. Or
pick one up @ Peace Centre, Gardener
St, Brighton and around town FT+Glbby+George+Warren+Mike
FFCJA Justice? meet every Wednesday 7pm @ prince albert will someone please buy us a DTP system?
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