[Marxism] Police fail in attempt to stitch up Kent socialists

["Richard Harris" <rhh1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, December 26, 2003 12:34 PM
Subject: Prince Charles fiasco costs Kent cops £100 000+


 PRESS RELEASE
For immediate use

 SUMMARY
Three Gravesend people have won damages and legal costs from Kent Police
 this week after suing the force at the Central London County Court over
 unlawful arrests and use of excessive force during a visit to the town by
 Prince Charles. Details emerged in court of the spying methods used by
 police against political activists in the town. Criticisms were made of the
 evidence given to the court by police officers, one of whom is now the
 Deputy Director of the National Crime Squad.

 DETAILS
On 22 December 2003, Judge Keith Hornby ruled that officers had acted
 unlawfully in arresting and detaining three political activists during a
 visit to Gravesend by Prince Charles in July 1998 and that they used
 excessive force against one of them. 48-year-old Gill Emerson was thrown to
 the ground during the arrest and suffered facial injuries. Mrs Emerson was
 awarded £3,500 and the judge also ordered that Kent Police should pay all
 her costs -- which amount to around £100,000. Paul Easterby and Sarah
 Stapley, also arrested and detained, were each awarded £2,000. The three
 were arrested while sitting on a wall some distance from where the Prince
 of Wales was due to attend a civic reception.

 In his judgement, Judge Hornby stated that the supposedly pre-emptive
 arrests "were not a proportionate response" and that "there was no real and
 present threat to the peace to justify the extreme step of depriving the
 claimants of their liberty by arresting them, when they were at the time
 acting perfectly lawfully."

 Judge Hornby also stated that he had "considerable reservations" about the
 evidence put forward in court to attempt to justify the unlawful arrests by
 former Gravesend Superintendent Trevor Pearce, now Deputy Director of the
 National Crime Squad and that he also found aspects of the evidence given
 by Inspector Neil Jerome, one of the arresting officers, to be: "utterly
 unacceptable and unconvincing". The Judge went on to state that he found
 the first claimant, Mrs Emerson, "to be an honest and reliable witness."

 QUOTE FROM GILL EMERSON:
"I am very pleased that a judge has ruled that Kent Police acted illegally
 at a very high level in ordering our arrests before the arrival of Prince
 Charles in Gravesend and that they used excessive force against me. We were
 handcuffed, dragged off and locked up simply for sitting on a wall in our
 home town and all because some of us held political views that the police
 don't like. Their action against us was an outrageous and vicious abuse of
 their power in a country where we are supposed to have freedom of movement
 and freedom of speech. During this legal action, Kent Police have been
 forced to reveal how myself and members of my family were put under
 surveillance by police officers in our own home, how we were followed
 around the town by undercover police before the royal visit.

 The police behaved like a cross between the Keystone Cops and the Gestapo.
 Kent Police have also  spent many thousands of pounds in lawyers' fees over
 nearly six years trying to defend the indefensible. I hope that this stupid
 waste of taxpayers' money will lead people in Gravesend to demand to know
 why the police have plenty of money and manpower to vindictively spy on and
 unlawfully arrest people because of their political views, yet when it
 comes to street crime, burglary and violent anti-social behaviour they
 always make excuses about lack of resources."




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