Aviation and Confiscations (Stansted Airport Shut Down)
After participating and a direct action against aviation organised by Plane Stupid I ended up in a police cell being charged with agrevated tresspass. Then I returned home to find that eight police officers had searched my room and the comunal areas of the house. Apparently they left at 2:50am!
In my absence they decided to take my printer, my mobile phone, all of the leaflets on my wall, my notes for a report i`m writing, my camcorder, all my credit cards, my membership of Kew gardens and a few other things. If my laptop where in my room it sure as hell wouldnt be here for me to post this with.
The action at Stansted was inevitably going to lead to arrests and we where prepared for that: this was my first time in a police cell. The experiance in custody was actually pretty good, and it was great fun listening to the Jeremy Vine show on bbc radio 2 (the uk's most popular radio station) which lated around 20 minutes and was overall a very good discussion of why we risked personal arrest and upsetting the public. I must say right now I feel like i have been robbed. What does a camcorder or a printer have to do with a direct action against Stansted: preciesly nothing.
However, i shouldnt dwell to much on what the police where doing while I was out the building as I was doing something far more important. It's great not to have to look back rosy eyed on the sixties and the civil rights movement. We have something of similar importance, arguably greater, and this fight against catastrophic climate change is happening now. Such movements are never recognised as the moral forces that they are untill after the change they are pushing for has been achieved. The militant Suffragettes where not politically acceptable at the time and where widel derided but now you will be hard pushed to find someone willing to criticise them. Well, that thought helps when sitting in police cells or in a room with half it's contents gone.
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In my absence they decided to take my printer, my mobile phone, all of the leaflets on my wall, my notes for a report i`m writing, my camcorder, all my credit cards, my membership of Kew gardens and a few other things. If my laptop where in my room it sure as hell wouldnt be here for me to post this with.
The action at Stansted was inevitably going to lead to arrests and we where prepared for that: this was my first time in a police cell. The experiance in custody was actually pretty good, and it was great fun listening to the Jeremy Vine show on bbc radio 2 (the uk's most popular radio station) which lated around 20 minutes and was overall a very good discussion of why we risked personal arrest and upsetting the public. I must say right now I feel like i have been robbed. What does a camcorder or a printer have to do with a direct action against Stansted: preciesly nothing.
However, i shouldnt dwell to much on what the police where doing while I was out the building as I was doing something far more important. It's great not to have to look back rosy eyed on the sixties and the civil rights movement. We have something of similar importance, arguably greater, and this fight against catastrophic climate change is happening now. Such movements are never recognised as the moral forces that they are untill after the change they are pushing for has been achieved. The militant Suffragettes where not politically acceptable at the time and where widel derided but now you will be hard pushed to find someone willing to criticise them. Well, that thought helps when sitting in police cells or in a room with half it's contents gone.
Video:
Stories:
Politics.co.uk Analysis
Independent
Guardian
Al Jazera
BBC
Environmental News Service
Labels: aviation, direct action, uk grass-roots activism
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posted by Calvin Jones @ 3:00 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
troublemaker today, hero tomorrow!
I find direct action really inspiring and very much needed.
Calvin, for how long were you arrested?
From about 9am until 4:30am the next day. A few of those hours where spent with all my friends, only about half that time was actually in a police cell and most of that time was with a friend.
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